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Winterville Site
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Artists conception of the Winterville Site
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| Nearest city: | Greenville, Mississippi |
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| Governing body: | State |
| NRHP Reference#: | 73001031 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | August 17, 1973[1] |
| Designated NHL: | September 14, 1993[2] |
The Winterville Site (22 WS 500) is an archaeological site consisting of platform substructure mounds and plazas that is the type site for the Winterville Phase (1200 to 1400) of the Lower Yazoo Basin region. of the Plaquemine Mississippian culture.
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Winterville Mounds, named for the nearby town of Winterville, Mississippi, is the site of a prehistoric ceremonial center built by Native Americans of the Plaquemine culture, a civilization that thrived from about AD 1000 to 1450. The mounds, part of the Winterville society's religious system, were the site of sacred structures and ceremonies. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Winterville people lived away from the mound center on family farms in scattered settlement districts throughout the Yazoo-Mississippi River Delta basin. Only a few of the higher-ranking tribal officials lived at the mound center.
The Winterville ceremonial center originally contained at least twenty-three platform mounds surrounding several plazas.[3] Some of the mounds located outside the park boundaries have been leveled by highway construction and farming. Twelve of the site's largest mounds, including the 55-foot-high Temple Mound, are currently the focus of a long-range preservation plan being developed by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the University of Mississippi's Center for Archaeological Research.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the residents the Winterville Mounds may have had a civilization similar to that of the Natchez Indians, a Mississippi tribe documented by French explorers and settlers in the early 18th century. The Natchez Indians' society was divided into upper and lower ranks, with a person's social rank determined by heredity through the female line. The chief and other tribal officials inherited their positions as members of the royal family. The elaborate leadership network made mound building by a civilian labor force possible.
A great fire during the late 14th century consumed the original building on the Temple Mound at Winterville. According to archaeological evidence, the cause of the fire remains a mystery. The site continued to be used afterwards, but no more mounds were built or maintained. Although the site continued to be occupied after the fire, the general population declined at Winterville while increasing at settlements and mound sites 50 miles to the south, in the lower Yazoo River basin. By AD 1450 the Winterville Mound site appears to have been abandoned completely. The period of the sites greatest florescence was used by archaeologists as the basis for the Winterville Phase (1200 to 1400 CE) of the Lower Yazoo Basin region.
The first modern archaeological excavations at the Winterville Site were conducted by the National Park Service and Harvard University's Lower Mississippi Survey in the 1940s. Jeffrey P. Brain directed excavations at Winterville in 1967 and his report , Winterville: Late Prehistoric Culture Contact in the Lower Mississippi Valley, was published in 1989 by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993.[2]
| Culture or cultural tradition | Phase | Dates |
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| Mississippian | Russell | 1650 CE to 1750 CE |
| Wasp Lake | 1500 to 1650 CE | |
| Lake George | 1400 to 1500 CE | |
| Plaquemine | Winterville | 1200 to 1400 CE |
| Coles Creek | Crippen Point | 1050 CE to 1200 CE |
| Kings Crossing | 950 CE to 1050 CE | |
| Aden | 800 CE to 950 CE | |
| Baytown | Bayland | 600 to 800 CE |
| Deasonville | 400 CE to 600 CE ? | |
| Marksville | Issaquena / Paxton | 200 to 400 CE? |
| Anderson Landing | 0 CE to 200 CE? | |
| Tchefuncte | Tuscola | 400 to 0 CE ? |
| Poverty Point | McGary | 900 BCE to 400 BCE ? |
| Jaketown | 2000 BCE to 900 BCE ? |
Brain, Jeffrey P. (1989). Winterville-Late Prehistoric Culture Contact In the Lower Mississippi Valley. Mississippi Department of Archives and History. pp. 93. ISBN 0-938896-58-X.
The Winterville people made pottery by building up strips of clay, and then smoothing them out, much like other pottery in the Eastern American area where the potters wheel was unknown. Pottery was tempered with ground mussel shell, grit, grog, and angular bits of clay. Surface treatment ranged from carelessly polished to very finely polished. Forms for the pottery range from shallow plate like bowls to beakers and jars, with some pieces having animal effigies for handles. Surface decorations range from plain to incised S.E.C.C. designs.
Most pottery found at the Winterville Site are of the kinds known as Addis Plain var. Addis, Addis Plain var. Greenville and Addis Plain var. Holly Bluff. Some of the Mississippian culture pottery found at the Winterville site is believed to have been imported from other Mississippian societies (possibly from Cahokia or Cahokian influenced peoples). Examples of these are pieces of pottery from the Nodena Red and White var. Dumond and Walls Engraved var. Walls. These examples have distinctive red and white slips, thinner walls, and more finely finished surfaces than locally produced wares and may have been valued for their exotic qualities and fine workmanship.[4]
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