Plaquemine culture

A map showing the geographical extent of the Plaquemine cultural period and some of its major sites.

The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Good examples of this culture are the Medora Site ( the type site for the culture and period) in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and the Anna, Emerald Mound, Winterville and Holly Bluff sites located in Mississippi.^[1] Plaquemine culture was contemporaneous with the Middle Mississippian culture in the Cahokia site in St. Louis, Missouri. It is considered ancestral to the Natchez and Taensa Peoples.^[2]

Description

Architecture and mounds

2 mounds superimposed on top of Emerald Mound

Mounds and wattle and daub house from Grand Village of the Natchez

The Plaquemine Culture occupied the rest of Louisiana not taken by the Caddoan Mississippian culture during this time frame and are considered descendants of the Troyville-Coles Creek culture.^[2] A prominent feature of Plaquemine sites are large ceremonial centers with two or more large mounds facing an open plaza. The flat-topped, pyramidal mounds were constructed in several stages. Sometimes they were topped by one or two smaller mounds. Mounds were often built on top of the ruins of a house or temple and similar buildings were usually constructed on top of the mound. In earlier times, buildings were usually circular, but later they were likely to be rectangular. They were constructed of wattle and daub, and sometimes with wall posts sunk into foot-deep wall trenches. At times, shallow, oval or rectangular graves were dug in the mounds. These might have been for primary burials, but more often they were for the reburial of remains originally interred elsewhere.^[3]

Pottery

Pottery from the Grand Village of the Natchez

One kind of pottery occasionally placed in the graves is called "killed" pottery. This type has a hole in the base of the vessel that was cut while the pot was being made, usually before it was fired. They also decorated their pots in other characteristic ways. They sometimes added small solid handles called lugs and textured the surface by brushing clumps of grass over the vessel before it was fired. They often cut designs into the surface of the wet clay, and like their Caddoan contemporaries, the Plaquemine peoples engraved designs on pots after they were fired. Plaquemine peoples also had undecorated pots that they used for ordinary daily tasks.^[3] Pottery during this phase still used dry clay particles a tempering material, with the use of ground shell being a marker for Mississippian cultural contact.^[4]

Chronology

Plaquemine Mississippian

Early Mississippian influence on the Yazoo Basin area

Beginning during the Terminal Coles Creek period (1150 to 1250 CE), Mississippian cultures far upstream from the Plaquemine area began expanding their reach southward. Excavations in the Yazoo Basin area of Mississippi have shown a Cahokia Horizon as extraregional exotic goods such as Cahokian pottery and other artifacts began to be deposited in Coles Creek-Plaquemine culture sites.^[6] Through repeated contacts groups in Mississippi and then Louisiana began adopting Mississippian techniques for making Mississippian culture pottery, as well as ceremonial objects and possibly social structuring.^[7] The Plaquemine peoples became more and more Mississippianized and the area the culture covered begins to shrink after 1350 CE. Eventually the last enclave of purely Plaquemine culture was the Natchez Bluffs area, while the Yazoo Basin and Louisiana areas became a hybrid Plaquemine Mississippian culture.^[8] Historic groups in the area during first European contact bear out this division. Historic groups in the Natchez Bluffs, the Taensa and Natchez had held out against full Mississippianization and continued to use the same sites as their ancestors and carry on in the Plaquemine culture. Those that may have descended from the Mississippianized groups are those who at the time of Europoean contact spoke the Tunican, Chitimachan, and Muskogean languages.^[7]

