Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:38:50.421Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plazas as Architecture: An Example from the Raffman Site, Northeast Louisiana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Tristram R. Kidder
Tristram R. Kidder*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Research at the Raffman site (16MA20), a multi-mound center in the Lower Mississippi Valley of northeast Louisiana, demonstrates that the plaza was purposefully built and extended on its northern end. Construction entailed significant earth-moving and labor effort in addition to the erection of mounds flanking the plaza. At Raffman plaza, building is dated ca. A.D. 700–1000. Like the mounds at the site, the arrangement, shape, and dimensions of the plaza changed through time. The final plan of the plaza was the result of a rapid major reconfiguration of the spatial layout of the site at approximately A.D. 1000. The effort expended on planning and construction of the plaza at Raffman and similar features at contemporary and later sites in the southeastern United States indicates that plazas are not just empty spaces that developed because architecture enclosed an open area; they must be understood as one of the central design elements of community planning and intrasite spatial organization. Further research should be devoted to exploring how southeastern mound-and-plaza groups were constructed with specific efforts devoted to comprehending how plazas were laid out and built.

Resumen

Resumen

Las investigaciones en el sitio Raffman (16MA20), un centro de múltiples montículos en el valle bajo del Mississippi de Luisiana nororiental, demuestran que la plaza se construyó y extendió con un propósito determinado en su extremo norte. La construcción supuso un significativo desplazamiento de tierra y esfuerzo laboral, además del levantamiento de los montículos al lado de la plaza. La construcción de la plaza de Raffman data de los años 700–1000 d. C. Al igual que los montículos del sitio, la disposición, la forma y las dimensiones de la plaza fueron cambiando con el paso del tiempo. El piano final de la plaza fue el resultado de una rápida e importante reconfiguración de la distribución espacial del sitio en el año 1000 d.C., aproximadamente. El esfuerzo invertido en el diseño y la construcción de la plaza de Raffman, y características similares a las de otros sitios contemporáneos y posteriores en el sudeste de los Estados Unidos indican que las plazas no fueron sólo espacios vacíos que surgieron al construirse alrededor de áreas abiertas. Las plazas deben ser entendidas, en cambio, como uno de los elementos de diseño centrales en la planificación de la comunidad y en la organización espacial dentro de los sitios (intrasite). Las investigaciones futuras deben dedicarse a explorar cómo los grupos de plazas y montículos del sudeste se construyeron con propósitos específicos, y orientados a entender cómo se trazaron y construyeron las plazas.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , July 2004 , pp. 514 - 532
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bartram, William 1853 Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians. Transactions of the American Ethnological Society 3, part 1:11–58.Google Scholar
Belmont, John S. 1967 The Culture Sequence at the Greenhouse Site, Louisiana. Southeastern Archaeological Conference Bulletin 6:27–34.Google Scholar
Black, Glen A. 1967 Angel Site: An Archaeological, Historical and Ethnological Study. Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis.Google Scholar
Brain, Jeffrey P. 1989 Winterville: Late Prehistoric Culture Contact in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Archaeological Report 23. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson.Google Scholar
Brown, Ian W. 2003 Concluding Thoughts on Bottle Creek and its Position in the Mississippian World. In Bottle Creek: A Pensacola Culture Site in South Alabama , edited by Brown, Ian W., pp. 205–226. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Cobb, Charles R., and Nassaney, Michael S. 2002 Domesticating Self and Society in the Woodland Southeast. In The Woodland Southeast , edited by Anderson, David G. and Mainfort, Robert C. Jr. , pp. 525–539. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Coe, Joffre L. 1995 Town Creek Indian Mound: A Native American Legacy. