The Mann Site & the Leake Site: Linking the Midwest and the Southeast During the Middle Woodland...

8/6/2019 The Mann Site & the Leake Site: Linking the Midwest and the Southeast During the Middle Woodland Period

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T HE M ANN SITE AND THE L EAKE SITE :L INKING THE M IDWEST AND THE SOUTHEAST

DURING THE M IDDLE W OODLAND P ERIOD

Scot KeithNew South Associates


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[TITLE SLIDE]

Numerous archaeologists have noted the similarity of the complicated stamped

ceramics at the Mann site with the Swift Creek type found in the Southeast (e.g., Black

1940; Adams 1949; McMichael 1960; Kellar 1979; Rein 1974; Ruby et al. 1993; Ruby

and Shriner 2000, 2005; Smith 1979). The presence at Mann of these and sand/grit

tempered fine line simple stamped wares that resemble Southeastern ceramic types has

long been recognized for its potential to provide information regarding Hopewellian

interregional interaction between the Midwest and the Southeast (e.g., Black 1940;

Adams 1949; Martin 1954; Kellar 1979; Smith 1979). Since the Mann site probably

needs little introduction here, and in the interest of time, I will limit myself to say that

Mann was a large Middle Woodland Hopewellian center, located along the Ohio River

approximately 100 miles southwest of here as the crow flies. In a prescient statement

from 1998 regarding interaction between Swift Creek communities and the Midwest,

David Anderson (1998:280) stated that Mann might have been a gateway community or

way station linking the Midwest with the Southeast. [SLIDE]


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Mainfort et al. 1997). Simple stamped pottery, generally typed in the

Georgia/Florida/Alabama area as Cartersville in the Piedmont and Deptford in the

Coastal Plain, is a close associate of Swift Creek wares. [SLIDE]

In her 1974 thesis documenting the complicated stamped wares at Mann, Judith

Rein wrote that the resemblances between Early Swift Creek and Mann styles certainly

outweigh the differences, which primarily appear to be ones of stylistic degree (Rein

1974:69). Rein (1974) found three complicated stamp designs on Mann sherds that

closely resemble examples from Southeastern Swift Creek sites, although she

documented slight differences in each of these possible matches; she also noted numerous

sherds displaying the rectilinear Crooked River and St. Andrews Swift Creek designs

(Willey 1949:383-386) common at Coastal Plain sites.

More recently, Bret Ruby and Christine Shriner (2000, 2005; Ruby et al. 1993)

conducted compositional analyses of complicated stamped and simple stamped sherds

from Mann in an attempt to determine their origin. The results indicated that the

complicated stamped and bold simple stamped sherds were made with local clays, while


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groups; however, this is considered unlikely due to the great transport costs involved.

Another scenario is that Southeastern simple stamped pottery was ideologically valuable,

so that individuals striving for leadership and social prestige would have brought back

such pottery from journeys as proof of their exploits and acquired knowledge (see Helms

1988; Seeman 1995). A third model involves pilgrimages by Southeasterners to visit

Mann and other Midwestern mound centers (Ruby and Shriner 2005:570). Pilgrims

would have been lured to these distant places due to tales of such great and powerful

monumental places, and simple stamped vessels may have been brought along for

support purposes, and/or for intentional gifting to people at Midwestern sites. A fourth

possibility is that these wares were exchanged among the leaders of Mann and

Southeastern peer polities, but Ruby and Shriner (2005:570) discount this scenario based

on the lack of Middle Woodland central leadership.

In interpreting the locally-made Swift Creek pottery, Ruby and Shriner

(2005:570-571) discuss several other models of interaction. One is based on Penneys

(1989) suggestion that the widespread distribution of Hopewellian items may be evidence


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through direct procurement or exchange (Ruby and Shriner 2005:571). Evidence against

this scenario includes the lack of exact design matches to Southeastern pottery,

suggesting that the paddles were carved locally; Stoltman and Snows (1998)

petrographic study of Southeastern Swift Creek wares indicating that paddles and potters

did not move independently; and the lack of data supporting exchange among leaders of

regional peer polities (Ruby and Shriner 2005:571). Finally, one scenario that may

account for the locally made Swift Creek vessels at Mann is that Southeastern Swift

Creek potters produced them while visiting or living at the site (Ruby and Shriner

2005:571). Under this ritual visitors scenario, the Mann site was host to foreign visitors

that were likely participants in the ritual activities. These interactions may also have led

to long-term relationships such as marriage and adoption. The frequency of the Swift

Creek pottery at Mann is based on the assumption that the foreigners were responsible for

its production rather than Mann locals who tried to imitate it. At Pinson, Mainfort et al.

