Winterville site

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, the regional variation of the Mississippian culture. This civilization thrived from about 1000 to 1450 CE. The earthwork mounds, an expression of the Winterville society's religious and political system, were the site of sacred structures and ceremonies. They 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 this mound complex. The Winterville ceremonial center originally contained at least twenty-three platform mounds surrounding several large, filled and smoothed plazas. Some of the mounds located outside current park boundaries were leveled by farming and highway construction before the site became protected as Winterville State Park. The site was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1993. ==Culture, phase and chronological table==

Pottery 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 potter's wheel was unknown. They tempered the pottery 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 Winterville 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==