One of the main ways Mississippian societies differed from earlier societies in eastern North America was in their much heavier reliance on maize agriculture for subsistence. There had been agriculture, and even maize, before in the east, but the Mississippians farmed much more intensively and used maize in particular much more heavily than people had before. The high productivity of maize agriculture presumably led to the increased population and more elaborate societies characteristic of the Mississippians, and also would have provided a dependable basis for the incipient urbanism seen in the biggest Mississippian centers like Cahokia. While maize had been introduced (ultimately from Mesoamerica and probably via the Southwest, although the details remain murky) to parts of the Eastern Woodlands hundreds of years before the rise of Mississippian societies after AD 900, it was only with the so-called “Mississippian Emergence” that it became a staple crop. The amount of maize typically found at archaeological sites in the east skyrockets after the Emergence, and intensive use of this crop seems to be a fundamental characteristic of the Mississippian lifeway.
Most of this has been known for a long time, based on the amount of maize found in Mississippian sites, but actually identifying and studying the fields where maize and other crops were grown had to wait until the incorporation of aerial photography into Midwestern archaeology in the 1960s. An important early contribution to knowledge of these issues is a paper published by Melvin Fowler in 1969. Fowler reports on work done by Southern Illinois University over the preceding few years at Mississippian sites in that incorporated aerial photography. He focuses on two sites specifically: the Lunsford-Pulcher site, a secondary mound center about 7 miles south of Cahokia, and the Texas site, a smaller farmstead on the Kaskaskia River about 50 miles east of Cahokia.
In both cases, aerial photography indicated the presence of parallel ridges that were not obvious on the ground in the proximity of the main architectural components of the sites. Surface collection of artifacts indicated a particular association between these ridges and fragments of the flaked-stone hoes that are very common at Mississippian sites, strengthening the hypothesis that the ridges indicated fields. Excavation further confirmed the hypothesis, revealing that the ridges consisted of dark topsoil piled up and revealing the lighter subsoil between the ridges. The narrowness of the ridges further indicated that they were definitely prehistoric and not the result of historic plowing. Fowler also refers to evidence from excavations in the 1930s at Ocmulgee National Monument, a major Mississippian center in Georgia, that revealed very similar ridges beneath at least one mound. This indicates that rather than an idiosyncratic practice in southern Illinois these ridges were a widespread Mississippian trait, apparently connected to hoe agriculture. He also refers to historical accounts from the nineteenth century indicating that similar ridged fields covered vast areas of Wisconsin and Michigan before white settlement.
The exact reason for the ridges was unclear to Fowler, and he offered just a few tentative ideas. It could have been a development stemming from the adoption of hoes, which would have been more effective than the digging sticks used previously and may have made it easier to pile up good soil for planting. The linear ridges of Mississippian agriculture may have been more efficient than the small hills used previously and associated with the use of the digging stick rather than the hoe. They may also have contributed to a more effective distribution of water to the plants; irrigation would not have been necessary in this wet climate, but a more efficient use of the copious rainfall may have been beneficial. It is also possible that the ridging allowed the use of low-lying land along rivers that would otherwise have been too swampy for planting. The two Illinois sites are certainly in locations where this would likely have been a factor, although Fowler notes that this is not the case for all the other reported areas with ridged fields.
Overall, this is an interesting study pointing out the advantages of aerial photography for identifying subtle archaeological features that may not be apparent on the ground. I am reminded especially of the Chaco road system, which was similarly identified via aerial photography a few years later. Also, and this has nothing to do with this particular article, I was interested to see the following notice in a box at the end of the last page:
NOTICE TO AUTHORS
A formal review procedure for all papers submitted to American Antiquity is being initiated. Papers will be evaluated by two referees; authors will receive copies of referee comments (unidentified as to source). Beginning immediately, THREE COPIES of all articles and submissions to Facts and Comments must be submitted. Contributions will not be considered for publication unless submitted in triplicate. Address inquiries to the editor-elect, EDWIN N. WILMSEN, Museum of Anthropology, Universitv of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104.
Peer review was slow to catch on in archaeology, it seems.
