This study is about a Middle Mississippian (A.D. 1150-1350) burial mound site known as Oak Level Mound. Located in the back swamps of Bryan County, Georgia 2.4 km south of the Ogeechee River, the site is situated amongst Live Oak hammocks and Palmettoes. The earthen architecture and material remains found at Oak Level Mound during the fall of 2012 and winter 2013 tell a tale of ancient people whose subsistence included oysters, snail, and nuts. Their daily practices are expressed in burial mounds and utilitarian and/or status goods, such as plain, cord-marked, and complicated-stamped pottery. This study, then, seeks to understand those daily practices taking place at Oak Level Mound between A.D. 1150 and A.D 1350, both locally and regionally.

The Waltersburg sandstone produces oil from isolated sand bodies and has produced nearly eight million barrels of oil from those of the Rochester, Mounts, and Fleener Fields. From the overlying "little Menard" Limestone to the Vienna Limestone below, the Waltersburg interval is most commonly 70 feet thick, but ranges from 14 feet in the north to 116 feet in the south. Increasing interval thickness is strongly correlated with increasing sand percentage. The maximum sand accumulation occurs in elongate sand bodies up to 100 feet thick,one-fourth to one mile wide, and two to five miles long. Elongate sand bodies are commonly oriented northeast-southwest, nearly perpendicular to strike. Sheet sand bodies are less than half as thick and usually produce only from small structural highs.Structure contour maps of the Vienna and "little Msnard" Limestones show that a 16 square mile plunging anticline bearing N30E exists along with other minor folds on a regional slope dipping about 40 feet per mile into the Illinois Basin. The structure of the "little Menard" may be associated with structural features of the Vienna, with isolated thick sand bodies or both where they occur together. Structural features of the "little Menard" that are not seen on the Vienna are usually attributed to differential compaction over sand bodies. The overall similarity in folding of both limestones suggests that deformation occurred after Waltersburg deposition as a result of differential compaction over older sediments combined with regional tilting as sediments subsided into the Illinois Basin.Oil production occurs in sands 10 to 60 feet thick that are structurally high. Structural elevation is therefore more important to production than sand thickness. Since most structural traps have been exploited, the most favorable locations for potential production are where thick elongate sands thin up-dip to form stratigraphic traps. Although a few locations for possible stratigraphic traps exist within the study area, extending exploration in recommended places may lead to more promising production outside the study area.On the basis of petrography, subsurface geometry, and log signatures of the Waltersburg sandstone, the depositional environment is suggested as being a fluvial dominated delta plain facies. The various types of thick elongate sand bodies are attributed to fluvial distributary channels. The interdistributary area is represented by mostly shale and silt, with crevasse-splay sands and possible minor mouth bar/crevasse-splay couplets.

As the focus in southeastern archaeology shifts away from large scale hierarchical analyses in favor of agency based approaches, our understanding of Mississippian settlements has changed. This research is an attempt to fill the “fuzzy gap” in Mississippian archaeological literature left by decades of research premised on Neo-evolutionary models and theories. In this thesis, I present my case study on Riverfront Village, a small Mississippian “hamlet” located in the Savannah River Valley. Through an analysis of subterranean pit features, I present a new feature classification scheme open to variability, and address how variations within the practice of subterranean storage relate to social complexity.

The Elliot Oil Field lies in the northeast corner of Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Elliot Field produces from the Cypress Formation that is a sandstone reservoir.The West Baden Group is the lowermost group of the Chesterian Series of late Mississippian age in the Indiana portion of the Illinois Basin. The West Baden Group encompasses, in descending order: Cypress Formation, Reelsville Limestone, Sample Formation, Beaver Bend Limestone, and Bethel Formation.Within the study area, the West Baden Group was mapped with emphasis on the distribution of the sandstones and clarification and correlation of intervening limestone units. The West Baden has been mapped between the overlying Beech Creek Limestone and the underlying Renault Formation. Both upper and lower contacts of the West Baden appear to be sharp. The maps for this report show: structure on top and bottom of the West Baden, isopach of the West Baden, sandstone thickness and percentage in the West Baden and sandstone thickness in the Bethel, Sample and Cypress Formations.in the study area, the West Baden Group ranges from 180 to 235 feet in thickness. The irregularities in thickness of the West Baden result predominantly from variation in the percentage of sandstone. The regional dip of the West Baden beds is to the southwest at a rate of approximately 45 feet per mile. The top of the West Baden lies 1275 feet below sea level within the northeast portion of the study area.The Reelsville Limestone is absent within the study area and the Beaver Bend Limestone is only present in the northwest portion. The deposition of the Beaver Bend is most likely controlled by development of underlying sandstone of the Bethel Formation and by the amount of compaction. The presence of Beaver Bend in the northwest portion of the study area precludes the concept that only a single clastic cycle is represented during the West Baden interval.Sedimentation of the West Baden interval is dominated by the clastic dispersal system of the ancient Michigan River with a predominantly southwesterly trend. The lateral gradation of sandstone bodies into a marine section is evidence for the deltaic origin of West Baden deposits. The intervening limestone units of the West Baden interval can best be explained by the sporadic transgression and regression of a shallow epicontinental sea.Elliot Field has produced more than 640,000 barrels of oil, mostly within the last 30 years. The trapping mechanism is related to a point-bar sand with an updip permeability barrier provided by fine-grained prechannel deposits.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 19, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Daniel Wescott. Includes bibliographical references.

