Bottle Creek : A Pensacola Culture Site in South Alabama

The first comprehensive study and analysis of the most important Mississippian mound site on the north-central Gulf coast Consisting of 18 earthen mounds and numerous additional habitation areas dating to A.D. 1250-1550, the Bottle Creek site was first professionally investigated in 1932 when David L. DeJarnette of the Alabama Museum of Natural History began work there to determine if the site had a cultural relationship with Moundville, connected to the north by a river system. Although partially mapped in the 1880s, Bottle Creek's location in the vast Mobile-Tensaw Delta of Baldwin County completely surrounded by swamp made it inaccessible and protected it from most of the plunder experienced by similar sites in the Southeast. This volume builds on earlier investigations to present extensive recent data from major excavations conducted from 1991 to 1994 and supported in part by an NEH grant. Ten anthropologists examine various aspects of the site, including mound architecture, prehistoric diet, pottery classification, vessel forms, textiles used to make pottery impressions, a microlithic stone tool industry, water travel, the persistence of mound use into historic times, and the position of Bottle Creek in the protohistoric world. The site is concluded to be the best remaining example of Pensacola culture, an archaeological variant of the widespread Mississippian tradition identified by a shell-tempered pottery complex and by its geographic association with the north-central coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Occupied for three centuries by a thriving native culture, Bottle Creek is an important remnant of North American peoples and as such is designated a National Historic Landmark. This published compilation of the research data should establish a base for future scholarly investigation and interpretation. A Dan Josselyn Memorial Publication Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 10 List of Tables......Page 16 Foreword......Page 18 Preface......Page 26 Acknowledgments......Page 28 1. Introduction to the Bottle Creek Site......Page 34 2. Out of the Moundville Shadow: The Origin and Evolution of Pensacola Culture......Page 60 3. A Proposed Construction Sequence of the Mound B Terrace at Bottle Creek......Page 96 4. Historic Aboriginal Reuse of a Mississippian Mound, Mound L at Bottle Creek......Page 117 5. Food Plant Remains from Excavations in Mounds A, B, C, D, and L at Bottle Creek......Page 136 6. The Use of Plants in Mound-Related Activities at Bottle Creek and Moundville......Page 147 7. Zooarchaeological Remains from Bottle Creek......Page 163 8. A Functional Comparison of Pottery Vessel Shapes from Bottle Creek......Page 189 9. The Bottle Creek Microlithic Industry......Page 201 10. Matting and Pliable Fabrics from Bottle Creek......Page 213 11. Water Travel and Mississippian Settlement at Bottle Creek......Page 227 12. Concluding Thoughts on Bottle Creek and Its Position in the Mississippian World......Page 238 A. Archaeological Phases Represented at the Bottle Creek Site......Page 260 B. Radiocarbon Dates Secured at the Bottle Creek Site......Page 264 References Cited......Page 266 Contributors......Page 294 Index......Page 298 This is the first comprehensive study and analysis of the most important Mississippian mound site on the north-central Gulf coast. Consisting of 18 earthen mounds and numerous additional habitation areas dating to A.D. 1250-1550, the Bottle Creek site was first professionally investigated in 1932 when David L. DeJarnette of the Alabama Museum of Natural History began work there to determine if the site had a cultural relationship with Moundville, connected to the north by a river system. Although partially mapped in the 1880s, Bottle Creek's location in the vast Mobile-Tensaw Delta of Baldwin ..