Fowler, M. (1969). Middle Mississippian Agricultural Fields American Antiquity, 34 (4) DOI: 10.2307/277733
Very interesting. Raised fields are found in several locations of Meso and South America. While at local level many reasons can be found for their construction, such as improved fertility, irrigation desalinization of soil, these reasons are often no applicable to fields in other sites. I am now persuaded that the only characteristic shared by all the raised fields in the Americas is their ability to improve the drainage. Drainage is fundamental for both Maize and Manioc, which are the most important pre-Columbian crops. If you want to see some very nice raised fields go to 232492 E 8536320 S with GoogleEarth. It is northern Bolivia, really fascinating.
Has anyone checked the alignment of the raised rows and the prevailing wind direction? Maze is dependent on wind pollination.
The usual good stuff. As a further aside to your peer review appendage, I noticed the name Ed Wilmsen, a very interesting figure in anthropology. His book, Land Filled with Flies: A Political Economy of the Kalahari, stoked a massive controversy over South African Bushmen and their status as hunter-gatherers or foragers. It’s a book I think you would enjoy and find quite useful in thinking about the all the issues which this blog addresses.
Umberto: Interesting. The drainage explanation would definitely make sense for the Illinois sites, which are in low-lying, swampy floodplains where drainage would have been a major issue.
Clair: Fowler certainly didn’t, but looking at his maps it appears that they are generally aligned roughly north-south, with a few at more oblique angles. A cursory check of the NRCS wind data indicates that the prevailing summer winds in this area are from the south. Thanks for pointing this out; I had noticed the clear north-south alignments when reading the article, but I hadn’t been able to think of any possible explanation for them.
Cris: Thanks. I thought the name Wilmsen sounded familiar. I had seen references to that book when looking through some of the African history journals in JSTOR, and it sounds really interesting. (The JSTOR package that the Department of the Interior subscribes to has a lot of African history journals for some reason.)
Rereading your entries on Anasazi turkeys, made me wonder about that “eastern origin” DNA…Mississippian?
The turkeys do indeed look especially interesting in this context, but the earliest appearances of the “eastern” DNA in Southwestern specimens appear to be too early for Mississippian proper. They possibly date as early as Basketmaker II, although the evidence on this point in the original turkey paper is pretty weak. There’s definitely solid evidence that they were there by Pueblo I.
In any case, I suspect that whatever eastern connections the turkeys represent (and I’m still not sure what they might be) reflect an earlier time period than the Chaco/Cahokia era. There’s some other evidence for at least some indirect contact between the Southwest and Southeast during and after that era that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention in the literature, though. More on that later.
gave me no information. i had to do a scocal studies project now i have an F
My wife Wendy and I have been doing Indian horticulture for years. I started with the Hidatsa model of Buffalo Bird Woman (1839-1932) and evolved as I and we came to better understand what is going on in a garden (you can find our editorially mangled paper in the February 205 Plains Anthropologist). Because ridges on the many sites where they have now been identified are aligned in different directions we are sure that drainage had nothing to do with the process. Fowler’s work at Pulcher suggests to my wife that what the gardeners were doing was “heaping up” the better soil of a thin A Horizon (note the less desirable soil between the ridges). This makes a great deal of sense to me, and one finds the same arrangement in the vicinity of LaCrosse WI at the Sand Prairie complex where many ridges were excavated on the Mississippi floodplain (Oneota). A further consideration (which I described in detail in a paper rejected by American Antiquity back in 1991 when they required 5 referees, and one really disagreed with me) is that Northern Flint/Flour requires hilling, and the ridging can be used to achieve that. Many summer storms have taught us that hilling is required to keep those bushy maize plants upright. If they are tipped over then hilling makes it “easier” to tip them back upright. We have done this as often as three times in one summer. Maize is not planted in a hill but hilled when it is about 45 cm tall (just showing its first tassels. Furthermore the maize plants grow adventitious roots (prop roots) into the hilled or ridged soil and that further stabilizes the tip prone plants.
Interesting stuff, Mike; thanks for stopping by and sharing your perspective.
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soup
did a social studies project now im flunking
dear anonymous ,i’m in 5th grade and need to find info on Mississippian agricultural practices and i’m worried i’m gonna flunk and if I do my mom is going to take fun books away from me then all I will have for reading are text books! is there a better website somewhere????? I really need help!
LOOL
I just don’t get this; it stinks
I flunked also
Uh balloon
Hi
i hate my teacher for making me do a project on this
Thanks I love the pictures
Lol