The Murphy Mound Archeological Site (
23 PM 43), is a prehistoric
archaeological site in the
Bootheel region of the
U.S. state of
Missouri. Located southwest of
Caruthersville
Caruthersville is a city in and the county seat of Pemiscot County, Missouri, United States, located along the Mississippi River in the Bootheel region of the state's far southeast. The population was 5,562, according to the 2020 census.
Histo ...
in
Pemiscot County, Missouri the site was occupied by peoples of the
Late Mississippian period
The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earth ...
, centuries before European colonization of the area.
Conclusive dates for the site's occupation have not been determined; one survey concluded that occupation began around 1200 CE and continued until at least 1400.
A study of the site's pottery held that the location was inhabited from approximately 1350 until 1541.
[ The platform mound, now overgrown with trees, may be the largest of any Mississippian culture site in Missouri. It is located on private land and is not open to the public.][ A selection of the pots is displayed at the University of Missouri Museum of Anthropology.
]Excavation
Excavation may refer to:
* Excavation (archaeology)
* Excavation (medicine)
* ''Excavation'' (The Haxan Cloak album), 2013
* ''Excavation'' (Ben Monder album), 2000
* ''Excavation'' (novel), a 2000 novel by James Rollins
* '' Excavation: A Memo ...
at the site's cemetery has revealed ninety-one skeletons. These were buried in numerous fashions, including bundle burials, bodies fully extended, and cremations.[
]
See also
* List of Mississippian sites
* Mississippi Valley: Culture, phase, and chronological periods table - ''List of archaeological periods''
References
Further reading
*O'Brien, Michael J. (1994) ''Cat Monsters and Head Pots.'' University of Missouri Press, Columbia.
*O'Brien, Michael J. and Robert C. Dunnell. (1998) ''1998 Changing Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley.'' University of Missouri Press, Columbia.
Middle Mississippian culture
Mounds in Missouri
Native American history of Missouri
National Historic Landmarks in Missouri
Buildings and structures in Pemiscot County, Missouri
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri
National Register of Historic Places in Pemiscot County, Missouri
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