Mississippian Habitation Components at Dickson Mounds in the Central Illinois River Valley. Issue 1 (February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Conner, Michael D.
• Is Part Of: Midcontinental journal of archaeology. Volume 41:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 67
• Page End: 92
• Publication Date: 2016-02
• Subjects: Mississippian -- Illinois River valley -- Dickson Mounds -- late prehistoric; Indians of North America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; United States -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; 977
• DOI: 10.1080/01461109.2015.1112160
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-1109

Abstract

Abstract : The Myer-Dickson area is a habitation component of the well-known Spoon River Mississippian mortuary site Dickson Mounds. About 20 domestic and public buildings were excavated at the site in the 1960s and 1970s, including the second-largest Mississippian building known in Illinois. Though sometimes characterized as a nucleated village, detailed analysis of material remains and their spatial distribution suggests two and possibly three periods of use during the Larson phase between A.D. 1200 and 1300. The large public building is one of several structures bordering a plaza, all of which are almost totally devoid of Mississippian artifacts. Domestic use of other sections of the site during the late Larson phase is part of a broader pattern of dispersed settlement on valley-edge ridges, a pattern that indicates at least some periods when fears of raiding were lessened despite the presence of contemporaneous palisaded towns.