Mississippian Effigy Pipes and the Glendon Limestone

Large effigy pipes made of limestone are found at Mississippian sites across much of the American South. Here we examine a sample of these pipes with the goal of identifying their geological sources, which are inferred from the fossils visible in the rock. All but one of the pipes in our sample are made of Glendon limestone, a distinctive material that outcrops most abundantly near Vicksburg, Mississippi. Based on the geological and distributional evidence, we argue that these Glendon limestone pipes were crafted in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Our study also demonstrates the efficacy of using fossils as a nondestructive way of determining the provenance of limestone artifacts

Excavations at the Boland Site, 1984-1987: A Preliminary Report

Research Report No. 9, Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reports in this series discuss the findings of archaeological excavations and research projects undertaken by the RLA between 1984 and present

The Provenance and Use of Etowah Palettes

Based on geological and stylistic evidence, we argue that stone palettes found at Etowah were made locally from nearby raw materials. We also show that they were wrapped in textiles and kept in bundles, i.e., that they were objects used in ritual. Etowah palettes were used as portable altars, perhaps in ceremonies that involved anointing other objects with colorful (and spiritually powerful) substances. The realization that palettes were bundled ritual gear should cause us to rethink common assumptions that such objects moved from site to site by means of "trade," or that they functioned as "prestige goods" in the sense of Frankenstein and Rowlands (1978)

Stone Quarries and Sourcing in the Carolina Slate Belt

Research Report No. 25, Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reports in this series discuss the findings of archaeological excavations and research projects undertaken by the RLA between 1984 and present

An Abbreviated NAGPRA Inventory of the North Carolina Archaeological Collection

The Research Laboratories of Archaeology's inventory of human skeletal remains and associated and unassociated funerary objects from Native American sites in the North Carolina Archaeological Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Théorie de la localisation et chefferies complexes : un exemple mississippien

International audienc

Ceramics, Chronology, and Community Patterns At Moundville, a Late Prehistoric Site in Alabama. (Volumes I and II).

This study deals with the Moundville culture of west-central Alabama, a Mississippian society which existed from about A.D. 1050 to 1550. Sites of this culture are located in the valley of the Black Warrior River, mostly south of the fall line at Tuscaloosa. By far the largest of these sites is Moundville, after which the culture was named. In its time, Moundville was a political and religious center of major proportions. Indeed, it was the second largest Mississippian community in all of eastern North America, second only to the great Cahokia site in the American Bottoms near present-day St. Louis. During the past decade, a tremendous amount of research has been devoted to reconstructing the social, political, and economic organization of Moundville's former inhabitants. Yet all these studies were essentially synchronic in outlook, hampered by the lack of fine temporal control. The present study attempts to rectify this problem by formulating a detailed chronology of Moundville ceramics, a chronology which is then used to reveal, at least in part, the trajectory by which the socio-political complexity at Moundville developed and later declined. More specifically, four major areas of inquiry are addressed. First, the materials and technology of pottery manufacture at Moundville are examined. This discussion not only lays the groundwork for describing the ceramic assemblage, but it also demonstrates how certain pottery attributes, often thought to be purely conventional, are directly related to vessel function. Second, a new classification of Moundville ceramics is presented. This classification consists of six analytically separate dimensions of design, ware and shape, which together constitute the formal categories on which the chronology is based. Third is a presentation of the chronology itself. This chronology was formulated using two kinds of evidence: (1) a seriation based on whole vessels excavated in the years between 1905 and 1941, and (2) stratigraphic analysis of sherds obtained from test excavations conducted at Moundville in 1978 and 1979. These lines of evidence have allowed the 500 year block of time, formerly known as a single "Moundville phase", to be broken up into three shorter phases--Moundville I, Moundville II, and Moundville III. Adding these three new units to the two previously-defined phases which come before and after, the entire late prehistoric sequence now consists of five phases spanning the period from A.D. 900 to 1700. Fourth and finally, the spatial distribution of burials and ceramics, dated according to this chronology, is examined at Moundville for each phase in turn. It appears that the site began as a small nucleated village in the West Jefferson phase (A.D. 900-1050), became a small local center with a single mound in the Moundville I phase (A.D. 1050-1250), and evolved into a large regional center during Moundville II (A.D. 1250-1400) and Moundville III (A.D. 1400-1550), ultimately having as many as 20 mounds. Decline was evident only in the Alabama River phase (A.D. 1550-1700), at which time the site was mostly ab and oned.Ph.D.ArchaeologyNative American studiesUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158179/1/8106230.pd

SAA to promote professional standards through ROPA sponsorship.

An essential part of the Society for American Archaeology's mission is to promote high ethical and professional standards for the conduct of archaeology. It is part of our obligation to the public, who support our work, to the fragile archaeological record that supplies us with evidence of the past, and to ourselves, as dedicated practitioners of the science and art of archaeology. The formation of the Register of Professional Archaeologists (ROPA) under joint sponsorship by SAA and the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) gives the archaeological community the opportunity to develop and enforce an effective program of professional ethics and standards. Past SAA statements regarding standards and ethics have provided archaeologists with informal guidance but have lacked the sanctions that provide the accountability required by a true profession. ROPA provides those sanctions. Becoming a Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA) will be voluntary, but we encourage all SAA members who work as professionals--whether in an academic or non-academic setting--to register with ROPA and hence to become publicly accountable for upholding an explicit set of research standards and ethical practices. By joining and supporting ROPA, we can ensure that the term "professional archaeologist" has greater credibility to the society that supports us