(1997) argue that the presence of foreign artifacts made using local materials is due to a

similar situation, with foreign visitors producing these items with local materials. Ruby


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Complicated Stamped and Cartersville Simple Stamped are the predominant pottery

types, while non-local ceramic types reveal the presence of peoples from the Gulf and

Atlantic coasts, the Lower Mississippi Valley, the Midsouth, and the Midwest. [SLIDE]

Similar to the Mann site, the midden contains utilitarian and ceremonial items, including

FCR, points and debitage of local chert; cut mica; copper; galena; ceramic human and

animal figurines; prismatic blades of Ohio Flint Ridge chert, local chert, and clear/crystal

quartz; modified quartz crystals and clear/crystal quartz debitage; graphite; hematite;

greenstone; and phyllite. Communal feasting deposits are present, and much of the

ceremonial materials are in the form of debris that remains from the production of

specialized items by participants in Hopewellian systems. [SLIDE]

Additionally, there are three sites approximately one-half mile to the north of

Leake on Ladd Mountain that I contend were constructed and used by Middle Woodland

peoples associated with the Leake site; collectively, I refer to this as the Leake complex.

These sites include a large cavern [Ladd Cave (9BR194)] which contained human

remains (Anonymous 1885a, 1885b, 1915; Sneed 1998, 2007); a stone wall enclosure


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The dense Swift Creek component and the Hopewellian connections exhibited at

Leake, the considerable frequencies of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped and sand/grit

tempered simple stamped pottery at the Mann site, and the geographic situation of Leake

at the edge of the Swift Creek area near a travel corridor leading to Mann and the

Midwest Hopewell area all suggested to us that we should take a look at the Mann site

collections. Thus, we came here to Indiana, with the generous support of Chris Peebles

and the Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology, where we went through the two primary

collections from the Mann site, the private collection of Charles Lacer in Evansville

(which is now owned by the Indiana State Museum) and the collection housed here at the

Lab. [SLIDE]

While we had some idea of what to expect, we were quite surprised by the sheer

amount of Swift Creek and simple stamped pottery in the Mann collections. Regarding

the Swift Creek wares, we noted that an early Swift Creek pottery rim trait - deep and

closely spaced rounded notches - is very common at Mann; this occurs at Leake as well

as other Southeastern Swift Creek sites. In terms of the designs, there are obvious and


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would not be able to distinguish these from the Cartersville Simple Stamped pottery

found at Leake if they were mixed together.

A few differences between the Swift Creek assemblages of Leake and Mann are

worth noting. One, the barred elements so common at Leake are relatively rare at Mann.

Two, we noted numerous examples of the zigzagged Crooked River design at Mann (also

noted by Rein (1974)), which is common in the Gulf Coast and southwestern Georgia

region, and conversely absent at Leake. Also, it recently occurred to me that the

intentional smoothing over and obscuring of designs that may occur at Leake and other

Southeastern sites is generally absent at Mann; rather, designs are quite clearly and

carefully stamped (see Wallis 2009 for discussion of stamp legibility). [SLIDE]

Several other artifacts and materials may provide additional evidence of the

interaction between the two sites. The rare diamond-dot pottery type found at Mann and a

handful of other Hopewellian sites in the Southeast and Midwest [Seip, Harness, and

Rockhold in Ohio (Prufer 1968); Bird Hammock (8Wa30) in Florida (Penton 1970;

Miners Creek (9Da91) (Chase 1994, 1998; Crawford 1977), Mandeville (Smith


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one point of this material was identified at Leake. TQ outcrops along the Gulf Coastal

Plain, primarily in Florida and Alabama, yet it also occurs just west-southwest of

contemporaneous Kolomoki Mounds, where it is found in minor frequencies (Pluckhahn

2003). Recently, upon processing the Lacer collection, Michele Greenan, Indiana State

Museum Curator, informed me that there is quite a bit of TQ in the collection. [SLIDE]

Shortly after return to Georgia from our Mann research trip, I was selecting sherds

for petrographic analysis to be conducted by Jim Stoltman when I came across a

complicated stamped notched rim sherd. Upon inspection, I immediately had a very

strong feeling that it originated at the Mann site, based upon the paste and the rim form. I

included it in the collection for Stoltman to examine, and with the aid of Mann samples

generously provided by Ruby and Shriner, he found the paste composition to be identical

to the Mann Swift Creek wares (Stoltman 2007). Additionally, a small rocker stamped

rim sherd from Leake has a similar petrographic signature, indicating it too was produced

in the Mann area. Stoltman also found that the paste and the decoration of Cartersville

Simple Stamped wares from Leake are very similar to those from Mann, as well to


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simple stamped wares at Mann represent the material culture of the same group or groups

of people, groups that had close connections with the Leake site.

