South Cape: A Fortified Mississippian Site in Southeast Missouri

Tamira K. Brennan
Southeast Missouri State University

Paper presented at the 66th annual Southeast Archaeological Conference

Mobile, Alabama
November 5-7, 2009
The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

[SLIDE 1] The South Cape site (23CG8) is a Mississippian period (AD 1000-1450) village

located in Cape Girardeau County of southeast Missouri. Despite tantalizing evidence of rich

ceremonialism revealed during five seasons of professional investigations at the site from 1977-1981,

relatively little is known about the nature of this village and its interaction with contemporaneous

sites. Current research at South Cape as part of a renewed archaeology field program within

Southeast Missouri State University’s Department of Foreign Languages and Anthropology is

directed at such topics. This article reports on the preliminary findings of the 2007-2009 field

seasons under the direction of the author and briefly reviews those findings in light of the

unpublished excavation data to present a more thorough picture of this unique site.

[SLIDE 2] South Cape occupies approximately 2.3 ha of land atop of an erosional remnant

within the Mississippi River floodplain, less than a mile west of the river. The site’s position is at the

northern limit of what Carl Chapman (1980:184) classifies as the Bootheel Riverine Locality and

abuts the Ozark escarpment to the south. This ecotonal location offers the advantage of access to

resources both of the alluvial valley and the Ozark Highlands, while its elevation makes it a safe

haven during frequent and often severe flooding episodes. The nearest contemporaneous mound

center, Ware Mounds [SLIDE 3], is only 20 miles upriver, though too little is known about this site

to comment on possible interaction at this point in time.

[SLIDE 4] South Cape has also been referred to as Hunze-Evans, or simply the Hunze

Mound, although no artificial mound is present at the site. The most notable published data on the

site can be found in Chapman’s (1980) The Archaeology of Missouri II, wherein he dates it to Early

and Middle Mississippian times on the basis of ceramics, the most remarkable of which are pictured

in Figure 6-13 of that text. Among these is an intriguing head pot, one of several vessels given to the

Hunze family by looters in exchange for permission to excavate on the family farm which, to this day

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

still occupies the southern half of the site. These vessels likely originate from burials on site,

although no provenience data was ever recorded.

[SLIDE 5] The Hunze head pot is unusual for the region in that its appearance is both

youthful and cognizant. His open eyes and a crooked “smirk” differentiate this individual from the

deathlike guise depicted among most other head pots recorded from northeast Arkansas and the

Missouri Bootheel region. Although nearly whole, this particular pot appears to have been modified

by the looters before being presented to the Hunze family. Grinding has entirely removed the

original surface from the base of the vessel in the shape of a ring, indicating that this piece once sat

upon a neck or a collar of some sort [SLIDE 6]. The unusually flat rim of the vessel, in combination

with the crudeness of finish immediately inside of the rim indicates that this pot once could have had

a longer “carafe” style neck, although no grinding or filing is immediately apparent upon

macroscopic inspection. Both rim and base have some modern surface treatment such as wax or

varnish applied to make them appear consistently burnished with the rest of the vessel. This and

other pieces in private collections from South Cape attest to a long history of amateur excavations

which disturbed the site to an unknown extent prior to the mid 1970s.

Professional Excavations

[SLIDE 7] The first professional investigations into the site began in 1976 when Duncan

Wilkie was hired to take over the instruction of archaeology courses offered within the sociology

department at Southeast Missouri State University. For two semesters, field work was done as a one

hour a day university course, with Wilkie driving the students to the site from campus and back each

day. A more traditional summer field school began in 1978, with a focus on the northern half of the

site. Excavations ceased at the site in 1981 in an effort to complete the curation and analysis of the

resulting 50 boxes of material before pulling more materials out of the ground, a task undertaken by

students in exchange for course credit. Shortly after this, the recently formed anthropology program

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

at Southeast was eliminated from the university, leaving the material processing incomplete and

results unpublished. For more than two decades these materials sat in storage, awaiting the attention

that Wilkie had intended for them prior to the termination of the anthropology program.

