Coles Creek culture

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A map showing the extent of the Coles Creek cultural period and some important sites Coles Creek culture map HRoe 2010.jpg
A map showing the extent of the Coles Creek cultural period and some important sites

Coles Creek culture is a Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi valley in the Southeastern Woodlands. It followed the Troyville culture. The period marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area. Population increased dramatically and there is strong evidence of a growing cultural and political hierarchization, especially by the end of the Coles Creek sequence. Although many of the classic traits of chiefdom societies are not yet manifested, by 1000 CE the formation of simple elite polities had begun. Coles Creek sites are found in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It is considered ancestral to the Plaquemine culture.

Contents

Features

The Coles Creek culture is an indigenous development of the Lower Mississippi Valley that took place between the terminal Woodland period and the later Plaquemine culture period. The period is marked by the increased use of flat-topped platform mounds arranged around central plazas, more complex political institutions, and a subsistence strategy still grounded in the Eastern Agricultural Complex and hunting rather than on the maize plant as would happen in the succeeding Plaquemine Mississippian period. The culture was originally defined by the unique decoration on grog-tempered ceramic ware by James A. Ford after his investigations at the Mazique Archeological Site. He had studied both the Mazique and Coles Creek Sites, and almost went with the Mazique culture, but decided on the less historically involved sites name. [1] The Coles Creak area is further subdivided into Coles Creek proper in the northern part of its range throughout the interior Mississippi Valley, and Coastal Coles Creek, being found along the Gulf coast roughly south of the latitude of modern Baton Rouge, Louisiana. [2]

Chronology

CultureLower Yazoo Basin PhasesEst. timeframeNatchez Bluff PhasesEst. timeframeTensas Basin PhasesEst. timeframeBarataria Bay PhasesEst. timeframe
Coles Creek Crippen Point 1050–1200 CE Gordon 1100–1200 CE Preston 1100–1200 CE St. Gabriel 1000–1200 CE
Kings Crossing 900–1050 CE Balmoral 1000–1100 CE Balmoral 1000–1100 CE
Aden 800–900 CE Ballina Bayou Cutler 875 – 1000 CE
Bayland 700 – 800 CE Sundown Bayou Ramos 700 – 875 CE

[3] [4] [5]

Architecture

A wattle and daub house of the type used by Native Americans during the late prehistoric period Spiro wattleanddaub HRoe 2005.jpg
A wattle and daub house of the type used by Native Americans during the late prehistoric period

Although earlier cultures built mounds mainly as a part of mortuary customs, by the Coles Creek period these mounds took on a newer shape and function. Instead of being primarily for burial, mounds were constructed to support temples and other civic structures. Pyramidal mounds with flat tops and ramps were constructed, usually over successive years and with many layers. A temple or other structures, usually of wattle and daub construction, would be built on the summit of the mound. [6]

A typical Coles Creek site plan consisted of at least two, and more commonly three, mounds around a central plaza. This pattern emerged in roughly 800 CE and continued for several hundred years. By late Coles Creek times, the site plans are often enlarged to include up to three more mounds. Sites typical of this period are Mount Nebo, Holly Bluff, Kings Crossing, and Lake Agnes. [6]

Many Coles Creek mounds were erected over earlier mortuary mounds, leading researchers to speculate that emerging elites were symbolically and physically appropriating dead ancestors to emphasize and project their own authority. [6]

Material culture

Long-distance trade seems to have been negligible at this time, as exotic goods and trade items are rare in Coles Creek sites. There is little evidence of domesticated or cultivated plants until the end of the Coles Creek period. Acorns are a dominant food source, supplemented with persimmons, palmetto, and some starchy seeds such as maygrass. Coles Creek populations may have loosely "managed" certain plant resources in order to promote a better or more consistent food supply. Maize is found in very limited quantities, but by 1000-1200 CE had begun to increase, although nowhere near the levels it would reach in later Mississippian culture times. [7]

