Axe-heads made of a distinctive raw material are found at Mississippian sites across southern Illinois and the Ohio-Mississippi confluence region, yet little research has been done to determine their geological provenance. In this thesis, I use geochemical methods to analyze ground stone tools and debitage from across the Confluence Region in order to prove their origins in the St. Francois Mountains of Missouri. I also compare patterns of axe-head production, consumption, and deposition to Charles Cobb's (2000) model of Mill Creek chert hoes, so as to gain a greater understanding of the political economy of these objects.

This research aims to understand whether and how ritual manifests in ceramic objects dating to the Late Mississippian Period (ca. late 1200s A.D. to A.D. 1500) in southern Illinois. The study focuses on ritual phenomena that occurred at two village sites: Millstone Bluff (11Pp3) and Dillow’s Ridge (11U635). Millstone Bluff has been interpreted as a site of public ritual and unusual symbolic importance evidenced by its general location and topography, spatial organization, and distinctive rock art. Though Dillow’s Ridge was the locale for an inordinate level of lithic tool production, in other ways the site is understood to be typical of Mississippian villages for this region and time and unlikely to have accommodated large-scale public ritual activity. Through the analysis and comparison of ceramics from each site, this research seeks to identify the ceramic correlates of public ritual activity for this region and time. Statistical results suggest very little differentiation between the ceramic assemblages, suggesting the ritual activities that took place at either site may not have been substantially different from one another. Alternatively, the lack of differentiation may indicate ceramics do not play an active role in large-scale public ritual activity in this context.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The late pre-Columbian period in the central Illinois River valley (CIRV) is demarcated by the development of large, often-fortified Mississippian towns, farming hamlets, extensive trade networks, and shifting political alliances between AD 1050 and 1450. The fission and fusion of local polities ceased with abrupt abandonment of the CIRV by AD 1450 as part of the larger Vacant Quarter phenomenon. Located on a hypothesized boundary between Mississippian and Oneota zones of socio-political influence during the 14th century, Star Bridge (11Br17) was a Mississippian village previously believed to have been incinerated during an assault. Through the analysis of an avocational surface collection, a 1992 excavation assemblage, and recent geophysical investigations, my research re-examines Star Bridge and assesses the site’s integrity after decades of agricultural modification. Geophysical data and the material culture from excavations suggest Star Bridge never burned but was abandoned after one or two generations of occupation shortly before the exodus of Mississippian and Oneota groups from the CIRV. Meanwhile, my analyses also revealed a dearth of Oneota-derived or influenced material culture, indicating a dearth of interaction between Star Bridge’s inhabitants and their neighbors upstream. Instead, the material culture suggests Star Bridge was part of a string of late 13th and 14th century villages known as the La Moine River polity.

The cultural significance of effigy pipes among southeastern groups during the Mississippian period (A.D. 1000-1600) has yet to be fully understood. Recent studies, however, have provided new archaeological contexts for framing explanations of their possible use and distribution among such groups. Apart from conjectures about their use as ceremonial objects, selection for effigy pipes in the Mississippian Southeast was directly related to fluctuating environmental and demographic conditions under which such objects were manufactured and distributed. These conditions provided the appropriate context for their emergence as costly signaling devices through which elite or special interest groups advertised fitness levels, typically expressed in displays of power and prestige. As signaling devices, effigy pipes attained their widest distribution in the Southeast during a time of environmental and demographic stability. Their decline was primarily the result of increasing climatic instability and widespread demographic upheaval--events that precipitated major disruptions in commercial and economic relations.

Fragments of a charred wooden bowl were recovered from Aztalan during excavations by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (SHSW) in 1964. Recent advances in analytical methods facilitated a multidimensional study of these fragments. Radiocarbon-dated to cal AD 994–1154 and found in association with Late Woodland, Mississippian, and hybrid forms of ceramics, the bowl augments our understanding of perishable technologies in these cultural contexts. 3-D models of the fragments allow for a virtual reconstruction of a portion of the bowl, which was carved from a solid piece of ash. Strontium isotope analysis of the wood indicates that the bowl was manufactured from wood locally available to the people at Aztalan.

