The Early Contact Period in the Black Prairie of Northeast Mississippi

Boudreaux, Edmond A.; Cobb, Charles R.; Clark, Emily; DePratter, Chester B.; Legg, James B.; Lieb, Brad R.; Smith, Allison M.; Smith, Steven D.

doi:10.2307/j.ctvx070cr.8

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Several daub pits on the site—large borrow pits where clay was removed for building construction—contained rich assemblages of flora, fauna, ceramics, and lithics. The AMS dates for Starks Farms, along with the ceramic types, support an occupation from the 1300s to mid-1600s (Boudreaux et al 2020; Clark 2017; Johnson 1996). Unfortunately, the radiocarbon curve for the sixteenth century has multiple intercepts, so it is not possible to confirm mid-sixteenth-century contexts via chronometric methods.…”

Section: Archaeology At Stark Farmsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Nevertheless, site 22OK778 does bear a distinctive imprint for the region (Boudreaux et al 2020). It is larger than most contemporary sites in the area, and it contains the bulk of the recovered metal artifacts.…”

Section: Archaeology At Stark Farmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…AD 1000–1600) as a dynamic time of population movement, social churn, and cultural mixture in which material practices have been characterized as hybrid and coalescent (e.g., Alt 2006; Blitz 1999; Cable 2020). Wall-trench architecture, which seems to have its origins in the Cahokia region of west-central Illinois (Pauketat 2007), appears on some sites in eastern Mississippi early in the Mississippian period, where it commingled with the dominant single-set-post style of houses (Boudreaux et al 2018; O'Hear et al 1981). A small percentage of the ceramics at Stark Farms exhibit decorative treatments associated with the Lower Mississippi Valley (Phillips 1970:83, 151) and western Alabama (Knight 2010:20, 39–40), but they rely on local pastes and tempers (Boudreaux et al 2020:Table 3.4; Smith 2017).…”

Section: A Deeper History Of Heterogeneous Hybriditymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wall-trench architecture, which seems to have its origins in the Cahokia region of west-central Illinois (Pauketat 2007), appears on some sites in eastern Mississippi early in the Mississippian period, where it commingled with the dominant single-set-post style of houses (Boudreaux et al 2018; O'Hear et al 1981). A small percentage of the ceramics at Stark Farms exhibit decorative treatments associated with the Lower Mississippi Valley (Phillips 1970:83, 151) and western Alabama (Knight 2010:20, 39–40), but they rely on local pastes and tempers (Boudreaux et al 2020:Table 3.4; Smith 2017). Furthermore, this was a time of local migration and endemic ceramic hybridity.…”

Section: A Deeper History Of Heterogeneous Hybriditymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Remains of the Fray: Nascent Colonialism and Heterogeneous Hybridity

et al. 2021

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Investigations at the Native American site complex of Stark Farms in Mississippi, USA, have yielded numerous examples of metal artifacts of European origin. Our study suggests that they derive from contact between the AD 1540–1541 winter encampment of the Spanish Hernando de Soto expedition and the local Indigenous polity. The artifacts display a wide range of modifications, uses, and depositional contexts congruent with hybrid practices. We argue that the early colonial setting of Stark Farms requires a different perspective on cultural mixing than is often applied in studies of European colonialism. This is highlighted by the strongly improvisational nature of the modification of the metal objects, embodying a political climate in which European incursions were precarious and in which hybridity and power were heterogeneous and fluid.

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Section: Archaeology At Stark Farmsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Archaeology At Stark Farmsmentioning

confidence: 99%