The bow and arrow was introduced in this period, although the atlatl continued to be used. Pottery styles changed during this period, as people began to create more durable wares with more diversified uses. Wet clay was tempered with particles of dry clay to prevent cracking during firing. Most pots were decorated only on the upper half, usually with designs of incised lines or impressed tool marks. Colors ranged from tan, black, brown and gray, although the rare red example is known. Also, the rare effigy pot is found. [7]

Known Coles Creek culture sites

SiteImageDescription
Aden site Located in Issaquena County, Mississippi, it is the type site for the Aden Phase (800-900 CE) of the Lower Yazoo Basin Coles Creek chronology.
Balmoral Mounds A group of three mounds located in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. [8] Type site for the Balmoral Phase(1000-1100 CE) of the Tensas Basin and Natchez Bluffs Coles Creek chronology
Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds Coles Creek culture HRoe 2011.jpg A large group of twelve mounds located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana from the Coastal Coles Creek culture. [5]
Crippen Point site Type site for the Crippen Point Phase(1050-1200 CE) of the Lower Yazoo Basin Coles Creek chronology, located in Sharkey County, Mississippi.
Cypress Grove Mound A well-preserved conical mound located in Concordia Parish, Louisiana dating from approximately 750 CE. [9]
DePrato Mounds A multimound complex located in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, radiocarbon and decorated pottery dated to about 600 CE during the Troyville/Coles Creek period. [10]
Feltus Mound Site A group of three mounds, dated to 700 to 1000 CE, clustered around a central plaza. Located north of Natchez. [11]
Filhiol Mound Site Located in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana on a natural levee of the Ouachita River [12]
Flowery Mound A single mound Late Coles Creek to Plaquemine/Mississippian site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana which dates from approximately 950–1541. [13]
Frogmore Mound Site Frogmore Mound Site HRoe 2011 01.jpg A Late Coles Creek site in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. [14]
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) [15]
Greenhouse site Greenhouse Site HRoe 2017.jpg A multimound site in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana from the Troyville-Coles Creek Period [16]
Insley Mounds A multimound site in Richland Parish, Louisiana with a Poverty Point period component (1700–1000 BCE) and a Coles Creek component (720 to 1200 CE). [17]
Kings Crossing site Kings Crossing Site HRoe 2008.jpg The type site for the Kings Crossing phase (900 -1050 CE), a multimound site located near Vicksburg in Warren County, Mississippi [18]
Lamarque Landing Mound A single mound site in Concordia Parish, Louisiana dating to about 1000 CE. [19]
Little Pecan Island Site An archaeological site of the Coastal Coles Creek culture, dating to 800 to 1100 CE near Grand Chenier, Louisiana in Cameron Parish. Investigations by Robert Wauchope in 1946 produced a number of flexed burials and ceramic chronologies which helped determine the age and cultural affiliation of the site. [20]
Marsden Mounds A multimound site in West Carroll Parish, Louisiana near Delhi, Louisiana, with a Poverty Point period component (1500 BCE) and a Coles Creek component (400 to 1200 CE). [21]
Mazique Archeological Site Mazique Archeological Site Coles Creek culture HRoe 2011.jpg 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. [1]
Morgan Mounds A multimound site of the Coastal Coles Creek culture, built and occupied from 700 to 1000 CE on Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. Of the 45 recorded Coastal Coles Creek sites in the Petite Anse region, it is the only one with ceremonial substructure mounds and was possibly the center of a local chiefdom. [22]
Mott Mounds Mott Mounds Coles Creek culture HRoe 2011.jpg A large multimound site with components from the Late Marksville to the Plaquemine period but with its main occupation during the Coles Creek period, located in Franklin Parish, Louisiana. [23]
Peck Mounds Peck Mounds 16 CT 1 HRoe 2011.jpg A multimound site from the Late Troyville-Early Coles Creek period located in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana [24]
Raffman site Raffman Site Coles Creek culture HRoe 2011.jpg A multimound site whose main period of occupation was during the Balmoral Phase(1000-1100 CE) of the Tensas Basin and Natchez Bluffs Coles Creek chronology, located in Madison Parish, Louisiana and constructed between 700 and 1000 CE [25]
Scott Place Mounds A multimound site from the Late Coles Creek-Early Plaquemine period located in Union Parish, Louisiana [26]
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. [27]
Spanish Fort The site is a semicircular earthwork that lies along the Sunflower River nearly 10 miles (16 km) downstream from the community of Holly Bluff. [28] : 201 
Sundown Mounds A multimound site from the Early Coles Creek in Tensas Parish, Louisiana that is the type site for the Sundown Phase(700-800 CE) [29]
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 [30] It is the type site for the Transylvania Phase of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology.
Troyville Earthworks Troyville Earthworks HRoe 2017sm.jpg A large multimound site with components dating from 100 BCE to 700 CE. It once had the tallest mound in Louisiana at 82 feet (25 m) in height. It is located in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana in the town of Jonesville. [30]
Venable Mound A single mound site with components from the Troyville, Coles Creek and Plaquemine periods, located in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana [31]
Wade Landing Mound A single mound site located in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana [32]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mississippian culture</span> Native American culture in the United States (800 - 1600)

