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Glossary
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Agriculture.
Agriculture is the domestication of plants. The Mississippian people did not
have domestic animals. They did however have many crops; the most important was
corn (maize). They also produced beans, squash, gourds, and several oil-seedproducing
plants we now consider weeds. Agriculture entails genetic changes in the plant,
such as larger seeds, loss of ability to spread independently (like corn), and
changes in growth habit. It also entails changes in human cultural behavior,
especially in the knowledge needed for planting, cultivation and harvesting; and
changes in diet, nutrition, cooking and food storage. Alluvium, alluvial valley.
Alluvium is soil deposited in stream valleys. An alluvial valley is one that is
relatively broad and level and that has a surface covering of flood-deposited
soil. Important alluvial valleys include the Mississippi, the Nile, the
Tigris-Euphrates, the Indus, and the Ganges. Locally, the Central Mississippi
Valley is called “The Delta,” but this is not an actual sea-level delta such
as that of the Lower Mississippi in Louisiana, or those found at the mouths of
the Orinoco, Amazon, Ganges, Niger and Mekong. Alluvial soils are typically deep
and fertile, and have characteristic surface features. In the Central
Mississippi River Valley, distinctive geomorphological features include a
ridge-and-swale topography that results from stream meandering and bayous with
natural levees. Bayous range from very small streams to large rivers. They
generally have very sinuous courses with somewhat elevated banks caused by
deposition of alluvium during seasonal overflows. The natural levees are the
highest locations in these flatlands, and are also compost of the best, lightest
soils, while the surrounding backswamps and flats are typically covered with
thick, heavy locally called gumbo and buckshot land. The floodplain also
includes many lakes ranging from shallow seasonal sloughs (depressions or
swamps), larger brakes often filled with cypress, and cut-off or oxbow lakes,
which are large bodies of water in old river beds left behind when the main
streams shift channels. Archaeology (in Arkansas,
archeology). Archaeology is the study of past human behavior through
material remains such as artifacts and settlement patterns. Archaeology includes
both prehistory (those without writing) and historic archaeology (in the
MidSouth mostly the 19th century). Artifact or material culture
studies in archaeology include items of daily use such as clay pots and stone
arrowheads. They also include the patterning of artifacts, within houses, within
towns, and within and between larger areas. One of the primary aims of
archaeology is writing the chronology (sequence of events) of the unknown past.
Another is to describe, in anthropological terms, the range of cultural
responses to changing environments. The ultimate aim is to preserve traces of
the human past and to better understand our human behavior. Archaeological
fieldwork includes regional survey (searching for sites where artifacts are
found), testing (digging small but controlled pits to find out what is in the
soil below the surface), and excavation (opening larger areas through carefull
digging and mapping). Speciallized
analysis by chemists, physicists, geologists, pedologists (soil scientists),
palynologists (those who study pollen) and other biologists who examine plant
remains, and human and other animal bone is often incorporated into
archaeological studies. Archaic period. In
North America, most of prehistory belongs to the Archaic period, from about 7000
BC to 1000 BC. The Archaic is characterized by materials similar to the
Mesolithic in the Old World, in particular, carefully flaked stone tools. As in
the preceeding PaleoIndian period, populations were low and the bands of people
were mobile within large territories. Critical resources were the deer herds;
rivers that provided fish and shellfish; seasonally available fruits and seeds,
especially the hickory nut and oak acorn harvests; and high-quality stone to
make tools from. In the MidSouth, the Archaic period is now recognized as the
origin of many features that characterize Mississippian culture, such as
agriculture (gourds by around BC 5000 and sunflowers silghtly later) and mound
building. Artifact. An artifact
is anything made or modified by people. Artifacts range widely in size and
complexity. A rock that has been moved from one place to another is a
“manuport’ artifact. Most of the artifacys studied in archaeology are simply
garbage: broken dishes and bottles, worn out tools, and trashpiles. Larger items
that cannot be easily moved are generally referred to as “features;” these
include house foundations and earthen mounds. Artifacts are important for many
