Observations having some bearing on the archaeology of the Lower Mississippi Valley are to be found in the writings of the early travelers. As the country became settled, accounts of local and regional historical interest often included remarks or occasional papers devoted to the local antiquities. My purpose here is to sketch the conceptualization of prehistory as it was developed through the most significant writings.

A plausible argument may be submitted in support of the contention that Thomas Jefferson was the first scientific archaeologist in the United States. Curiously enough, his archaeological influence extended to the Lower Mississippi Valley. This was through H. M. Brackenridge, who went into the Louisiana Territory soon after it was purchased and wrote a number of descriptive accounts of the country.

The Issaquena phase is conceived as an archaeological unit in the sense defined by Willey and Phillips (1958: 22). The name derives from that of the county in the State of Mississippi in which this complex has so far appeared in greatest concentration. The type component is that found in the lower levels of the Manny site (22-N-6). Other components of the phase are known from excavations at the Thornton (22-M-1), Leist (22-N-1), Mabin (21-N-4), and Jaketown (20-O-1) sites, all in the southern third of the Lower Yazoo Basin. The fundamental criteria upon which this phase is postulated are a number of ceramic types that appear as an integrated complex. There are several other cultural features associated with the phase, but these are not as well known as the ceramics.

The Yazoo Basin, or “Delta” as it is called locally, has been defined geographically and its general environmental conditions described by Phillips and others (1951: 16-17). All the sites considered here as affiliated with the Issaquena phase (Table 2) lie on the Mississippi floodplain.

Many of the postulated connections between the Issaquena phase and the preceding, contemporary, and succeeding phases in the Lower Mississippi Valley have already been mentioned in the foregoing portion of this work, but now we shall try to integrate these observations into a coherent summary. As we have seen, our present picture of the culture history of the region in question is primarily based upon inferences drawn from intensive analyses of the ceramic remains of these prehistoric people.

In the Lower Mississippi Valley there is a distinctive ceramic tradition which consists of a combination of at least three modes that are constant from the earliest known pottery of the Tchefuncte and Tchula phases down to the historic phases. These modes are found in the claytempered fabric, the coiling method of forming pots, and a tendency to embellish vessels by incision and punctation.

The Issaquena phase is postulated as a discrete culture unit identified at four sites in the southern part of the Yazoo Basin in the Lower Mississippi Valley. The primary criteria distinguishing this culture unit are a number of pottery types within a Lower Mississippi Valley ceramic tradition. The four marker types are: Manny Stamped, characterized by medium-sized open bowls with thickened rims, and decorated by zoned, dentate rocker-stamping outlined by deep U-shaped incisions on the exterior; Yokena Incised, with similar forms, but decorated by bold designs without background roughening; Troyville Stamped, again with the basic open bowls, but decorated with zoned non-dentate rocker-stamping; and Churupa Punctated, a type closely related to the other three but decorated by zones of hemiconical punctations outlined by the above-described type of incised line. These ceramic groups have prototypes in the preceding Marksville phase, apparently centered somewhat to the south in the Lower Mississippi Valley. It may be noted here that all of the pottery of the Issaquena phase has come from occupation deposits and thus may be construed as utility ware.

In this section we shall attempt to see how the Issaquena phase fits into the larger context of eastern North American prehistory. We will begin in the west, then proceed eastward along the Gulf coast to Florida. Evidence of relationships with the Tennessee Valley will then be discussed, followed by a consideration of the Ohio Valley relationships, and those of the eastern Great Lakes areas. Then the Illinois Valley materials will be cited, followed by the related finds in Wisconsin, the Missouri Valley, and Oklahoma.