Eventually the anthropology program was reinstated at Southeast, although an active

archaeological field program was not fully restored until 2007, and has been a huge success [SLIDE

8 video]. [SLIDE 9] This move was prompted by the need to properly curate the Wilkie materials

and accompanied by the enthusiastic cooperation of the Hunze family. Exploratory excavations

commenced that summer with the goal of assessing the site for the development of a long-term

research and preservation program and to provide comparative data to that of Wilkie’s, particularly

samples for radiocarbon dating and features on the southern side of the site. The following 2008 and

2009 seasons were aimed at providing additional data on community layout and extent, with a

primary focus on exploring the eastern site boundary. Ten weeks of excavation and several days of

survey have now been completed during the course of the renewed field program, resulting in

2800m2 of magnetometry survey and 94m2 of hand excavation. [SLIDE 10] While the

magnetometry proved relatively unsuccessful at South Cape, the utility of other geophysical

techniques at the site are still being explored.

Materials

Thus far, all 2007 and 2008 materials have been washed and sorted both by field school

students and 2009 materials are being processed. Analysis has been completed on the majority of

the 2007 materials. The ceramics and projectile points from the Wilkie collection have been

analyzed in full by Sarah Stephens, as you will hear about in the next paper, though other Wilkie

materials remain largely unexamined.

Lithics

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

[SLIDE 11] The lithics under discussion include all 2007 materials from feature contexts and

the entire 2007 chipped stone assemblage. The chipped stone analysis reveals a pattern of local raw

material procurement. Twenty-one percent of the chert by count and 48% by weight source from

Devonian deposits which underlie the eastern portion of Cape Girardeau County. These include both

Clear Creek and Bailey cherts. Locally available gravel makes up another 9% by weight, although it

occurs largely as tested cobbles and is less than 2% of the assemblage by count.

[SLIDE 12] The presence of non-local cherts occurs nearly exclusively in the form of

finished tools, including hoes and a chisel manufactured out of Mill Creek chert from Southern

Illinois, adzes of Dover chert from Tennessee, and a few Burlington points sourcing to an area in

Missouri just east of St. Louis. Very small percentages of Cobden, Jefferson City, and Kaolin

represent the remaining non-local chipped stone varieties, while Commerce quartzite and Kornthal

from the Thebes gap area as well as flakes of basalt from the St. Francis mountains represent the

procurement of raw materials for on-site production of tools. Point types include those spanning

from Early Archaic to Middle Mississippian time periods, although only Mississippian period

features have been identified at South Cape. Based on this limited analysis there does not appear to

be a large ground stone tool industry at the site, although use of mineral pigments is evident in the

worked and unworked fragments hematite, limonite, and galena.

Ceramics

[SLIDE 13] Ceramics in this discussion includes all rims and handles from the 2007

excavations, analyzed by Southeast undergraduate Caitlan Hester under my supervision. Not

surprisingly, the preponderance of sherds are plain coarse shell tempered, followed by plain fine shell

and shell grog combinations. Decorated sherds are very limited and include incised, engraved, and

red slipped examples. Analysis of the Wilkie collection ceramics by Sarah Stephens proves that a

much wider array of decoration was in use by South Cape’s potters (personal correspondence),

4
The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

though apparently not in the features that I’ve been examining! This could be indicative of

differential status between the residents of the northern portion of the site, where Wilkie’s

excavations took place, and the southern portion, but is more likely due to the preponderance of non-

domestic features excavated in recent years.

[SLIDE 14] Serving wares represent a larger than expected proportion of all vessels

identifiable to type (34% count, 33% weight), a trend that is mirrored at some but not all Midsouth

sites during their later periods. Positive correlations include Cahokia Mounds during Moorehead

times AD 1200-1275 (Pauketat 1998) and Wickliffe during the Late Wickliffe time period of AD

1250-1350 (Wesler 2001). Similarities to the Tennessee-Cumberland and Lower Ohio Valley

ceramics are apparent in my own and Stephen’s analyses, though an extended discussion on regional

interaction as revealed by ceramics is reserved for the following paper.

Subsistence

Although only preliminary analyses have been completed on a small sample of South Cape’s

floral and faunal materials, they represent a wide range of resource utilization. [SLIDE 15] This is

not surprising given the excellent state of preservation at the site and its ecotonal position, lying

along the interstice of the Ozark Escarpment, the Mississippi River, and the Ozark Highlands. A

gross inspection of the taxa reveals eastern box turtle, venomous and non-venomous snake species,

rodents, turkey, canine, raccoon, possum, white tailed deer, several species of fish including gar,

drum and catfish, and a very large artiodactyl yet to be positively identified. Several lower limb

elements from this animal likely indicate bison or elk, whose range was significantly broader in

Mississippian times than it is today (Davis 2006).