reasons. The spacial relationships between artifacts recovered in careful
archaeological work allows us to make inferences about behavior. Artifacts can
be studied to discover where they came from, what they are made of, and how they
were used. Bayou. A bayou is a
secondary stream, generally stagnant or sluggishly flowing. The term is used in
the MidSouth to describe streams ranging from quite small to moderately large
rivers. The name derives from a Muskogean language (as in the Choctaw
“bok” or “bouge” transmitted through French. Here we pronounce
bayou “bio” rather than the “bai-you” of the Louisiana hill country. Brake. A brake is a
topographic feature in the alluvial floodplain. The word has many meanings in
different places. In the Delta, it refers to an area that is generally low, as
in a cypress brake, where the water may be several meters deep. It can also,
however, refer to a more elevated area, as in a cane brake. The boundaries of
the feature can be distinctly defined in contrast to its surroundings. The word
often occurs in local place names. Bundle burial. Bundle
burial is a practive of secondary burial where most or all of the flesh is
removed from the bones before thier final deposition. The bones are generally
defleshed by allowing natural decay through exposure to the elements. Some
cultures such as the Choctaw had religious specialists who cleaned bones and
prepared them for burial. After cleaning, the bones are arranged in a box or
bundle. This mode of burial prevailed in Late Mississippian times, in contrast
to earlier burial customs such as cremation (burning) and inhumation (flesh
burial). Central Mississippi Valley.
The CMV extends from the mouth of the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois, to the
mouth of the Arkansas River, near Greenville, Mississippi. Some defintions would
include a portion of the valley above Cairo, and reserve the term Upper
Mississippi only for that part of the river above the mouth of the Missouri
River at St. Louis. The Lower Mississippi Valley includes the true deltaic plain
of Louisiana, although what is here called the CMV is often seen by Northern
archaeologists as part of the LMV. Ceramic. Links to artifacts. Chiefdom. Chronology. Link to charts.
See Archaic period, Contact period, C14 dating, Mississippian period, OCR
dating, stratigraphy, Protohistoric period, Woodland period) Complex.
See Phase. Contact period, or colonial
era. “CRM”, cultural resource
management. See excavation, NRHP, survey, testing. Culture “C14,” or radiocarbon
dating. “Delta”/delta. Excavation. “Gumbo” Levee. Natural, man-made. Lithic. Links to artifact
shots. Material culture. Matrix. Midlatitudes Mississippian period. See
agriculture, cheifdom, mound, Neolithic, Protohistoric period, wall trench house Mound. Native American. Neolithic. “NAGPRA,” Native American
Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. “NEPA,” National
Environmental Protection Act. “NRHP,” National Register
of Historic Places. “OCR,” oxidizable carbon
ratio dating. Period. Phase. See Complex. Prehistory. See Archaeology. Protohistoric period. Quapaw tribe. St. Francis type village.
Large, palisaded towns typical of the St. Francis River valley in the
Mississippian period. Many are extensive and with continued filling and
accumulation of refuse and burned building rubble became distinct elevated
areas, approaching the Old World “tell.” St. Francis villages are generally
rectangular and may include a mound-and-plaza arrangement. Settlement Pattern.
Study of geographical variables in relation to contemporary sites. Variables
such as location on streams, soil type, site type, elevations, and natural
resources are considered. Slough. A lowlying area
that holds water. Generally late-stage filled lakes and bayous. Stratigraphy. Basic
principal of geology and archaeology: things on the top are younger than things
on the bottom. Changes in soil color and texture are the main clues to natural
stratigraphy. When the natural statigraphy is unknown or indistinct, arbitrary
units are used to subdivide deposits. Stratigraphy is the key to chronology. Survey. Phase I of the
CRM process. The focus is is identifying and locating any archaeological sites
in the survey area and determining their horizontal extent and basic information
on site chronology. Testing. Phase II of
the CRM process. Small-scale excavation conducted to assess the potential of a
site to provide further information. The focus is on determining the depth of
deposits and increasing artifact samples. Theory. Tradition. Tunica tribe. Typology. Link to ceramics.
Link to lithics. Vacant Quarter hypothesis. Wall trench house. Links to
house plans. Wattle and daub house. Woodland period.
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Contact: Mary Evelyn StarrBox 39, Sledge MS 38670Phone (662) 444-5254
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