Plaquemine sites

Site	Image	Description
Anna Site		Located in Adams County, Mississippi 10 miles (16 km) north of Natchez.[9] The type site for the Anna Phase (1200 to 1350) of the Natchez Bluff region.
Emerald Mound Site		A Plaquemine/Mississippian site approx. 8 miles from the Mississippi town of Natchez. The second largest pre-Columbian structure in the USA and is the type site for the Emerald Phase (1350 to 1500 CE) of the Natchez Bluffs region.
Fitzhugh Mounds		A Plaquemine/Mississippian site in Madison Parish, Louisiana which dates from approximately 1200–1541.[10] It is the type site for the protohistoric Fitzhugh Phase (1300-1400 CE) of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology.
Flowery Mound		A single mound Late Coles Creek to Plaquemine/Mississippian site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana which dates from approximately 1200–1541.[11]
Foster's Mound		A two mound site in Adams County, Mississippi which dates from approximately 1350 to 1500 CE and is the type site for the Foster Phase.[11]
Ghost Site Mounds		A site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana with an Early to Middle Coles Creek component(700–1200)and a Late Coles Creek to Plaquemine component(1200 to 1541)[12]
Grand Village of the Natchez or Fatherland Site		A Plaquemine/Mississippian site located in the present town of Natchez, Mississippi, one of the very few mound culture sites still in use during the historic period
Holly Bluff Site		A Plaquemine/Mississippian site from central western Mississippi, sometimes known as the Lake George Site. It is the type site for the Lake George Phase (1400 to 1500 CE)]] of the Yazoo Basin region.
Jaketown Site		A site with two mounds in Humphreys County, Mississippi. While the mounds have not been excavated, pottery sherds found in the area lead scholars to date the sites construction and use to roughly 1100 CE to 1500 CE. Artifacts found in the area demonstrate the site was occupied from 1750 BCE to 1500 CE, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the region.[13] There were smaller mounds nearby that were hundreds of years older than the surviving two, built by peoples of a preceding culture, but they were destroyed by plowing and road construction in the early 20th century.
Julice Mound		A mound site in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana dated to 1200–1541 CE and located less than one mile from Transylvania Mounds.[14]
Mangum Mound Site		A Plaquemine site in Claiborne County, Mississippi, located at milepost 45.7 on the Natchez Trace Parkway. An avian themed repoussé Mississippian copper plates was discovered there in 1936.[15]
Mazique Archeological Site		A multimound site in Adams County, Mississippi southeast of Natchez, Mississippi, with components from both the Coles Creek period (700-1000 CE) and the later Plaquemine Mississippian period (1000-1680 CE), when it was recorded in historic times as the White Apple village of the Natchez people.[16]
Medora Site		A Plaquemine site in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, the type site from the Plaquemine culture characteristics were defined
Pocahontas Mounds		A multimound site with a platform mound and a mortuary mound and an associated village area, located in Hinds County, Mississippi and dating to 1000 to 1300 CE.[17][18]
Routh Mounds		A multimound site located in Tensas Parish, Louisiana that is type site for the Routh Phase(1200 to 1350 CE) of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology.[19]
Scott Place Mounds		A multimound site from the Late Coles Creek-Early Plaquemine period located in Union Parish, Louisiana[20]
Sims Site		A multimound site located in Saint Charles Parish, Louisiana near the town of Paradis, Louisiana, first inhabited about 800 CE by peoples of the Coles Creek culture. By 1100 CE the culture of the site had transitioned into the Mississippianized Plaquemine culture that lasted until 1450 CE. A little later was a Late Mississippian/protohistic period that lasted from 1500 until about 1700 or 1800.[21]
Transylvania Mounds		A large multimound site with 2 plazas and components from the Coles Creek (700–1200) and Plaquemine/Mississippian periods (1200–1541). It located in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana[22] It is the type site for the protohistoric Translyvania Phase (1400-1650 CE) of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology.
Venable Mound		A single mound site with components from the Troyville, Coles Creek and Plaquemine periods, located in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana[23]
Winterville Site		A Plaquemine/Mississippian site near Greenville, Mississippi. It is the type site for the Winterville Phase (1200 to 1400 CE) of the Yazoo Basin region.

See also

• Mississippian culture
• Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley

References

• Hudson, Charles M., Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando De Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms, University of Georgia Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8203-1888-4
• R. Barry Lewis and Charles Stout, editors., "Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces", University of Alabama Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8173-0947-0
• Jeffrey P. Brain, "Winterville-Late Prehistoric Culture Contact in the Lower Mississippi Valley",Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1989.
• Mark A. Rees and Patrick C. Livingood, editors., "Plaquemine Archaeology", University of Alabama Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-8173-5366-7

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plaquemine culture.