As Ruby and Shriner (2005) argue, multiple modes of interaction at variable

scales and directions account for the Mann ceramic assemblage. In the interest of time, I

must necessarily generalize, to the detriment of a detailed historical reconstruction of the

events and processes that account for the archaeological record of which I speak.

[SLIDE] Nevertheless, at the heart of the issue is the meaning of Swift Creek pottery

designs. Along the lines of Pauketats (2007) recent arguments regarding identity and

community, I believe that Swift Creek designs were outwards expressions of the

owners/producers religious identity (cf. Snow 1998; Espenshade 2008), that they

denoted affiliation with a religious cult centered in modern-day Georgia and the Gulf and

Atlantic coastal area that archaeologists have labeled as the Swift Creek culture. This cult

operated at several scales, including local, regional, and interregional levels (see

Williams and Elliott 1998). Swift Creek producers were members of traditional lineage

and clan-based communities throughout Georgia and portions of surrounding states; at


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religious ceremonies and expressions, including purification and renewal, feasting,

dancing and singing, and the creation of monuments and sacred space. It is evident that

both Leake and Mann were relatively open and cooperative communities (cf. Carr and

Case 2005:42), at which non-locals were welcome, perhaps even especially so.

Obviously, there are many details of the relationship between Mann and Leake that need

addressing, but with these new data, Andersons (1998) supposition regarding Mann as a

gateway community can be extended, in that both sites appear to have operated as

geographical and cultural gateways into their respective regions and the area in between.

Perhaps Mann and Leake could even be considered sister cities in the sense that they also

functioned as gateways to each other, with a back and forth of people, materials, and

ideas.


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References Cited

Adams, William R.1949 Archaeological Notes on Posey County, Indiana . Indiana Historical Bureau,Indianapolis.

Anderson, David G.1998 Swift Creek in a Regional Perspective. A World Engraved: Archaeology of theSwift Creek Culture , edited by M.W. Williams and D.T. Elliott, pp. 274-300.University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Anonymous1885a Accession Card No. 16227. United States National Museum. July 8.

1885b Accession Card No. 16678. United States National Museum. October 17.

1915 Report on Ladd Quarries. Submitted to S.W. McCallie, State Geologist,Atlanta, Georgia.

Black, Glenn A.1940 Cultural Complexities of Southwestern Indiana. Proceedings of the

Indiana Academy of Science 50:33-35.

Butler, Brian M.1979 Hopewell Contacts in Southern Middle Tennessee. Hopewell

Archaeology: The Chillicothe Conference , edited by D.S. Brose and N. Greber, pp.150-156. Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio.

Cable, John S., and Leslie E. Raymer


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Chase, David W.1994 Miners Creek Archaeological Site Final Report . Submitted to DeKalb County

Parks and Recreation Department, Decatur, Georgia.

1998 Swift Creek: Lineage and Diffusion . A World Engraved: Archaeology of theSwift Creek Culture , edited by Mark Williams and Daniel T. Elliott, pp. 48-60.University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Crawford, Peggy L.1977 The Miners Creek Site (9Da91); A Preliminary Ceramic Analysis. Laboratory of

Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, Georgia State University, Atlanta.

Espenshade, Christopher T.2008 Woodland Period Archaeology of Northern Georgia: Update 2008.Prepared for the Georgia Department of Transportation, Atlanta by New SouthAssociates, Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Espenshade, Christopher T., Linda Kennedy, William F. Stanyard, and David S. Leigh1998 The Prehistoric Occupation of the Shoal Creek Reservoir Basin: Data Recovery

Investigations at 9HY95, 9HY98, and 9HY104 in Henry County, Georgia . TRCCultural Resource Group, Atlanta, Georgia. Prepared for Clayton County Water Authority, Morrow, Georgia.

Greber, Nomi2006 Personal communication.

Helms, Mary1988 Ulysses Sail: An Ethnographic Odyssey of Power, Knowledge, and Geographic

Distance . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.


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Kelly, Arthur R.

1950 News and Notes. Early Georgia 1(1):43-45.

1951 Limestone Caves in Bartow County, Georgia. Manuscript #284, on file at theGeorgia Archaeological Site File, University of Georgia, Athens.

1952 North Georgia Burial Caves. Manuscript #32, on file at the GeorgiaArchaeological Site File, University of Georgia, Athens.

Kimball, Larry2009 Personal communication.

Mainfort, Robert C. Jr.1986 Pinson Mounds: A Middle Woodland Ceremonial Center . TennesseeDepartment of Conservation, Nashville.

Mainfort, Robert C., Jr., James W. Cogswell, Michael J. OBrien, Hector Neff, andMichael D. Glascock

1997 Neutron Activation Analysis of Pottery from Pinson Mounds and Nearby Sitesin Western Tennessee: Local Production vs. Long-Distance Importation.Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 22(1):43-68.