The Mississippian culture were collections of Native American societies that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 to 1600, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earthen platform mounds, and often other shaped mounds as well. It was composed of a series of urban settlements and satellite villages linked together by loose trading networks. The largest city was Cahokia, believed to be a major religious center, located in what is present-day southern Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mound Builders</span> Pre-Columbian cultures of North America

Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed "Mound Builders", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific people or archaeological culture but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks that indigenous peoples erected for an extended period of more than 5,000 years. The "Mound Builder" cultures span the period of roughly 3500 BCE to the 16th century CE, including the Archaic period, Woodland period, and Mississippian period. Geographically, the cultures were present in the region of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley, Florida, and the Mississippi River Valley and its tributary waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Platform mound</span> Earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity

A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. It typically refers to a flat-topped mound, whose sides may be pyramidal.

The Taensa were a Native American people whose settlements at the time of European contact in the late 17th century were located in present-day Tensas Parish, Louisiana. The meaning of the name, which has the further spelling variants of Taenso, Tinsas, Tenza or Tinza, Tahensa or Takensa, and Tenisaw, is unknown. It is believed to be an autonym. The Taensa should not be confused with the Avoyel, known by the French as the petits Taensas, who were mentioned in writings by explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in 1699. The Taensa are more closely related to the Natchez people and both are considered descendants of the late prehistoric Plaquemine culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plaquemine culture</span> Archaeological culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley, United States

The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture centered on the Lower Mississippi River valley. It had a deep history in the area stretching back through the earlier Coles Creek and Troyville cultures to the Marksville culture. The Natchez and related Taensa peoples were their historic period descendants. The type site for the culture is the Medora site in Louisiana; while other examples include the Anna, Emerald, Holly Bluff, and Winterville sites in Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marksville culture</span> Archaeological culture in the south-eastern United States

The Marksville culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Lower Mississippi valley, Yazoo valley, and Tensas valley areas of present-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and extended eastward along the Gulf Coast to the Mobile Bay area, from 100 BCE to 400 CE. This culture takes its name from the Marksville Prehistoric Indian Site in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. Marksville Culture was contemporaneous with the Hopewell cultures within present-day Ohio and Illinois. It evolved from the earlier Tchefuncte culture and into the Baytown and Troyville cultures, and later the Coles Creek and Plum Bayou cultures. It is considered ancestral to the historic Natchez and Taensa peoples.

The Ghost site, or Ghost site mounds is an archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana, with an early to middle Coles Creek culture component and a Late Coles Creek to Plaquemine culture component.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitzhugh Mounds</span> Archaeological site in Louisiana, US

Fitzhugh Mounds is an archaeological site in Madison Parish, Louisiana from the Plaquemine\Mississippian period dating to approximately 1200–1541 CE. It is the type site for the Fitzhugh Phase(1350–1500) of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology.

