Pisgah Phase

Last updated

The Pisgah phase (1000 to 1450/1500 CE) is an archaeological phase of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture (a regional variation of the Mississippian culture) in Southeast North America. [1] It is associated with the Appalachian Summit area of southeastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and northwestern South Carolina in what is now the United States.

Contents

The historic Cherokee and Catawba peoples of this region were generally the ones to encounter European explorers and colonists, beginning in the mid-16th century. Some peoples of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture chiefdoms also encountered the Spanish expeditions. The Mississippian cultures are believed to have been ancestral to the Creek and Catawba in this area.

Location

The archeological phase is applied to a 14,000 square miles (36,000 km2) region in the South Appalachian geologic province. On the rim of the region during an earlier phase, the sites were occupied for rather short periods, with the interior of the region having sites occupied throughout the phase. Between about 1000 and 1250 CE, the region of northeastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and northwestern South Carolina was a sub-regional development [2] of a local Woodland period population who incorporated characteristics from the larger Mississippian culture. [3]

The villages ranged from about a quarter of an acre to 6 acres (24,000 m2), with lesser complexity and a cultural pattern that does not compare in size to larger Mississippian sites that developed to the south and west of here. [4] However, the Mississippian cultural pattern influence is seen in evidence from sites as far north as Lee County, Virginia, and south to Oconee County, South Carolina. [5] The settlements in the South Appalachian area were characterized by construction of single earthen platform mounds at the center of the villages, rather than by larger complexes of multiple mounds and dense population.

The Pee Dee culture, primarily occupying territory in present-day North Carolina, expressed Pisgah cultural traits. [6] Their descendants are now based in South Carolina, along the Pee Dee River.

Lifeways

Subsistence

Pisgah phase peoples, like other Mississippian-culture peoples, consumed a variety of wild animal and plant foods. They hunted the wooded uplands for white-tailed deer, bear, and wild turkey. But unlike their predecessors in the region, they also strongly relied on cultivation of maize agriculture. As much as half of their food was derived from agriculture. The rich bottomlands near their villages were planted with many staples of indigenous agriculture, including the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash/pumpkin), and sumpweed (Iva annua). [7]

Architecture

Pisgah phase sites ranged from individual farmsteads to large nucleated villages surrounding platform mounds and defended by palisades. Usually the smaller sites were clustered around the larger centers that feature single mounds. These settlements were invariably located within floodplains; the only exceptions were temporary hunting camps. The majority of these sites are located in the Eastern and Central Appalachian Summit area, around the Asheville, Pigeon, and Hendersonville basins. [8]

Some Pisgah phase sites, such as the Garden Creek Mound site, have been found to have had earth lodges constructed during early phases of their occupation. At times these earth lodges either collapsed or were destroyed, and a platform mound was constructed over them. Archaeologists interpret such a change as a shift in sociopolitical organization and community hierarchy. They believe that the earth lodges were used as egalitarian council houses.

The construction of platform mounds, followed by building temples, residences, and sometimes mortuary structures on top of these, marked the development of a more stratified society with hereditary elites. [9]

The houses of the Pisgah phase were about 20 feet (6.1 m) square and tended to be rectangular. Walls were of single set-post construction, with wattle and daub as a finishing material. Structures had interior support posts and interior partitions. Trenches were dug for an entry way, with rows of saplings arched over them and covered in wattle and daub for a tunnel-like effect. [8] The floors had a raised hearth in the center. Around the houses within the palisade were common burials, fire pits, and clay deposits used for storage pits and some as fire pits. There is evidence of smaller structures near the houses which are thought to have been storage cribs for maize and sweat houses for ritual practices.

