Dissertation Research: Cypress Bayou Archaeological Survey

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Kidder Under the direction of Dr. Tristram Kidder, Mr. Douglas Wells will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological survey and excavation in the Tensas basin region located on the border between Mississippi and Louisiana. He will focus on a prehistoric cultural period termed "Coles Creek" which spans the period between ca 650 and 1200 AD. During this period agriculture began to replace hunting and gathering as a primary source of subsistence and habitation centers characterized by raised mounded structures became widespread. Mr. Wells will focus on a ca. 7.2 mile segment of nearly unfilled bayou and accompanying natural levees known as "Cypress Bayou." He will conduct a surface survey and set out four transects which will run the entire length of the survey area. Representative surface materials will be collected. On this basis, excavations will be conducted at 2-4 sites. A road grader will be used to strip overburden from entire sites and then excavation of in situ material will proceed by standard archaeological techniques. This work will provide insight into the smaller typical sites in the region. In the final stage of the fieldwork, Mr. Wells will conduct excavations at the Shackleford Lake site, a medium-sized mound center located within the Cypress Bayou project area. This site exhibits the best preserved cultural features in the immediate area and thus is most likely to yield the best information on intrasite structure, activities, subsistence and chronology. The site will be mapped, surface collected and shovel tested. On the basis of this information, selected areas will be excavated. The Southern region of the United States has provided a focus for archaeological research for almost a century. The large mounded sites which mark the final phase of the areas prehistory indicate a complex level of social organization with a high degree of centralized authority. Large areas were incorporated into single social units and the construction of large earth filled mounds attests to coordination of large numbers of individuals. Archaeologists wish to understand the process which led to this development and the Coles Creek culture is important because it stands as a direct predecessor to this climax "Mississippian" achievement. Mr. Wells has proposed several hypotheses about this developmental sequence and believes that elite control of a highly complex mortuary ritual may have allowed the concentration of power into relatively few hands. This research should allow him to test this conclusion. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and shed new light on the prehistory of the United States. It will increase understanding of how social complexity develops and contribute to the training of a promising young scientist.