Black bear has also been identified from five different contexts on site. Among these

remains are a metacarpal, several mandibular fragments, several incisors, and a canine tooth. Both

the bear and canine bones recovered may or may not represent the fulfillment of subsistence needs as

5
The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

both species have known significance to southeastern peoples beyond the realm of food-stuffs

(Hudson 1976). Furthermore, the elements represented – cranial and forelimb - are low utility in

regards to food.

[SLIDE 16] A large portion of the floral assemblage from 2007, including all flotation

samples and any hand collected seeds and timbers were examined by archaeobotanical consultant

Justine Woodard McKnight (2008). Within these samples she identified grape, persimmon, and

sumac seeds, as well as hickory nuts, acorn, and black walnut. Several cob fragments and kernels of

Zea mays were recovered from the earliest building episode identified within 2007 excavations (AD

1350 +/- 25; UGAMS-03498) and are of the eight-row variety. This is in contrast to the only two

botanical samples known to have been analyzed from the Wilkie collections – two cobs of ten-row

Zea mays with open cupules. Leonard Blake examined these specimens in 1978 and suspected that

they were an older variety of mays “under the influence” of the more recent and cold-tolerant eight

row version (written correspondence between Wilkie and Blake on file, May 23, 1978).

Features

[SLIDE 17] A total of thirty features excavated in part or full during the 2007-09 seasons

include: domestic houses and associated hearths and wall trenches, small and large storage pits, a

midden area, a large post pit, individual post holes, one burial, a fortification wall and a possible

bastion. The number of features excavated by Wilkie has not yet been determined, although he

reports portions of 7 houses, several subfloor pits, 11 burials, and many isolated posts. Unless

otherwise noted, the following feature descriptions are based both on the 2007-09 data as well as

several of Wilkie’s conference papers (1982, 1983) and unpublished field notes (on file, Department

of Foreign Languages and Anthropology, Southeast Missouri state University).

Houses

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

[SLIDE 18] Very few complete houses have been excavated at South Cape, although the few

examples that we do have are semi-subterranean and employ wall trench construction with the

notable exception of one single post structure that I will discuss momentarily. Rebuilding is common

and has been noted for as many as four times on the southern side of the site, indicating

approximately 48 years of continuous occupation in the same locale (following calculations by

Pauketat 2003:46). Incinerated wall fall indicates that hickory was a common structural element,

while pine, ash, and both the red and white oak groups have been identified among smaller building

debris (Woodard-McKnight 2008).

Houses basins on the south side of the site are found to terminate as deep as 80cmbs,

although erosion and modern day farming precludes determination of the original basin depths.

Hearths are present within some but not all houses and vary from areas of oxidized soil to hardened

clay rings. Daub heavily tempered with organics had been recovered in moderate amounts in

contexts where burning was evident, indicating that it was a common surface treatment to house

walls. [SLIDE 19] A handful of red and white painted pieces from the 2009 season indicate that at

least some structures were decorated as has been noted at the Wickliffe, Kincaid and Angel mound

sites to the east (Wesler year, University of Chicago 1934-1944 notes on file, Center for

Archaeological Investigations Carbondale, Black 1967). This daub came from one of the

stratigraphically earliest occupations on site, located amongst a very heavily occupied area. [SLIDE

19]

Specialized structures are represented on both halves of the site. The first of these (Feature

2) lay along the southern periphery of the site are where the terrace begins to slope. [SLIDE 20] A

rebuilding episode revels that special soils with a high clay content were brought in to fill the outside

of the 50cm deep western wall trench of this feature. This unusual arrangement may represent an

attempt to bolster the wall within these very sandy soils by bringing in more stable fills and by

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

additionally heaping this dirt against the outer edge of the structure’s wall once erect. Although this

feature was not fully excavated, its suspected larger than average size may have necessitated such

engineering. In addition to domestic debris, large chunks of Kaolin clay, worked galena, and

portions of four separate miniature vessels -an artifact class that a recent study by Heather Carey

(2006) reveals may be tied to ritual activity – were also uncovered within F.2 (Brennan 2007).

[SLIDE 21] The other example of a specialized structure is Wilkie’s House 1. This feature is

approximately 33m2 in area and exhibits single post wall construction – a technique primarily

employed during early Mississippian times throughout much of the Midsouth, but also known to

have occurred sporadically in the latest Mississippian occupations throughout this region as well

(Lewis and Lewis 1995). House 1 produced an impressive array of unusual artifacts which include: a

triskele shell gorget, five infant burials, a very small fragment of sheet copper, a chunky stone, a bear

canine, a negative painted mother nursing child figurine, and large worked and unworked sheets of

mica. Wilkie addressed this feature at length in a conference paper, with a focus on the gorget

(1983). He very convincingly concludes that House 1was a women’s structure, perhaps associated

with childbirth and fertility.