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Cole, Fay-Cooper, Bell, Robert, Bennett, John, Caldwell, Joseph, Emerson, Norman, McNeish, Richard S., Orr, Kenneth, and Willis, Roger 1951 Kincaid, a Prehistoric Illinois Metropolis . University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Cotter, John L. 1951 Stratigraphic and Area Tests at the Emerald and Anna Mound Sites. American Antiquity 17:18–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demel, Scott J., and Hall, Robert L. 1998 The Mississippian Town Plan and Cultural Landscape of Cahokia, Illinois. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces , edited by Barry Lewis, R. and Charles, Stout, pp. 200–226. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Fisk, Harold N. 1944 Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River. U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi River Commission, Vicksburg.Google Scholar
Ford, James A. 1951 Greenhouse: A Troyville-Coles Creek Period Site in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. Anthropological Papers vol. 44, Pt. 1. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Ford, Janet 1990 The Tchula Connection: Early Woodland Culture and Burial Mounds in North Mississippi. Southeastern Archaeology 9:103–115.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 1986 Earth Sitting: Architectural Masses at Poverty Point, Northeastern Louisiana. Louisiana Archaeology 13:201–237.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 1996 Religion of the Rings: Poverty Point Iconology and Ceremonialism. In Mounds, Embankments, and Ceremonialism in the Midsouth , edited by Mainfort, Robert C. and Richard, Walling, pp. 1–6. Research Series 46. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 1998 Broken Circles, Owl Monsters, and Black Earth Midden: Separating the Sacred and Secular at Poverty Point. In Ancient Earthen Enclosures of the Eastern Woodlands , edited by Mainfort, Robert C. Jr. and Sullivan, Lynne P., pp. 17–30. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 1999 Poverty Point: A Terminal Archaic Culture in the Lower Mississippi Valley. 2nd ed. Anthropological Study 7. Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Louisiana Archaeological Survey and Antiquities Commission, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 2000 The Ancient Mounds of Poverty Point: Place of Rings. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Griffin, James B. 1985 Changing Concepts of the Prehistoric Mississippian Cultures of the Eastern United States. In Alabama and the Borderlands: From Prehistory to Statehood , edited by Reid Badger, R. and Clayton, Lawrence A., pp. 40–63. University of Alabama Press, University.Google Scholar
Hally, David J. 1972 The Plaquemine and Mississippian Occupations of the Upper Tensas Basin, Louisiana. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hally, David J., and Kelly, Hypatia 1998 The Nature of Mississippian Towns in Georgia: The King Site Example. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces , edited by Barry Lewis, R. and Charles, Stout, pp. 49–63. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Holley, George R., Dalan, Rinita A., and Smith, Philip A. 1993 Investigations in the Cahokia Site Grand Plaza. American Antiquity 58:306–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, James A. 1965 The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex and its Interpretation. Memoir 6. Missouri Archaeological Society, Columbia.Google Scholar
Kelly, John E. 1990 Range Site Community Patterns and the Mississippian Emergence. In The Mississippian Emergence , edited by Smith, Bruce D., pp. 67–112. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Kelly, John E. 1996 The Public Architecture on the Merrell Tract, Cahokia. Central Mississippi Valley Archaeological Research Institute, Columbia, IL. Manuscript on file, Cahokia Mounds Museum Society, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Collinsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Kelly, John E. 1997 Stirling-Phase Sociopolitical Activity at East St. Louis and Cahokia. In Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World , edited by Pauketat, Timothy R. and Emerson, Thomas E., pp. 141–166. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Kidder, Tristram R. 1998 Mississippi Period Mound Groups and Communities in the Lower Mississippi Valley. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces , edited by Barry Lewis, R. and Charles, Stout, pp. 123–150. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Kidder, Tristram R. 2002a Mapping Poverty Point. American Antiquity 67:89–101.Google Scholar
