Mississippian Community Organization

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

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2. The Powers Phase: An Introduction

   • Michael J. O’Brien

   Pages 1-18

3. The General Physical and Cultural Environment

   • Michael J. O’Brien

   Pages 19-53

4. The Physical-Environmental Context of Powers Phase Settlements

   • James J. Krakker

   Pages 55-76

5. Powers Phase Settlement in the Western Lowlands

   • Michael J. O’Brien, James J. Krakker

   Pages 77-97

6. Community Organization and Dates of Occupation

   • Michael J. O’Brien, Timothy K. Perttula

   Pages 99-140

7. The Construction and Abandonment of Powers Phase Structures

   • Michael J. O’Brien, James W. Cogswell

   Pages 141-180

8. The Artifactual Content of Selected House Floors at Turner and Snodgrass

   • James W. Cogswell, Michael J. O’Brien, Daniel S. Glover

   Pages 181-229

9. Stone Artifacts from Turner and Snodgrass

   • J. Eric Gilliland, Michael J. O’Brien

   Pages 231-264

10. Pottery from Turner and Snodgrass

    • James W. Cogswell, Michael J. O’Brien

    Pages 265-292

11. Concluding Remarks

    • Michael J. O’Brien

    Pages 293-300

12. Back Matter

    Pages 301-327

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The Powers Phase Project was a multiyear archaeological program undertaken in southeastern Missouri by the University of Michigan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The project focused on the occupation of a large Pleistocene-age terrace in the Little Black River Lowland—a large expanse of lowlying land just east of the Ozark Highland—between roughly A. D. 1250 and A. D. 1400. The largest site in the region is Powers Fort—a palisaded mound center that - ceived archaeological attention as early as the late nineteenth century. Archa- logical surveys conducted south of Powers Fort in the 1960s revealed the pr- ence of numerous smaller sites of varying size that contained artifact assemblages similar to those from the larger center. Collectively the settlement aggregation became known as the Powers phase. Test excavations indicated that at least some of the smaller sites contained burned structures and that the burning had sealed household items on the floors below the collapsed architectural e- ments. Thus there appeared to be an opportunity to examine a late prehistoric settlement system to a degree not possible previously. Not only could the s- tial relation of communities in the system be ascertained, but the fact that str- tures within the communities had burned appeared to provide a unique opp- tunity to examine such things as differences in household items between and among structures and where various activities had occurred within a house. With these ideas in mind, James B. Griffin and James E.

• Mississippi River Valley
• Turner and Snodgrass sites
• americanist archaeology
• artifacts
• community organization
• prehistory

• University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia

  Michael J. O’Brien

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