This conclusion is well supported by the material evidence. The infant burials were all

interred in shallow pits near the wall of the structure with a turtle carapace placed over their small

bodies in most cases (Wilkie 1982). The style of the shell gorget is also consistent with those found

overwhelmingly in infant and female burials throughout the Midsouth (Kneburg 1957). [SLIDE 22]

Finally, a negative painted bottle depicting a mother nursing child is consistent with Wilkie’s

conclusions. This piece sits in contrast to other known examples of Mississippian nursing mother

figurines in that it does not possess the “hunchback” commonly seen amongst mother figurines in

this region. [SLIDE 23] The only comparably naturalistic fertility figure that I have located in the

region sources to Wickliffe Mounds, and appears to be a woman seated in a birthing position.

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

Eastern Site Boundary

Exploration of the eastern boundary of the site proper has revealed several very interesting

non-domestic features, including a large post pit, a palisade wall that was previously unknown, and

an isolated burial. [SLIDE 24] The post pit (Feature 12) measured 98cm deep with a post mold >34

cm in diameter. A small ramp leading up to this feature would have aided in its placement. This

feature was approximately nine meters west of the palisade wall and superimposed an earlier

domestic house with only one building episode. The defensive wall itself (Feature 16) was

discovered in 2008 and is visible immediately at the base of the plow zone. [SLIDE 25] This feature

was followed in 2009, thus far revealing ~eleven continuous meters of this feature. Overlapping

posts reveal that this wall was rebuilt or repaired in the same location at least one time. These posts

penetrate beneath the base of the trench itself up to 38cm and range from 12 – 25cm in diameter at

their bases. A radiocarbon date from nutshell within this trench is AD 1325 +/- 25 (UGAMS-03499).

The palisade also superimposed an earlier house feature with only one building episode, suggesting

the re-appropriation of a habitation area for other purposes later in time.

Although no bastions have been encountered along this stretch of wall, the corner of an

oversized rectangular wall trench feature (Feature 17) was located in 2009 lying just several meters

east of F.16 palisade and bearing the same orientation. [SLIDE 26] The wall trenches of this feature

penetrate 160cm below surface and are over 40cm wide where they first appear in plan view.

Although it is not out of the question that this feature is a very large roofed structure of some kind, as

it has not been fully excavated, its orientation and proximity to F.16 makes it more likely that this

represents the bastion of an earlier or later version of the palisade.

Only one burial has been located in recent years, that of an adult female oriented

perpendicular to and superimposing a section of the palisade wall. Portions of the burial were

disturbed by modern day plowing and no grave goods were noted, the skeleton reburied in situ. This

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

was an unexpected find given that a formal cemetery area was previousy located by Wilkie in 1977

on the southeastern toe of this slope, away from habitation. The two conventional dates on bone

from this cemetery span AD1240-1320 based on Wilkie’s corrections (notes on file), placing it just

slightly earlier than contemporaneous with the palisade. Whether the 2009 burial represents a later,

isolated instance of interment or yet another example of reappropriation of a portion of the site is not

yet known.

Radiocarbon Dating

Radiocarbon samples were particular important to the new research program at South Cape

as the site’s chronology is poorly understood - or perhaps misunderstood may be a better term. My

initial draw to research at this site were several in a suite of 9 conventional radiocarbon dates run by

Wilkie that ran into the late 15th and mid 16th centuries. [SLIDE 27] These dates would make South

Cape an anomaly within the “Vacant Quarter,” a region across the Midsouth (and including Cape

Girardeau) that was largely abandoned post AD 1450 for unknown reasons while Late Mississippian

cultures elsewhere throughout the southeast persisted (but see also Butler and Cobb 2000, Edging

2007, and Lewis 1990).

As exciting as this prospect is, neither the preliminary ceramic analyses nor recent AMS

dates support a late occupation at South Cape. [SLIDE 28] Furthermore, examination of Wilkie’s

notes reveals a discrepancy between the dates listed on the few reports from the lab that ran the tests,

DiCarb analytic, and the dates from these same samples as listed by Wilkie in his notes. While some

are in complete agreement, other samples listed by Wilkie are up to a century earlier, likely

representing his own corrections on the reported lab dates which exclude anything past the mid 15th

century. Heated correspondence between Wilkie and the DiCarb lab evidences his feelings that the

later dated samples were in fact “goofed” (written correspondence from Duncan Wilkie to Irene Stele

of DiCarb Analytic, on file).

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

Aside from the very real possibility of inaccurate lab results, it is also possible that more

recent charcoal contaminated the samples from the northern half of the site, which is heavily

disturbed by rodent and looter activity alike. AMS dates run on samples from 2007 and 2008

excavations do not support a 15th century occupation. Both date the south side of the site to the early

- mid 14th century. In light of the contrasting material and radiocarbon data, perhaps the best avenue

of resolve would be to re-run these later samples where possible, or to run more suitable samples

from the same contexts. Of course, a larger suite of dates will also prove helpful to resolving the

advent and demise of the South Cape site.

CONCLUSION

[SLIDE 29] South Cape has an important story to tell - one of a people at the intersection of

multiple environmental and stylistic zones. Although no previous published data exists on the Wilkie

materials and only preliminary conclusions can be made about the more recent excavation data, it is

clear that South Cape is a remarkable site. The presence of focused fertility-related ceremonialism,

the diverse array of material goods and the perceived need to enclose this site with a large and well

maintained defensive wall all beg further research into timing of South Cape and its relation to

Mississippian sites elsewhere in the region. Future seasons of excavation promise to resolve this and

other important questions, such as the nature and layout of the South Cape’s domestic community.

Understanding how the inhabitants of this site negotiated their borderland position and with whom

they traded, affiliated, and emulated, will offer much in the way of examining both local and regional

Mississippian interaction. [SLIDE 30] Thank you.

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

Acknowledgements

The success of the ongoing research at the South Cape site is the result of the support and

enthusiasm of many parties. Among these are the Department of Foreign Languages and

Anthropology at Southeast Missouri State University, the Missouri Archaeological Society, who

generously funded a radiocarbon date through the Lyman, Barnhill, Irving Fund, and to the

Hunze family, whose contributions and involvement have ensured the success of Southeast’s

fledgling field program. Special thanks also go both to Dr. Paul Welch, to the Center for

Archaeological Investigations at Southern Illinois University Carbondale for the loan of

necessary equipment, and to Dr. John Schwegman for completing magnetometry survey on a

large portion of the site. Finally, thanks to my laboratory workers and volunteers, and to three

seasons of eager field school students, staff and volunteers, especially Ayla Amadio, caitlan

Hester, and Sarah Stephens.

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

REFERENCES CITED

Black, Glenn A.
1976 Angel Site. Vols I and II. Indiana Historical Society.

Blake, Leonard
1978 Personal Correspondence to Duncan Wilkie. May 23, 1978.

Brennan, Tamira K.
2007 2007 Field Season Summary and Preliminary Report. Manuscript on file, Department
of Foreign Languages and Anthropology, Southeast Missouri State University.

Carey, Heather B.
2006 More than Mere Child’s Play: An Analysis of Mississippian Miniature Vessels from
the Tennessee-Cumberland and Lower Ohio River Valleys. Master’s Thesis
Submitted to the Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Chapman, Carl H.
1980 The Archaeology of Missouri, II. University of Missouri Press, Columbia.

Cobb, Charles R. and Brian M. Butler

2002 The Vacant Quarter Revisited: Late Mississippian Abandonment of the Lower Ohio
Valley. American Antiquity 67:625-642.

Cole, Fay-Cooper, Robert Bell, John Bennett, Joseph Caldwell, Norman Emerson, Richard
MacNeish, Kenneth Orr and Roger Willis
1951 Kincaid: A Prehistoric Illinois Metropolis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Davis, Donald E.
2006 Southern US: An Environmental History. ABC-CLIO, Inc. Santa Barbara, California.

Edging, Richard
2007 The Vacant Quarter Hypothesis: A Survivor’s Story. The Missouri Archaeologist
68:29-58.

Kneburg, Madeline
1959 Engraved Shell Gorgets and Their Associations. Tennessee Archaeologist 15:1-39.