Martin, Francis P.1954 A Vanderburgh County Site with Southern Affinities. Proceedings of the

Indiana Academy of Science for 1953 63:57-58.

McMichael, Edward V.1960 The Anatomy of a Tradition: A Study of Southeastern Stamped Pottery. Ph.D.


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Prufer, Olaf H.1968 Ohio Hopewell Ceramics: An Analysis of the Extant Collections . University of

Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Rein, Judith S.1974 The Complicated Stamped Pottery of the Mann Site, Posey County, Indiana .M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Rogan, John P.1883 Notes on Mounds in Georgia . Inventory of the George E. Stuart Collection of

Archaeological and Other Materials, 1733-2006, Collection Number 5268, WilsonLibrary, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Ruby, Bret J.1997 The Mann Phase: Hopewellian Subsistence and Settlement Adaptations in theWabash Lowlands of Southwestern Indiana. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,Indiana University, Bloomington.

Ruby, Bret J.1997 The Mann Phase: Hopewellian Subsistence and Settlement Adaptations in theWabash Lowlands of Southwestern Indiana. Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana University.

2006 The Mann Phase: Hopewellian Community Organization in the WabashLowland. In Recreating Hopewell , edited by Douglas K. Charles and Jane E.Buikstra, pp. 190-205. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Ruby, Bret J., Christopher Carr, and Douglas K. Charles2005 Community Organizations in the Scioto, Mann, and Havana Regions: AComparative Perspective. Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual


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Seeman, Mark F.1995 When Words are Not Enough: Hopewell Interregionalism and the Use of

Material Symbols at the GE Mound. Native American Interactions: Multiscalar Analyses and Interpretation in the Eastern Woodlands, edited by N.S. Nassaney andK.E. Sassaman, pp. 122-143. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Smith, Betty Anderson1975 A Re-Analysis of the Mandeville Site, 9 CLA 1, Focusing on its Internal Historyand External Relations . Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Universityof Georgia, Athens.

1979 The Hopewell Connection in Southwest Georgia. Hopewell Archaeology: TheChillicothe Conference , edited by D.S. Brose and N. Greber, pp. 181-187. Kent StateUniversity Press, Ohio.

Smith, Phillip E.1962 Aboriginal Stone Constructions in the Southern Piedmont . University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology Series Report No. 4, Athens.

Smith, R.W.1936 Unpublished Notes on the Archaeology of Quarry (Ladd) Mountain .Document in the Georgia Archives, Atlanta.

Sneed, Joel M.1998 Ladds Cave: Story of a Destroyed Treasure . National Speleological Society(NSS) News, August.

2007 Bartow County Caves: History Underground in North Georgia. Published byJoel Sneed, Flowery Branch, Georgia.


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2007 Petrographic Observations on Middle Woodland Pottery from the Leake Site.Report submitted to Southern Research, Ellerslie, Georgia.

Stoltman, James B., and Frankie Snow1998 Cultural Interaction within Swift Creek Society. A World Engraved:

Archaeology of the Swift Creek Culture , edited by M. Williams and D.T. Elliott, pp.130-153. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Wallis, Neill J.2009 Locating the Gift: Swift Creek Exchange on the Atlantic Coast (A.D. 200-

800). Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville.

Waring, Antonio J., Jr.1945 Hopewellian Elements in Northern Georgia. American Antiquity 11(2):119-120.

Wauchope, Robert1966 Archaeological Survey of Northern Georgia. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, Number 21, Salt Lake City, UT.

Whittlesey, Charles1883 The Great Mound on the Etowah River, Georgia. Annual Report of the

Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1881, pp. 624-630. SmithsonianInstitution, Washington, D.C.

Willey, Gordon R.1949 Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast . Smithsonian Institution, Washington,D.C.


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Swift Creek & Cartersville pottery

Swift Creek Complicated StampedCartersvilleSimple Stamped

GeorgiaSwift Creek

sites

Swift Creek area


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Mann Swift Creek & fine simple stamped wares


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Leake Site location and layout


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Leake Site ceremonial items

Hematite

Copper

GraphiteMica

Sharkstooth

Galena

Crystals

Hematite Pendant

Ohio Flint Ridge Prismatic Blades

Humaneffigies

Animal effigies


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Leake Complex


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Mann Site Research Visit

Leake Sp. 1395Mann sherd

LeakeSp. 1348

Mannsherd

Swift Creek sherdsLacer collection

Crooked River (Mann)


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Other Artifact Connections?Leake

Mann

Ridge & Valley chert?

Mann

Diamond dot pottery

Leake

Tallahatta Quartzite


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Mann area sherds found at Leake

Rocker stamped & incisedSwift Creek notched rim


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Swift Creek Interactions

(Swift Creek designsby Frankie Snow)

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