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The Wickliffe Mounds Project: Implications for Late Mississippi Period Chronology, Settlement, and Mortuary Patterns in Western Kentucky

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Kit W. Wesler
Kit W. Wesler
Affiliation:
Wickliffe Mounds Research Center, Murray State University, PO Box 155, Wickliffe, Kentucky 42087, USA
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Abstract

The Wickliffe Mounds site is a Mississippian town and mound centre dated to c. AD 1100–1350. Excavations at Wickliffe Mounds from 1984–1996 have re-evaluated a 1932–1939 semi-professional project and have provided additional data over much of the remaining area of the site. The site was established c. AD 1100 as a small village clustered tightly around a central plaza. From AD 1175 to c. 1350 the Wickliffe people built two platform mounds next to the plaza plus several smaller mounds around the site, and expanded the village area to the edges of the bluff. The village was abandoned c. AD 1350, but a cemetery appears to be intrusive, indicating the presence of a population in the area with ties to the site. A scenario of a single chiefly cycle, followed by dispersal of the population with continued use of the site as an ‘empty’ ceremonial centre, best fits current data.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 63 , 1997 , pp. 261 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1997

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References

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