Kidder, Tristram R. 2002b Woodland Period Archaeology of the Lower Mississippi Valley. In The Woodland Southeast , edited by Anderson, David G. and Mainfort, Robert C. Jr. , pp. 66–90. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Kidder, Tristram R., and Fritz, Gayle J. 1993 Subsistence and Social Change in the Lower Mississippi Valley: The Reno Brake and Osceola Sites, Louisiana. Journal of Field Archaeology 20:281–297.Google Scholar
King, Adam 2001 Long-Term Histories of Mississippian Centers: The Developmental Sequence of Etowah and its Comparison to Moundville and Cahokia. Southeastern Archaeology 20:1–17.Google Scholar
Knight, Vernon J. Jr. 1986 The Institutional Organization of Mississippian Religion. American Antiquity 5 1:675–687.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Vernon J. Jr. 1989 Symbolism of Mississippian Mounds. In Powhatan's Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast , edited by Wood, Peter H., Waselkov, Gregory A. and Hatley, M. Thomas, pp. 279–291. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London.Google Scholar
Knight, Vernon J. Jr. , and Steponaitis, Vincas P. 1998 A New History of Moundville. In Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom , edited by Knight, Vernon J. Jr. and Steponaitis, Vincas P., pp. 1–25. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Lewis, R. Barry, and Stout, Charles 1998 The Town as Metaphor. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces , edited by Barry Lewis, R. and Charles, Stout, pp. 227–241. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Lewis, R. Barry, Stout, Charles, and Wesson, Cameron B. 1998 The Design of Mississippian Towns. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces , edited by Barry Lewis, R. and Charles, Stout, pp. 1–21. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Lewis, Thomas M. N., and Kneberg, Madeline 1946 Hiwassee Island. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Merher, Mark W., and Collins, James M. 1995 Household Archaeology at Cahokia and in its Hinterland. In Mississippian Communities and Households , edited by Rogers, J. Daniel and Smith, Bruce D., pp. 32–57. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Morgan, William N. 1999 Precolumbian Architecture in Eastern North America. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Nassaney, Michael S. 1996 Aboriginal Earthworks in Central Arkansas. In Mounds, Embankments, and Ceremonialism in the Midsouth , edited by Mainfort, Robert C. and Richard, Walling, pp. 22–35. Research Series 46. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Phillips, Philip 1970 Archaeological Survey in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, 1949-1955. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology vol. 60. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Phillips, Philip, Ford, James A., and Griffin, James B. 1951 Archaeological Survey in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, 1940-1947. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology vol. 25. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Polhemus, Richard R. 1987 The Toqua Site: A Late Mississippian Dallas Phase Town. Tennessee Valley Authority Publications in Anthropology 44. Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Porter, James W. 1974 Cahokia Archaeology as Viewed from the Mitchell Site: A Satellite Community at A. D. 1150-1200. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Rodning, Christopher B. 2001 Mortuary Ritual and Gender Ideology i n Protohistoric Southwestern North Carolina. In Archaeological Studies of Gender in the Southeastern United States , edited by Eastman, Jane M. and Rodning, Christopher B., pp. 77–100. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Rogers, J. Daniel, Moore, Michael C., and Greaves, Rusty 1982 Spiro Archaeology: The Plaza. Studies in Oklahoma's Past 10. Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, Norman.Google Scholar
Rolingson, Martha A. 1990 The Toltec Mounds Site: A Ceremonial Center in the Arkansas River Lowland. In The Mississippian Emergence , edited by Smith, Bruce D., pp. 27 49. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Rolingson, Martha A. 1998 Toltec Mounds and Plum Bayou Culture: Mound D Excavations. Research Series 54. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville. Google Scholar
Saucier, Roger T. 1994 Geomorphology and Quaternary Geologic History of the Lower Mississippi Valley. 2 vols. Mississippi River Commission, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg.Google Scholar
Saunders, Joe, and Allen, Thurman 1997 The Archaic Period. Louisiana Archaeology 22:1–30.Google Scholar
