Winterville Site

Winterville Site 22 WS 500
Artists conception of the Winterville Site
Winterville Site 22 WS 500 Location in Mississippi today
Location
Coordinates	33°29′9″N 91°3′40″W
Country	USA
Region	Washington County, Mississippi
Nearest town	Greenville, Mississippi
History
Culture	Plaquemine Mississippian culture
Period	Winterville Phase
Abandoned	1450
Excavation and maintenance
Responsible body	State
Dates excavated	1967
Notable archaeologists	Jeffrey P. Brain
Architecture
Architectural styles	platform mounds, plazas
Number of temples	23
Winterville Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Governing body:	State
NRHP Reference#:	73001031
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	August 17, 1973
Designated NHL:	September 14, 1993

The Winterville Site (22 WS 500) is an archaeological site consisting of platform mounds and plazas that is the type site for the Winterville Phase (1200 to 1400) of the Lower Yazoo Basin region. of the Plaquemine Mississippian culture.

Winterville Mounds

Winterville Mounds, named for the nearby town of Winterville, Mississippi, is the site of a prehistoric ceremonial center built by Native Americans of the Plaquemine culture, a civilization that thrived from about 1000 to 1450. The mounds, part of the Winterville society's religious system, were the site of sacred structures and ceremonies and were built between 1200 and 1250. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Winterville people lived away from the mound center on family farms in scattered settlement districts throughout the Yazoo-Mississippi River Delta basin. Only a few of the higher-ranking tribal officials lived at the mound center.

The Winterville ceremonial center originally contained at least twenty-three platform mounds surrounding several plazas. Some of the mounds located outside the park boundaries were leveled by highway construction and farming before the site became Winterville State Park. Twelve of the site's largest mounds, including the 55 feet (17 m) high Temple Mound, are currently the focus of a long-range preservation plan being developed by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the University of Mississippi's Center for Archaeological Research.

Mound A, the largest mound at the site

Archaeological evidence indicates that the residents the Winterville Mounds may have had a civilization similar to that of the Natchez Indians, a Mississippi tribe documented by French explorers and settlers in the early 18th century. The Natchez Indians' society was divided into upper and lower ranks, with a person's social rank determined by heredity through the female line. The chief and other tribal officials inherited their positions as members of the royal family. The elaborate leadership network made mound building by a civilian labor force possible. However, there is no evidence that shows there was a large residential population at this site or other similar sites. This lack of remains would indicate that this site was mostly used for ceremonial purposes.

A great fire during the late 14th century consumed the original building on the Temple Mound at Winterville. According to archaeological evidence, the cause of the fire remains a mystery. The site continued to be used afterwards, but no more mounds were built or maintained. Although the site continued to be occupied after the fire, the general population declined at Winterville while increasing at settlements and mound sites 50 miles to the south, in the lower Yazoo River basin. By AD 1450 the Winterville Mound site appears to have been abandoned completely. The period of the sites greatest florescence was used by archaeologists as the basis for the Winterville Phase (1200 to 1400 CE) of the Lower Yazoo Basin region.

The first modern archaeological excavations at the Winterville Site were conducted by the National Park Service and Harvard University's Lower Mississippi Survey in the 1940s. Jeffrey P. Brain directed excavations at Winterville in 1967 and his report, Winterville: Late Prehistoric Culture Contact in the Lower Mississippi Valley, was published in 1989 by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Burials and structural remains were found at the site along with items such as ceramic and stone artifacts that can be seen at the Winterville Museum.

The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993.

Culture, phase and chronological table for the Winterville Site

Illustrated aerial view of the Winterville Site

Culture or cultural tradition	Phase	Dates
Mississippian	Russell	1650 CE to 1750 CE
	Wasp Lake	1500 to 1650 CE
	Lake George	1400 to 1500 CE
Plaquemine	Winterville	1200 to 1400 CE
Coles Creek	Crippen Point	1050 CE to 1200 CE
	Kings Crossing	950 CE to 1050 CE
	Aden	800 CE to 950 CE
Baytown	Bayland	600 to 800 CE
	Deasonville	400 CE to 600 CE ?
Marksville	Issaquena / Paxton	200 to 400 CE?
	Anderson Landing	0 CE to 200 CE?
Tchefuncte	Tuscola	400 to 0 CE ?
Poverty Point	McGary	900 BCE to 400 BCE ?
	Jaketown	2000 BCE to 900 BCE ?

Brain, Jeffrey P. (1989). Winterville-Late Prehistoric Culture Contact In the Lower Mississippi Valley. Mississippi Department of Archives and History. p. 93. ISBN 0-938896-58-X. 

Pottery

Main article: Mississippian culture pottery

An assortment of pottery found at the site, on display at the site museum.

The Winterville people made pottery by building up strips of clay, and then smoothing them out, much like other pottery in the Eastern American area where the potters wheel was unknown. Pottery was tempered with ground mussel shell, grit, grog, and angular bits of clay. Surface treatment ranged from carelessly polished to very finely polished. Forms for the pottery range from shallow plate like bowls to beakers and jars, with some pieces having animal effigies for handles. Surface decorations range from plain to incised S.E.C.C. designs.

Most pottery found at the Winterville Site are of the kinds known as Addis Plain var. Addis, Addis Plain var. Greenville and Addis Plain var. Holly Bluff. Some of the Mississippian culture pottery found at the Winterville site is believed to have been imported from other Mississippian societies (possibly from Cahokia or Cahokian influenced peoples). Examples of these are pieces of pottery from the Nodena Red and White var. Dumond and Walls Engraved var. Walls. These examples have distinctive red and white slips, thinner walls, and more finely finished surfaces than locally produced wares and may have been valued for their exotic qualities and fine workmanship.

See also

• Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
• List of Mississippian sites

External links

• Animation: Towns and Temples of the Mississippian Culture-5 Sites
• Winterville Mounds, at Mississippi Department of Archives and History
• National Park Service article on Winterville Site
• The 2006 excavations at Winterville Mounds (22WS500) Washington County, Mississippi
• UM Museum of Anthropology