Latter Mississippian Presence

Latter Mississippian Presence. Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park. Early archaeological excavations at Pinson Mounds uncovered evidence that the site had a minor reoccupation at least 1000 years after the Woodland Tradition builders abandoned the site., While archaeologists have since found no evidence that Mississippian peoples contributed to the construction of any of the mounds at the site, the entire site was mistakenly thought of as Mississippian period in origin for a considerable period of time. Pinson Mounds missed out on much of the renown that it would have deserved if the true age of the mounds had been known at that time. Nearby Mound 14 was Woodland as well., Captions , Upper Left: The Pinson Mounds Site , Middle Left: The latter Mississippian period wall-trench house construction began with a trench dug in the rectangular shape of the house. Upright poles were planted in this trench. , Lower Left: A wall-trench house of the Hatter Mississippian Tradition was found at this location. It was built close to 1000 year after Pinson Mounds' Middle Woodland origins. , Left Center: A Mississippian Farmstead , Middle Right: Left-Wall-trench house patterns were used in the Mississippian Tradition after the Woodland mound building period at Pinson. Archaeology is able to discover their rectangular patterns left in the ground. , Lower Right: The Woodland houses of the Pinson Mounds era leave circular post mold patterns. The change to rectangular tended to happen world-wide with the shift to intensive agriculture.