A larger council house fronted the homes surrounding the central plaza and opposite the village entrance. If the village had developed around an existing mound from the Mississippian period, typically the Cherokee built their townhouse on top of the earthen mound. The palisades had off-set entrances. [10]

Burial

Three types of burials are associated with the Pisgah phase. The people used side-chamber pits, central-chamber pits, and simple pits. The bodies of high-ranking adults and infants were placed within the side-chamber location in a loose flexed position, with their heads toward the west. Remains from these burials show adult skulls with artificial cranial deformation, likely induced for cultural reasons. The adult graves also had such grave goods as shell ear pins, turtle-shell rattles, shell bowls, and perforated animal bones. The infants' grave objects included columella shell beads, shell gorgets, and perforated marginella shells. Included within certain graves in some sites that express a social ranking are stone, clay, bone, shell, and wood artifacts. [10]

Ceramics

While William Henry Holmes of the Smithsonian Institution first identified Pisgah ceramics in 1884, it was not until the late 20th century that a detailed study of the pottery was completed. In 1966 Patricia Holden was the first to publish such an analysis of Pisgah pottery. [8]

Pisgah phase pottery, unlike the vast majority of Mississippian culture pottery, used sand as a tempering agent instead of ground mussel shell. [11] The pottery is typified by collared rims and rectilinear, complicated stamp decoration. [12]

The designs are similar to northern Iroquois ceramics. The complicated stamping designs were found to be like Etowah of the Piedmont region and Hiwassee Island designs of the Ridge and Valley province. [13] Bolder check stamping became a minority style. Some pottery had rectilinear motifs, and other works were curvilinear toward the end of the phase. For the most part, these styles of ceramics became more common after 1250 CE in the Blue Ridge basins of western North Carolina and northwestern South Carolina. [14] The Qualla Phase pottery that followed is thought to have resulted from be the result of the merging of Lamar and Pisgah phases cultures about 1450 CE. [15]

Chronological position

The Pisgah phase is a part of the Southern Appalachian Summit Archaeology, which includes the following chronology: [16]

Sites

Most Pisgah sites are found along the Catawba, French Broad, Hiwassee, Little Tennessee, and Pigeon rivers in North Carolina. [17]

Specific sites include the following:

Notes

  1. ↑ "Southeastern Prehistory:Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period". National Park Service . Retrieved 2012-04-11.
  2. ↑ Keel, a "Paper"
  3. ↑ Geier (1992), pp. 284–285
  4. ↑ Dickens; also Purrington (1983), 145–147
  5. ↑ Dickens (1976), 211
  6. ↑ Ward and Davis, 99
  7. ↑ "The South Appalachian Mississippian Tradition: Pisgah Phase (A.D. 1000–1450)" . Retrieved 2011-02-21.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Ward, H. Trawick; Davis, R. P. Stephen (1999-09-30). Time Before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 160–163. ISBN   978-0-8078-4780-0.
  9. ↑ Ward, H. Trawick; Davis, R. P. Stephen (1999-09-30). Time Before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 175–176. ISBN   978-0-8078-4780-0.
  10. 1 2 Mails, Thomas E. (1992). The Cherokee People: The Story of the Cherokees from Earliest Origins. Council Oak Books. pp. 35–36. ISBN   0-933031-45-9.
  11. ↑ Sullivan, Lynne P.; Prezzano, Susan C. (2001-12-12). Archaeology of the Appalachian highlands (1 ed.). University of Tennessee Press. p.  203. ISBN   978-1-57233-142-6.
  12. ↑ Ward, H. Trawick; Davis, R. P. Stephen (1999-09-30). Time Before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 166. ISBN   978-0-8078-4780-0.
  13. ↑ King
  14. ↑ King, Duane (1979). The Cherokee Nation, A Troubled History . Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN   978-0-87049-227-3. It was at about this same time that rectilinear complicated stamping was first applied to ceramics in the South Appalachians. This style of surface finish is common on Napier and Woodstock ceramics of northern Georgia, but is only occasionally present on Hamilton ceramics of eastern Tennessee and Connestee ceramics of western North Carolina...
  15. ↑ Keel (1976), 312
  16. ↑ Kerr, Jonathan P. (1996–2001). "Prehistory of the Upper Cumberland River Drainage in the Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee Border Region". Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc. Archived from Tennessee the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-02-22.{{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  17. ↑ Dickens (1974), Figure 2
  18. ↑ Ward, H. Trawick; Davis, R. P. Stephen (1999-09-30). Time Before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 192. ISBN   978-0-8078-4780-0.
  19. ↑ Ward, H. Trawick; Davis, R. P. Stephen (1999-09-30). Time Before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 21. ISBN   978-0-8078-4780-0.

