Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: MISSISSIPPIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

When the first Europeans explored deep into the interior of the present-day American South, they traveled among and interacted with several groups of Native Americans who shared a culture that archaeologists refer to as "Mississippian." It was roughly 500 years earlier in the American Bottom region of southwestern Illinois, a rich stretch of floodplain of the Mississippi River near the city of Saint Louis, where Mississippian culture first developed. The American Bottom is home to the famous archaeological site of Cahokia, a U.S. National Historic Landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Between the 11th- and 12th-centuries AD Cahokia grew into the largest and most complex pre-Columbian town in what is now the United States. Supported in large part by an increasing economic focus on maize agriculture, the actions of Cahokians and their neighbors ushered in new forms of social, political, and economic complexity that would help shape the histories of Native groups in the U.S. Midwest and South for centuries to come. Under the direction Dr. Robin Beck, PhD candidate Casey Barrier will continue research that provides new information about early Mississippian developments in the American Bottom. Barrier's work at the archaeological site of Washausen in Monroe County, Illinois, has demonstrated that the inhabitants of this site constructed one of the earliest Mississippian towns in the region. Located approximately 24 miles south of Cahokia, the town of Washausen was constructed during the 10th- and 11th-centuries AD. Unlike Cahokia, Washausen was occupied for only a handful of generations. Because of this, the archaeological remains preserved at the site provide a unique historical "snapshot" in time that portrays local ways of life during the critical period of initial Mississippian cultural developments. Barrier's research at Washausen has integrated high-tech, geophysical survey methodologies and archaeological excavations that has produced data showing the locations of distinct residential neighborhoods, public courtyards, and a central public plaza and monumental earthen mounds. During these excavations, both undergraduate and graduate students were able to be trained in current archaeological field methodologies. This research will allow Barrier to continue collaborations with scientific specialists to provide new information about the earliest Mississippian societies. Excavations at Washausen produced well-preserved archaeological remains that will be analyzed to address research questions about new forms of social and political-economic relations, the composition of residential neighborhoods, the reliance on maize agriculture and locally available animal and plant foods, the historical importance of large-scale public festivals, and Washausen's interactions with their Cahokian neighbors. Specifically, paleobotanical, zooarchaeological, and soil mircomorphological analyses will produce rich, comparative datasets for this site and region. Coupled with better chronological controls afforded by radiocarbon dating of recovered organic remains from secure archaeological deposits, these analyses will provide significant new insights about the historical transformations that took place at one of the earliest Mississippian towns in the Americas. The results of this dissertation research will be presented in subsequent publications, and will be of significance to other Mississippian researchers, as well as scholars working on similar research questions about complex societies in other world regions. These results will also be presented publicly to audiences at academic conferences, but also at lectures for the public. Barrier will continue training undergraduate students in the laboratory, and provide them opportunities to collaborate with other scientific specialists.