The Upper Mississippian Hinton, Princeton, and Bluestone formations of southern West Virginia constitute a wedge of strata that filled the Appalachian basin over a ~7 million year time interval. Seventeen transgressive-regressive sequences comprise the study interval in the basin depocenter. Five sequence types defined by the degree of incision and the thickness/ character of dominant facies include: 1) major incised valley-fill to coastal plain, 2) major incised valley-fill to deltaic, 3) minor incised valley-fill, 4) coastal plain, and 5) marine-dominated sequences. Transgressive and highstand deposits within several sequences contain tidal rhythmites. The prodeltaic Pride Shale member (Bluestone Formation) preserves a hierarchy of submillimeter-to meter-scale cycles that reflect a spectrum of tidal periodicities. The abbreviated character of these microlaminated rhythmites is suggestive of a distal, subtidal setting wherein neap tides were of insufficient strength to transport sand/ silt. Decimeter-scale bundling of semimonthly cycles is ascribed to seasonal fluvial discharge. Meter-scale, multi-year cycles may reflect the 18.6-year lunar nodal cycle. Sequence development likely reflects fourth-order (~400 k.y.), Gondwanan glacioeustatic cycles. The character and relative stratigraphic position of paleoclimatic indicators within the sequences suggests a link between eustasy and patterns of global-scale atmospheric circulation. Calcic vertisols and lacustrine carbonates in coastal plain successions are suggestive of seasonal, semiarid climatic conditions during highstand progradation. Leached paleosols and coals that underlie sequence boundaries and occur within estuarine fills are suggestive of humid conditions during late highstand through early transgression. This pattern may reflect fluctuations in monsoonal circulation whereby the latitudinal shift of seasonal moisture was restricted to the equatorial zone during glaciations. The fourth-order sequences stack into two (2-4 Ma) composite sequences that consist of: 1) a basal retrogradational interval comprised of a major paleovalley-fill sequence overlain by a thick aggradational sequence set made up of fluvial/ coastal plain sequences (TST); 2) a marine interval that demarcates maximum flooding; and 3)(where preserved) a progradational sequence set consisting of minor incised valley-fill sequences (HST). These composite sequences document accommodation change that may reflect global tectono-eustasy. / Ph. D.

Late prehistoric to Protohistoric (ca. A.D. 1200 – 1700) agricultural settlement in the Black Prairie uplands of Mississippi may have been enabled by “seep springs,” water features fed by groundwater discharge in certain geological settings. Ceramic seriation and GIS analysis of archaeological site location shows that over time, sites clustered around areas most likely to have supported springs, a finding supported by the presence of specimens of a moist-ground snail genus at a number of sites. These data indicate that Native settlement in the Oktibbeha County area was influenced by the presence of seep springs.

The timing of Mississippian-period occupations in the North Central Hills physiographic region of Mississippi has been debated. Some researchers believe they occurred in conjunction with Late Woodland period occupations during the Early Mississippian period, while others assert they were later, in either the Late Mississippian or early Protohistoric periods. A program of systematic shovel testing, excavation and frequency seriation was used to delineate Mississippian-period occupations and test the cultural lineage between them and Late Woodland period occupations at nine sites on the Ackerman Unit of the Tombigbee National Forest.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew W. Totten / Ness County has contributed 30 billion barrels to Kansas oil production since 1995, and has been an actively developing county in oil activity. The focus of this research project is to identify the reservoir qualities that make Mississippian-aged production favorable. Modern day logging techniques and seismic data allow specialists to seek out subtle heterogeneities to an oil producing formation once thought to be homogenous. Having success with horizontal drilling in other locations worldwide, large oil companies have acquired tens of thousands of acres with the intentions of drilling into the Mississippian, although some have recently backed out of the area. While some horizontal wells are producing today, complications with the compartmentalized, relatively thin Mississippian producing zones and short production longevities make horizontal drilling a high risk technique. Better understanding favorable reservoir qualities are essential for future production and development of oil fields in Ness County. This case study utilizes different variations of post and pre-stack 3D and 2D seismic data shot on about 3,200 acres spanning over 8 sections located in northwestern Ness County. The physical and chemical properties associated with the Mississippian formation in this area can be better analyzed with different methods for processing seismic data. Raw seismic signatures show little variation within the Mississippi Lime/Dolomite. Utilizing Seismic attributes derived from raw data may bring certain featured hydrocarbon bearing zones into view. Attributes such as curvature and coherency aid in interpreting physical features within the study area while spectral decomposition, amplitude, instantaneous frequency, and instantaneous Q hold detailed signatures dependent upon rock properties.

No description available.