Related Research Articles

Canton, North Carolina Town in North Carolina, United States

Canton is the second largest town in Haywood County, North Carolina, United States. It is located about 17 miles (27 km) west of Asheville and is part of that city's metropolitan area. The town is named after the city of Canton, Ohio. The population was 4,227 at the 2010 census.

Etowah Indian Mounds United States historic place

Etowah Indian Mounds (9BR1) are a 54-acre (220,000 m2) archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia, south of Cartersville. Built and occupied in three phases, from 1000–1550 AD, the prehistoric site is located on the north shore of the Etowah River.

Mississippian culture Mound-building Native American culture in Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States

The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, 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.

Ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas Pottery produced by the indigenous people of the Americas

Native American pottery is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks, toys, sculptures, and a myriad of other art forms.

Woodland period Period of North American pre-Columbian cultures

In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeologists distinguishing the Mississippian period, from 1000 CE to European contact as a separate period. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic term for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the agriculturalist Mississippian cultures. The Eastern Woodlands cultural region covers what is now eastern Canada south of the Subarctic region, the Eastern United States, along to the Gulf of Mexico.

Coosa chiefdom Paramount chiefdom of Native Americans

The Coosa chiefdom was a powerful Native American paramount chiefdom in what are now Gordon and Murray counties in Georgia, in the United States. It was inhabited from about 1400 until about 1600, and dominated several smaller chiefdoms. The total population of Coosa's area of influence, reaching into present-day Tennessee and Alabama, has been estimated at 50,000.

Pedee people Indigenous people of the southeast United States

The Pee Dee people, also Pedee and Peedee, are American Indians of the Southeast United States. Historically, their population has been concentrated in the Piedmont of present-day South Carolina. In the 17th and 18th centuries, English colonists named the Pee Dee River and the Pee Dee region of South Carolina for the tribe.

Leon-Jefferson culture Protohistoric Native American archaeological culture

The Leon-Jefferson Culture is the term used by archaeologists for a protohistoric Native American archaeological culture that flourished in southeastern North America from approximately 1500–1704 CE and is associated with the historic Apalachee people. It was located in and named for the present day Leon and Jefferson counties in northern Florida of the Southeastern United States

Nacoochee Mound Archaeological site in Georgia, US

The Nacoochee Mound is an archaeological site on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in White County, in the northeast part of the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia State Route 17 and Georgia State Route 75 have a junction near here.

Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site Archaeological site in Illinois, US

The Kincaid Mounds Historic Site c. 1050–1400 CE, is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located at the southern tip of present-day U.S. state of Illinois, along the Ohio River. Kincaid Mounds has been notable for both its significant role in native North American prehistory and for the central role the site has played in the development of modern archaeological techniques. The site had at least 11 substructure platform mounds, and 8 other monuments.

The Prehistory of West Virginia spans ancient times until the arrival of Europeans in the early 17th century. Hunters ventured into West Virginia's mountain valleys and made temporary camp villages since the Archaic period in the Americas. Many ancient human-made earthen mounds from various mound builder cultures survive, especially in the areas of Moundsville, South Charleston, and Romney. The artifacts uncovered in these areas give evidence of a village society with a tribal trade system culture that included limited cold worked copper. As of 2009, over 12,500 archaeological sites have been documented in West Virginia.