Venable Mound is an archaeological site in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana with a single mound with components from the Troyville, Coles Creek and Plaquemine period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenhouse site</span> Archeological site

The Greenhouse site is an archaeological site of the Troyville-Coles Creek culture in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raffman site</span> Archaeological site in Louisiana, U.S.

The Raffman site is an archaeological site located in Madison Parish, Louisiana and constructed between 700 and 1200 CE. It has components from the Tchefuncte culture and the Coles Creek culture, whose main period of occupation was during the Balmoral phase of the Tensas Basin and Natchez Bluffs chronology and which was virtually deserted by the end of the Preston phase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troyville culture</span> Archaeological culture in areas of Louisiana and Arkansas, United States

The Troyville culture is an archaeological culture in areas of Louisiana and Arkansas in the Lower Mississippi valley in the Southeastern Woodlands. It was a Baytown Period culture and lasted from 400 to 700 CE during the Late Woodland period. It was contemporaneous with the Coastal Troyville and Baytown cultures and was succeeded by the Coles Creek culture. Where the Baytown peoples built dispersed settlements, the Troyville people instead continued building major earthwork centers.

Transylvania Mounds is an archaeological site in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana with components from the Coles Creek (700–1200)CE and Plaquemine/Mississippi periods (1200–1541). It is the type site for the Transylvania Phase of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology.

Sundown Mounds is a multimound archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana from the Early Coles Creek culture. It is the type site for the Sundown Phase of the Tensas Basin and Natchez Bluff Coles Creek chronology.

Flowery Mound is an archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana with components from the Late Coles Creek and Plaquemine-Mississippian culture which dates from approximately 950–1541.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mott Archaeological Preserve</span> Archeological site

The Mott Archaeological Preserve or Mott Mounds Site is an archaeological site in Franklin Parish, Louisiana on the west bank of Bayou Macon. It originally had eleven mounds with components from the Marksville, Troyville, Coles Creek, and Plaquemine periods. It was at one time one of the largest mound centers in the Southeast and has one of the largest mounds in Louisiana with a base which cover more than two acres. It was purchased by the Archaeological Conservancy in 2002. and is now used for research and educational purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds</span>

Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds is an archaeological site in Plaquemines Parish near the southeast corner of Louisiana. Built by the Coastal Coles Creek culture, it was inhabited from 875 to 1200 CE, from the Early Coles Creek period to the Coles Creek/Plaquemine period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazique Archeological Site</span>

The Mazique Archeological Site, also known as White Apple Village, is a prehistoric Coles Creek culture archaeological site located in Adams County, Mississippi. It is also the location of the historic period White Apple Village of the Natchez people and the Mazique Plantation. It was added to the NRHP on October 23, 1991, as NRIS number 91001529.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pensacola culture</span> Archaeological culture in the southeastern US

The Pensacola culture was a regional variation of the Mississippian culture along the Gulf Coast of the United States that lasted from 1100 to 1700 CE. The archaeological culture covers an area stretching from a transitional Pensacola/Fort Walton culture zone at Choctawhatchee Bay in Florida to the eastern side of the Mississippi River Delta near Biloxi, Mississippi, with the majority of its sites located along Mobile Bay in the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. Sites for the culture stretched inland, north into the southern Tombigee and Alabama River valleys, as far as the vicinity of Selma, Alabama.

The Sims site (16SC2), also known as Sims Place site, is an archaeological site located in Saint Charles Parish, Louisiana, near the town of Paradis. The location is a multi-component mound and village complex with platform mounds and extensive midden deposits. The site habitations are divided into three periods. It was first inhabited about 800 CE by peoples of the Coastal 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/protohistoric period that lasted from 1500 until about 1700 or 1800.

