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 recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...
that is a
type site
In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) 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 H ...
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, 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 wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), 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 ...
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 produced an important glimpse of a late "transitional" Coles Creek to
Plaquemine 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 raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
, 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
Vicksburg Floodwall Mural project to represent the
American Indian heritage of the region.
See also
*
Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley
References
External links
Animation: Towns and Temples of the Mississippian Culture-5 SitesVicksburg Riverfront Murals
Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture
Mounds in Mississippi
Geography of Warren County, Mississippi
Archaeological type sites
1908 archaeological discoveries
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