Kings Crossing site is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

that is a

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Age ...

for the ''Kings Crossing Phase (950-1050 CE)'' of the Lower Yazoo Basin Coles Creek chronology.

Location

The site is located four miles north of the center of

Vicksburg Vicksburg most commonly refers to: * Vicksburg, Mississippi, a city in western Mississippi, United States * The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign * The Siege of Vicksburg, an American Civil War battle Vicksburg is also the name of ...

, between Chickasaw Bayou and the Illinois Central railroad tracks.

Site importance

Clarence B. Moore, who visited the site in 1908, described

Mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

A as being tall, although by the 1950s it had been significantly reduced in height. Mound B has been almost completely leveled, although a small rise can be discerned. Mound C is roughly tall. Mounds A and C are both roughly sq. Pottery sampling in the 1950s from Mound A gave the site a historical importance out of all proportion to its size. Test pits from a 1949 excavation of the

Holly Bluff site The Holly Bluff site ( 22 YZ 557), sometimes known as the Lake George Site, and locally as "The Mound Place," is an archaeological site that is a type site for the Lake George phase of the prehistoric Plaquemine culture period of the area. The sit ...

produced an important glimpse of a late "transitional" Coles Creek to

Plaquemine Plaquemine is a city in and the parish seat of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area. At the 2010 United States census, the population was 7,119; the 2020 census determined its ...

assemblage featuring thin tapered rims of polished plain ware and carefully executed varieties of Coles Creek incised and associated types. Although intriguing as

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

, it was not sufficiently integrated strategraphically to postulate a distinct phase. Site sampling from the Kings Crossing site in 1954 supplied the integration and gave the phase a name. Since then, especially in the Tensas Basin, it has become one of the firmest and most easily identifiable ceramic complexes in the Lower Mississippi area. In 2005 the Kings Crossing site was portrayed on the

Floodwall Mural project to represent the American Indian heritage of the region.

References

External links

Animation: Towns and Temples of the Mississippian Culture-5 Sites

Vicksburg Riverfront Murals
Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture Mounds in Mississippi Geography of Warren County, Mississippi Archaeological type sites 1908 archaeological discoveries {{Mississippi-stub

Location

Site importance

See also

References

External links