Saunders, Joe W, Allen, Thurman, and Saucier, Roger T. 1994 Four Archaic? Mound Complexes in Northeast Louisiana. Southeastern Archaeology 13:134–153.Google Scholar
Saunders, Joe W., Mandel, Rolfe D., Saucier, Roger T., Allen, E. Thurman, Hallmark, C. T., Johnson, Jay K., Jackson, Edwin H., Allen, Charles M., Stringer, Gary L., Frink, Douglas S., Feathers, James K., Williams, Stephen, Gremillion, Kristen J., Vidrine, Malcom F., and Jones, Reca B. 1997 A Mound Complex in Louisiana at 5400-5000 Years Before the Present. Science 277:1796–1799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, Rebecca 1994 The Case for Archaic Period Mounds in Southeastern Louisiana. Southeastern Archaeology 13:118–134.Google Scholar
Schroedl, Gerald F. 1998 Mississippian Towns in Eastern Tennessee. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces , edited by Barry Lewis, R. and Charles, Stout, pp. 64–92. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Schroedl, Gerald F., and Boyd, C. Clifford Jr. 1991 Late Woodland Period Culture in East Tennessee. In Stability, Transformation, and Variation: The Late Woodland Southeast , edited by Nassaney, Michael S. and Cobb, Charles R., pp. 69–90. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Schroedl, Gerald F., Boyd, C. Clifford Jr. , and Davis, R. P. Stephen Jr. 1990 Explaining Mississippian Origins in East Tennessee. In The Mississippian Emergence , edited by Smith, Bruce D., pp. 175–196. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Steponaitis, Vincas P. 1974 The Late Prehistory of the Natchez Region: Excavations at the Emerald and Foster Sites, Adams County, Mississippi. Unpublished Bachelor's thesis, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Steponaitis, Vincas P. 1986 Prehistoric Archaeology in the Southeastern United States, 1970-1985. Annual Review of Anthropology 15:363–404.Google Scholar
Stout, Charles, and Lewis, R. Barry 1998 Mississippian Towns in Kentucky. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces , edited by Barry Lewis, R. and Charles, Stout, pp. 151–178. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, and Reimer, Paula J. 1986 A Computer Program for Radiocarbon Age Calibration. Radiocarbon 28:1022–1030.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze., Reimer, Paula J., Bard, Edouard, Beck, John W., Burr, George S., Hughen, Konrad A., Kromer, Bernd, McCormac, F. Gerry, Plicht, Johannes van der, and Spurk, Marco 1998 INTCAL98 Radiocarbon Age Calibration 24, 000-0 cal B. P. Radiocarbon 40:1041–1083.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Lynne P. 1987 The Mouse Creek Household. Southeastern Archaeology 6:16–29.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Lynne P. 1995 Mississippian Household and Community in Eastern Tennessee. In Mississippian Communities and Households , edited by Daniel Rogers, J. and Smith, Bruce D., pp. 99–123. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Swanton, John R. 1928 The Interpretation of Aboriginal Mounds by Means of Creek Indian Customs. In Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year 1927 , pp. 495–506. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Waring, Antonio J. Jr. 1968 The Southern Cult and Muskhogean Ceremonial. In The Waring Papers: The Collected Works of Antonio J. Waring, Jr., edited by Williams, S., pp. 30–69. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology vol. 58. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Webb, Clarence H. 1982 The Poverty Point Culture. Geoscience and Man 17 . 2nd ed. , revised. Geoscience Publications, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Weems, Tracey A., Reynolds, Emmett F., Venson, Ronnie L., Allen, E. Thurman, and Smith, Terry J. 1982 Soil Survey of Madison Parish, Louisiana. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Wells, Douglas C. 1998 The Early Coles Creek Period and the Evolution of Social Inequality in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Wesson, Cameron B. 1998 Mississippian Sacred Landscapes: A View from Alabama. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Spaces , edited by Barry Lewis, R. and Charles, Stout, pp. 93–122. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Williams, Stephen, and Brain, Jeffrey P. 1983 Excavations at the Lake George Site, Yazoo County, Mississippi, 1958-1960. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology vol. 74. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Young, Biloine W., and Fowler, Melvin L. 2000 Cahokia: The Great Native American Metropolis. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar