The Vaughn Branch and Old Edwardsville Road Sites: Late Stirling and Early Moorehead Phase Mississippian Occupations in the Northern American Bottom (Transportation Archaeological Research Reports)

This report presents information from the archaeological investigations of two Mississippian sites, Vaughn Branch (11MS1437) and Old Edwardsville Road (11MS1291) situated in the northern American Bottom. Archaeological investigations at the Vaughn Branch site revealed a Stirling phase component. Investigations at the Old Edwardsville Road site produced evidence of an early Moorehead phase occupation. These two sites, located only 2.4 km apart, are situated in a similar bluff base setting, and despite being assigned to two separate phases, the occupations are separated by only a limited temporal span. Each site occupation also represents an example of a specialized form of Mississippian rural community referred to as a civic node. Central to this identification is the presence of a sweatlodge building at each site. Evidence from these sites has added important information on the complex settlement patterns associated with the Cahokian polity in the American Bottom and have provided the opportunity to examine material and subsistence patterns on similar sites from within a limited temporal perspective.