Garden Creek site is an archaeological site located 24 miles (39 km) west of Asheville, North Carolina in Haywood County, on the south side of the Pigeon River and near the confluence of its tributary Garden Creek. It is near modern Canton and the Pisgah National Forest. The earliest human occupation at the site dates to 8000 BCE.

Mississippian culture pottery

Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. It is often characterized by the adoption and use of riverine shell-tempering agents in the clay paste. Shell tempering is one of the hallmarks of Mississippian cultural practices. Analysis of local differences in materials, techniques, forms, and designs is a primary means for archaeologists to learn about the lifeways, religious practices, trade, and interaction among Mississippian peoples. The value of this pottery on the illegal antiquities market has led to extensive looting of sites.

The Dallas phase is an archaeological phase, within the Mississippian III period, in the South Appalachian Geologic province in North America.

The Little Egypt site was an archaeological site located in Murray County, Georgia, near the junction of the Coosawattee River and Talking Rock Creek. The site originally had three platform mounds surrounding a plaza and a large village area. It was destroyed during the construction of the Dam of Carters Lake in 1972. It was situated between the Ridge and Valley and Piedmont sections of the state in a flood plain. Using Mississippian culture pottery found at the site archaeologists dated the site to the Middle and Late South Appalachian culture habitation from 1300 to 1600 CE during the Dallas, Lamar, and Mouse Creek phases.

The Chauga Mound (38OC1) is an archaeological site once located on the northern bank of the Tugaloo River, about 1,200 feet (370 m) north of the mouth of the Chauga River in present-day Oconee County, South Carolina. The earthen platform mound and former village site were inundated by creation of Lake Hartwell after construction of the Hartwell Dam on the Savannah River, which was completed in 1962.

Spikebuck Town Mound and Village Site United States historic place

The Spikebuck Town Mound and Village Site is a prehistoric and historic archaeological site on Town Creek near its confluence with the Hiwassee River within the boundaries of present-day Hayesville, North Carolina. The site encompasses the former area of the Cherokee village of Quanassee and associated farmsteads. The village was centered on what is known as Spikebuck Mound, an earthwork platform mound, likely built about 1,000 CE by ancestral indigenous peoples during the South Appalachian Mississippian culture period.

Too-Cowee United States national historic site and former Cherokee town

Too-Cowee, was an important historic Cherokee town located near the Little Tennessee River north of present-day Franklin, North Carolina. It also had a prehistoric platform mound and earlier village built by ancestral peoples. As their expression of public architecture, the Cherokee built a townhouse on top of the mound. It was the place for their community gatherings in their highly decentralized society. The name translates to "pig fat" in English. British traders and colonists referred to Cowee as one of the Cherokee Middle Towns along this river; they defined geographic groupings based in relation to their coastal settlements, such as Charlestown, South Carolina.

Church Rockshelter No.2 site situates near the Watauga River in Watauga County, North Carolina. It locates upstream from its twin site Church Rockshelter No.1 site. The No.2 site is east-southeast facing and includes two rock shelters formed by a Cranberry Gneiss outcrop. There is a lower shelter at the northern end and an upper shelter at the southern end. The site is owned by Charles Church, who discovered the site in the mid-1900s by finding many projectile points on the ground surface. A total of three excavations explored the site in the 1970s, 1975 and 2011 respectively. The site contains primarily stone and ceramic evidence from Early to Late Woodland period.

Hiwassee Island, also known as Jollys Island and Benham Island, is located in Meigs County, Tennessee, at the confluence of the Tennessee and Hiwassee Rivers. It is about 35 mi (56 km) northeast of Chattanooga. The island was the second largest land mass on the Tennessee River at 781 acres before the Tennessee Valley Authority created the Chickamauga Lake as a part of the dam system on the Tennessee River in 1940. Much of the island is now submerged, leaving 400 acres above the waterline.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.