Lewis, R. Barry
1990 The Late Prehistory of the Ohio-Mississippi Rivers Confluence Region, Kentucky and
Missouri. In, Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi. David H. Dye and Cheryl Anne
Cox, eds. Pp.38-58. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Lewis, Thomas M.N. and Madeline Kneberg Lewis

1995 The Prehistory of the Chickamauga Basin in Tennessee. 2 vols. Edited by Lynne P.
Sullivan. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

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The South Cape Site: a Fortified Mississippian Village in Southeast Missouri Brennan

Pauketat, Timothy R.
2003 Resettled Farmers and the Making of a Mississippian Polity. American
Antiquity. 68:39-66.

1998 The Archaeology of Downtown Cahokia: Tract 15A and Dunham Tract Excavations.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Studies in Archaeology No.1. Illinois
Transportation Archaeological Research Program, University of Illinois, Urbana.

Wesler, Kit W.
2001 Excavations at Wickliffe Mounds. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Williams, Stephen
1990 The Vacant Quarter and Other Late Events in the Lower Valley. In Towns and
Temples Along the Mississippi, edited by David H. Dye and Cheryl Anne Cox, pp.170-
180. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Wilkie, Duncan C.
1977-1981 Field Notes, 23Cg8. On file, Department of Foreign Languages and
Anthropology, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO.

1981 Personal Correspondence to Irene Stehli of Dicarb Radioisotope Company. December

18, 1981.

1982 Preliminary Findings of Mississippian Occupation on the Ozark Escarpment,

Missouri. Paper Presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern
Archaeological Conference, Memphis, TN.

1983 Shell Gorget in a Small Village Context. Paper Presented at the 48th Annual Meeting
of the Society for American Archaeology, Pittsburgh, PA.

Woodard-McKnight, Justine
2008 Interim Report on the Analysis of Hand-Collected and Flotation-recovered
Archeobotanical Remains from the South Cape Site (23CG8), Cape Girardeau County,
Missouri. Manuscript on file, Department of Foreign Languages and Anthropology,
Southeast Missouri State University.

14
South Cape: A Fortified
Mississippian Site in Southeast
Missouri

Tamira K. Brennan

Southeast Archaeological Conference

Nov 5-7, 2009
Mobile, Alabama
St. Louis

• Common Fields

• Ware Mounds
Cape Girardeau  you are here
South Cape *

• Towosahgy
St. Louis

• Common Fields

• Ware Mounds
Cape Girardeau  you are here
South Cape *

• Towosahgy
 Above, from Chapman 1980 p.245

Corps site map, Daly and Morse 1969

Hunze head pot, left

Below, from NE Arkansas (Cherry 2009)

Neck of vessel from
behind, above

Ground base of vessel,

right
Above, courtesy of Southeast Missouri State University archives
2009 Excavations
Magnetonmetry courtesy of Dr. John E. Schwegman
 Burlington

Basalt

Orthoquartzite Mill Creek (& Kaolin, Cobden)

Dover
Temper Type
Above photo courtesy of the
Southeast Missouri State
University Archives
Charred maize photos courtesy of Justine
Woodard McKnight
Photo to left, courtesy of the Southeast
Missouri State University Archives
House Feature 2


Above and bottom left from Wilkie 1983
 From Wilkie 1983

From Wilkie 1983

From Wilkie 1983 http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/histparks/wm/gallery/
Atmospheric data from Reimer et al (2004);OxCal v3.10 Bronk Ramsey (2005); cub r:5 sd:12 prob usp[chron]

South Cape Wilkie Dates

DIC-1885 500±45BP

DIC-1886 480±55BP

DIC-1887 480±45BP

DIC-1890 470±45BP

DIC-1891 430±50BP

DIC-1892 650±110BP

DIC-2195 640±70BP

500CalAD 1000CalAD 1500CalAD 2000CalAD

Calibrated date
 Atmospheric data from Reimer et al (2004);OxCal v3.10 Bronk Ramsey (2005); cub r:5 sd:12 prob usp[ch ron]

South Cape Recent Analyses

UGAMS-03498 600±25BP

UGAMS-03499 625±25BP

1000CalAD 1100CalAD 1200CalAD 1300CalAD 1400CalAD 1500CalAD 1600CalAD

Calibrated date

AD 1300 +/- 25
AD 1325 +/- 25
Special thanks to: Department of Foreign
Languages and Anthropology at Southeast
Missouri State University, the Hunze family,
the Missouri Archaeological Society, Dr.
Paul Welch, the Center for Archaeological
Investigations at Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, and to three seasons of eager
field school students, staff and volunteers.

Contact: tbrennan@semo.edu