• Plaquemine Mississippian

v t e Mississippian and related cultures List of Mississippian sites Mound builder (people) Timeline of Mississippi valley Middle Mississippian American Bottom and Upper Mississippi Aztalan Big Eddy Cahokia Monks Mound Mound 34 Mound 72 Woodhenge Cloverdale Dickson Mounds Emmons Cemetery John Roy Kuhn Station Mitchell Orendorf Sugarloaf Mound Steed-Kisker culture Lower Ohio River and Confluence area Adams Dogtooth Bend Kincaid Mounds Marshall Millstone Bluff Orr-Herl Rowlandton Mound Towosahgy Turk Twin Mounds Ware Wickliffe Mounds Middle Ohio River Angel Mounds Angel Phase Annis Mound Bone Bank Caborn-Welborn culture Ellerbusch Hovey Lake-Klein Hovey Lake District Murphy Prather Slack Farm Tolu Welborn Village Yankeetown Tennessee and Cumberland Backusburg Beasley Mounds Brentwood Library Brick Church Castalian Springs Dunbar Cave Fewkes Group Mound Bottom Riverview Mounds Archaeological Site Sellars Indian Mound Obion Mounds Old Town Swallow Bluff Island Mounds Central and Lower Mississippi Belle Meade Phase Boyd Mounds Campbell Chucalissa Eaker Menard-Hodges Murphy Mound Parkin Nodena Phase Nodena Site Tipton Phase Tunica Walls Phase South Appalachian Mississippian Avery Beaverdam Creek Bell Field Mound Bessemer Bussell Island Chauga Mound Chiaha Chota Citico Coosa chiefdom Dallas Phase Dyar Etowah Mounds Garden Creek Hoojah Branch Irene Jere Shine Joara Joe Bell King Lamar Lamar Phase Liddell Little Egypt Long Swamp Site Mabila Mandeville McMahan Moccasin Bend Moundville Mouse Creek Phase Mulberry Muscogee (Creek) Nacoochee Mound Nikwasi Ocmulgee Park Mound Pisgah Phase Punk Rock Shelter Rembert Mounds Roods Landing Rucker's Bottom Savannah Shiloh Sixtoe Mound Summerour Toqua Town Creek Indian Mound Waddells Mill Pond Wilbanks Fort Walton culture Anhaica Apalachee Apalachee Province Cayson Corbin-Tucker Fort Walton Mound Lake Jackson Mounds Leon-Jefferson Culture Letchworth Mounds Velda Mound Yon Pensacola culture Bottle Creek Indian Mounds Dauphin Island Fort Walton Mound Hickory Ridge Cemetery Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Pensacola people Plaquemine Mississippian Anna Emerald Mound Fitzhugh Mounds Flowery Mound Foster's Mound Ghost Site Mounds Grand Village of the Natchez Holly Bluff Jaketown Jordan Mounds Julice Mound Mangum Mazique Medora Mott Mounds Natchez Pocahontas Mounds Routh Mounds Scott Place Mounds Sims Taensa Transylvania Mounds Venable Mound Winterville Caddoan Mississippian Battle Mound Belcher Mound Bluffton Mound Caddo Caddoan Mounds Gahagan Mounds Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village Spiro Mounds Upper Mississippian cultures Oneota Beattie Park Mound Group Blood Run Hartley Fort State Preserve Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs Fort Ancient culture Alligator Effigy Mound Clover Dodge Leo Petroglyph Serpent Mound SunWatch Indian Village Culture Artwork Emmons mask Long-nosed god maskette Mississippian copper plates Rogan plates Spiro plates Wulfing cache Mississippian culture pottery Mississippian stone statuary Shell gorget Languages Caddoan languages Central Algonquian languages Cherokee language Mobilian Jargon Muskogean languages Natchez language Siouan languages Timucua language Tunica language Yuchi language Religion Ballgame Black drink Calumet (pipe) Chunkey Earth/fertility cult Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Platform mound Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stone box grave Thunderbird Underwater panther Related topics Chevron bead Clarksdale bell Maize Mill Creek chert de Soto Expedition

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