History With RCS, archaeology: Dig into Mississippi, USA
Archaeologists are doing fruitful fieldwork around the world and that includes the Mound Builder Tradition sites of North America. These field workers continue to bring us fine, well organized information about North American prehistory from 1492 AD to about 5,000 BC, with glimpses into the more distant past.
An Archaeologist by the name of Dr. Joe Sanders ("Call me Joe") is one who has led us to look more closely at the evidence of a key part of the Mound Building tradition in the lower Mississippi River drainage area. A productive focus while leaving out much of the area and time of ancient North American earthwork cultures. I hope to post about them.
This post will reach toward 6,000 years ago. Here we start with the careful work of Sanders. He was reviewed work on the lower Mississippi and done much original work on known sites there. His work has validated and extended earlier work.
I'll start by saying that he obtained calibrated radio carbon datings of 3,700 BC and 3,000 BC at Hedgpeth and Frenchman's Bend as well as at Watson Break sites, according with my notes. That takes us back to more than 5,700 years ago. Pretty good, but that limits our excursion into the past. However, from this point looking into the past some of us can catch a glimpse of long distant commerce and of men hunting giant animals some call mega fauna or mega mammals.
The sites I have mentioned are proving, through Sanders and others, to be representative of widespread construction of similar mounds and other earthworks in what are now the U.S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. The main site at Watson Break was begun about 4,000 BC and abandoned about 2,800 BC. That is, it appears to be a culture which lasted about 1,000 years longer than has the United States. Sanders dating seems sound. Others have dated this group of sites to about between 4,500 BC to 2,400 BC.
About the nature of these "Mound Builders"
Some have said that they were well organized chiefdoms. They had no pottery, but did have baked clay objects. They also had stone receptacles which may have been used for cooking. They were excellent hunters, fishermen, and harvesters of nature. They also left some clues that they may have practiced the beginnings of horticulture. These are kinds of information that are gathered by archaeologists.
Most of the sites of this tradition were on, or very near wetlands. The warmer dryer interval from about 7,000 BC to 2,500 BC may well have resulted in population concentrating in wet lands. Bones at Watson Break showed signs of butchering and cooking, so meat seems to have been on the menu. The bones of deer, opossum, squirrels, turkey, and raccoon were common. Could these have been leavings of later visitors?
These Mound Builders did take fresh water fish, probably with net and hook. They seem to have avoided crawfish! There is evidence that the processed an ate hickory nuts, black walnuts, and hazelnuts. We are learning more about these people who lived as much as 6,000 years ago.
Found in these specific mounds were vessels of soft stone, such as soap stone, which may have been used for cooking. However, ground roasting and steaming were probably more common. Domesticated cultigens may have been eaten. The cultivated may have included squash, maygrass, sunflower, sump-weed, and more.
The many fire cracked rocks found at the sites suggest that they may have been heated and used for cooking. I have heard of early native Americans using this rock cookery with water in tightly woven baskets. We no not have evidence of our mound people using woven basketry. I have head of ancient Europeans cooking a large animal in a sort of wood lined earthen bath filled with water. Well heated rocks were added over time to do the cooking.
At the Watson Break site a very large number of unbroken snail shells were found, suggesting that they hand been steamed and the flesh removed without breaking the shell. Similar shells were used to make necklaces. Not Sanders nor anyone I know of was shown evidence of trade from these specific sites, but other mound sites in the area have. Shells and shell jewelry were often a trade item, so we may yet find evidence of trade, even long range trade from the Watson Break sites.
Around "our" three sites and other similar earthworks sites, articles such as small stone tools for cutting, drilling, scraping, as well as Middle Archaic points were also found. The points were probably used for hunting and possibly for weapons.
At WB site, fired earthen objects were found, as well as bifaced stone of local materials. "Bifaced" usually refers knives or points sharpened from both sides. "Points" usually refers to arrow heads and spear points.Now burials were found at the sites. It is significant that many mounds were not originally meant to be places for burial.
An article found at the WB site which has been considered as defining of the tradition. That article is a micro-drill. They were small, with tapered ends; many showing rotary ware markings. Drilled chert beads were found. Red Ocher was present. Also 30 kilograms of fired earth objects were found shaped as cubes, spheres, tablets, and cylinders; game markers? Some of the info here leads me to suspect that these were trading people, but no evidence of goods traded from far has been found to impress anyone that I have heard of.
When you consider what you have read so far, I believe that you are likely to have learned things new to you about archaeology.
I am a bit surprised that no good evidence of trade or exchange has been yet found. At some other mound sites I believe there is much much evidence of trade before and after 4,000 BC has been found. But I am willing to be corrected.
These Watson break people, still mostly unknown to us, appear to have kept the area enclosed by the mounds clear of debris. That they built in spurts gives us some hints about their thinking. It seems that the timing of their building spurts coincided with El Nino happenings. "El Nino happenings" are a certain repeated climate effect. El Nino and La Nina are climate patterns which cause changes in rainfall and temperature sometimes lasting for more than a year and causing other environmental changes. They seem to have their start in the Pacific ocean.
When we begin to say that we see a cultural continuance back to the last Ice Age and suggestions of advanced culture flourishing in those times, that we see Watson Break people as descendants of Ice Age people and even of a pre-Ice-Age culture! our listeners deserve to see very convincing evidence! Some such evidence is beginning to gather, but not enough to convince many. There is a lot to learn, believing that a seeker may find and ab asker may be answered keeps us searching.
Amateurs can still bring tentatively productive sites to the attention of experts. Intelligent and practiced experts bring us useful interpretations of the available facts and evidence. There is a lot to learn and there are many will to do so. There are many who believe that the better we understand our past the better our chances of thriving in the future.
Thank you for reading and many thanks to those who are organizing and interpreting the available information in useful ways.
RCS
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