ABSTRACT Recent archaeological investigations indicate that coastal Fort Walton cultures in the St. Joseph Bay region of northwest Florida emphasized marine and estuarine foraging. These late prehistoric (A.D. 1000-1500) peoples collected fish, shellfish, and other aquatic resources. At the Richardson's Hammock site (8Gu10), radiocarbon-dated to about A.D. 1300, as at dozens of other shell middens around this salty bay, large gastropods were a major subsistence component. This adaptation is in sharp contrast with that of contemporaneous inland Fort Walton societies, who relied on maize agriculture. It is unknown whether coastal groups represent separate hunter-gatherer-fisher populations or seasonal migrations by inland farming villagers. This thesis research uses stable oxygen and carbon isotope analysis on lightning whelks (Busycon sinistrum) to determine the seasonality of Fort Walton foraging, and compares the environment of prehistoric St. Joseph Bay with that of the modern bay. Oxygen isotope profiles suggest that shellfish collecting was relegated primarily to the summer months, producing a scheduling conflict with the primary growing season for maize in northwest Florida. Thus, it is argued that coastal and inland Fort Walton probably represent separate culture groups. The relationship between d18Oshell and d13Cshell indicates similar environmental and climatic conditions between prehistoric St. Joseph Bay and today. However, modern whelks are depleted in d13C compared to Fort Walton whelks, which reflects both twentieth century CO2 emissions and years of dredging and wastewater pollution entering the bay.

No description available.

Results from archaeological survey provide new insights into the origins of variation among the prehistoric Native American societies that occupied the Chickasawhatchee Swamp of southwestern Georgia. Through macroregional comparison, these insights are broadly applicable to the Eastern Woodlands societies that existed across the southeastern U.S. between A.D. 150 and 1600. Theoretical frameworks concerning landscape ecology, inter-regional exchange, and agency and structure provide the organizing structure for a multi-scalar view of change that contradicts earlier models.Within the Chickasawhatchee Swamp, survey, mapping, and excavation data present a complex regional settlement system. Within the swamp, a few large settlements were occupied for the long-term, in spite of the absence of monumental architecture. Smaller surrounding sites were periodically abandoned. At the swamp's edge, several subregions were organized around civic-ceremonial mound sites. At these edges, mound sites and surrounding subregions were abandoned simultaneously. Instead of being driven by changes in political complexity, residential mobility cycles were consistent through time and related to the region's heterogeneous landscape.Macroregional spatial data comparing mound locations through time support data from the Chickasawhatchee Swamp and confirm hypotheses relating mound construction and transitional landscapes. New data emphasize continuity in inter-regional exchange networks and contradict earlier views in which the emergence of hierarchical political structures were a transformational process that fundamentally altered Eastern Woodlands political economies. Temporal continuity and spatial variation are instead most evident.

Although the Mississippian culture area has been studied for decades, the frontier of the Mississippian region is less understood. Various Mississippian frontiers appear to have been important for the obtainment of trade goods which were important symbols of chiefly power. Studying these frontiers will allow archaeologists to better understand the emergence and maintenance of power within Southeastern chiefdoms. This dissertation explores one frontier site, Carter Robinson (44LE10) in southwestern Virginia, and its role in Southern Appalachian chiefdom power through its control of trade at the border. This research identifies ceramic and non-utilitarian markers of trade and identifies changes at the frontier site over time, an accumulation of power that occurred through control of trade.

The Wheatonvilie Consolidated Oil Field lies in Onion and Barton Townships of Gibson County, Indiana. Oil is produced from a sandstone reservoir commonly referred to the "Jackson Sand". The Jackson Sandstone is here informally adopted as member rank of Big Clifty Formation. The Stephen sport Group includes the Big Clifty and is Late Mississippian (Chesterian) in age.Within the area of the field, the Big Clifty Formation has been mapped between the underlying Beech Creek Limestone and the overlying Harvey Limestone. The lower contact of the Big Clifty appears to be sharp. The upper contact of the Big Clifty intergrades with at least one thin limestone tongue of Haney which pinches out laterally into the uppermost shales of the Big Clifty.The Big Clifty Formation includes sandstone, siltstone, shale, and mudstone with minor amounts of sandy limestone. A typical sequence from top to bottom includes:dark gray shale; thin red mudstone; gray shale; limey siltstone; very fine-grained white sandstone interbedded with gray shale; well sorted, fine-grained, white sandstone; and thin black shale. The percentage of sandstone within the Big Clifty Formation varies laterally significantly.The thickness of the Big Clifty Formation ranges from 64 feet to 97 feet. The formation dips to the southwest at a rate of approximately 29 feet per mile and lies 940 feet below the surface within the northeast portion of the study area.The areas containing high concentrations of sandstone form two elongated trends. The sandstone trends strike N35°E. The axes of the trends lie approximately 1 mile apart. The sandstone bodies are approximately 3/4 of a mile across and 5 miles long. These sand bodies range in thickness from 20 feet to 64 feet.The sandstone bodies may represent tidally influenced shallow marine offshore bars. Cross laminations and very fine grained clastics indicate a low velocity aqueous environment. The elongate shape of the sands indicate bar deposits and the sandy limestones indicate a marine environment.