References

  1. 1 2 Daniel A. LaDu (2009). An exploration of the age of mound construction at Mazique (22AD502), a Late Prehistoric mound center in Adams County, Mississippi (PDF) (Master of Arts thesis). Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
  2. ↑ Kidder, Tristram R. (2002). Anderson, David G.; Mainfort, Robert C. Jr (eds.). The Woodland Southeast . Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p.  80. ISBN   978-0817311377.
  3. ↑ Virgil Roy Beasley III (2007). "Feasting on the Bluffs: Anna Site Excavations in the Natchez Bluffs of Mississippi". In Rees, Mark A.; Livingood, Patrick C. (eds.). Plaquemine Archaeology . University of Alabama Press. p.  135.
  4. ↑ Phillips, Philip (1970). Archaeological Survey In The Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, 1945-1955. Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
  5. 1 2 Timothy M. Schilling (May 2004). Excavations at the Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds (16PL159) : A Coles Creek Period Mound Complex (PDF) (Master of Arts thesis). Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-19. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
  6. 1 2 3 Kidder, Tristram (1998). Lewis, R. Barry; Stout, Charles (eds.). Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces. University of Alabama Press. ISBN   0-8173-0947-0.
  7. 1 2 "Troyville-Coles Creek". Louisiana prehistory. 2010-07-01. Archived from the original on 2012-01-10.
  8. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Balmoral Mounda". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  9. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana : Cypress Grove Mound". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  10. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana : Deprato Mounds". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
  11. ↑ Leah Williams (2008). Paleoethnobotany of the Feltus Mounds Site (PDF) (Undergraduate Honors thesis). University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-02-23. Retrieved 2013-02-24.
  12. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Filhiol Mound". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  13. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana : Flowery Mound". Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2011-10-22.
  14. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Frogmore Mound". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
  15. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Ghost Site Mounds". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  16. ↑ "Louisiana Prehistory:Marksville, Troyville-Coles Creek, and Caddo". Archived from the original on 2012-01-10. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  17. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Insley Mounds". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  18. ↑ Phillips, Philip (1970). Archaeological Survey in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, 1949-1955. Peabody Museum. p. 435.
  19. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana : Lamarque Mounds". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  20. ↑ Gomez, Gay M. (1998). A Wetland Biography : Seasons on Louisiana's Chenier Plain. University of Texas Press. p. 49. ISBN   978-0-292-72812-7.
  21. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Marsden Mounds". Archived from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  22. ↑ Fuller, Richard S.; Fuller, Diane Silvia (1987). "Excavations at Morgan : A Coles Creek mound complex in coastal Louisiana" (PDF). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum, Harvard University.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  23. ↑ Schilling, Timothy (Winter 2006–2007), "Archaeology at the Mott Mounds" (PDF), Newsletter of the Louisiana Archaeological Society, vol. 34 (3 ed.), Louisiana Archaeological Society, pp. 8–12, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-05, retrieved 2011-10-29
  24. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Peck Mounds". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  25. ↑ Tristam R. Kidder (2004). "Plazas as architecture: An example from the Raffman site, Northeast Louisiana". American Antiquity. 69 (3): 514–532. doi:10.2307/4128404. JSTOR   4128404. S2CID   163887923.
  26. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Scott Place Mounds". Archived from the original on 2012-12-25. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  27. ↑ Weinstein, Richard A.; Dumas, Ashley A. (2008). "The spread of shell-tempered ceramics along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico" (PDF). Southeastern Archaeology. 27 (2). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-25.
  28. ↑ Jackson, H. Edwin (1998). "Little Spanish Fort: An Early Middle Woodland Enclosure in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi". Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology . 23 (2): 199–220. JSTOR   20708431.
  29. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Sundown Mounds". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
  30. 1 2 "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana: Transylvania Mounds". Archived from the original on 2014-03-20. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  31. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Venable Mound". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  32. ↑ "Indian Mounds of Northeast Louisiana:Wade Landing Mound". Archived from the original on 2012-12-24. Retrieved 2011-10-20.

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