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 site is on the southern margin of the Mississippian cultural advance down the Mississippi River and on the northern edge of that of the Cole's Creek and Plaquemine cultures of the South."^[2] The site was first excavated by Clarence Bloomfield Moore in 1908 and tested by Philip Phillips, Paul Gebhard and Nick Zeigler in 1949.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964.^[2] The mounds are listed on the Mississippi Mound Trail.^[3]

Location

One of the half dozen really big sites in the State of Mississippi, the Holly Bluff site is located on the south bank of George Lake, or Lake George as it is sometimes known, a half mile east of its confluence with the Sunflower River and a mile and a half southeast of the village of Holly Bluff, Yazoo County. Today the site is bisected by a county road and is used as a plantation headquarters but still clearly visible are the numerous large mounds and the remains of a surrounding wall.

Prehistoric timeline

The site's occupation begins with a

Sampling evidence supports the theory that Mound A was originally part of a group (including mounds B, C, D, E, and F) surrounding the western plaza possibly as early as the Bayland phase (but more likely the Aden phase), and certainly established by the Kings Crossing phase. Mound A may or may not have been the principal structure at this time. This plan may have carried on into the Crippen Point phase, but the evidence strongly suggests that either then or in the succeeding Mayersville phase site reorientation took place. Mound A became the principal feature of an east plaza assemblage (with mounds F', G, G', H, U, and V) which remained the ritual center of the site throughout the remainder of its history.^[5]

The twenty-five mounds that are now recognized range from barely noticeable rises to the massive Mound A, which is 55 feet (17 m) high and covers nearly two acres. It is believed that the lower rises were used as house substructures and repeatedly reconstructed. The larger mounds were most likely used for ceremonial purposes rather than residential. Until recent^[when?] erosion, earthen ramps could be seen climbing to the summits of these large mounds. Seven of the mounds are situated along the bank of George Lake and six more are located within the embankment. The remaining twelve mounds are positioned around the two plazas situated to the east and west of Mound A. This design is unusual and extremely large for the area; the closest in size and layout is the Winterville site.^[6]

The final major feature of the site is the earthen wall and the trench that surrounds it on three sides. In the earliest survey of the site, C. B. Moore reported that the wall was four to 6 feet (1.8 m) high and still reached this height although large sections have now been destroyed. It is likely that the ditch, which was filled with water from George Lake, supplied the dirt for the wall. The one side that was not protected by the wall was the lake side of the site, the lake bank creating a steep enough boundary on this northern side to provide protection.

Besides topographical settings, the environment of the Lake George site was extremely favorable for occupation. In prehistoric times the rich soils and the varying ecologies supported a vast array of plant and animal species.

Looting, erosion and cultivation have extensively damaged the Holy Bluff site over the years. This has caused some debate over the form and degree of some of the earthworks. Clarence B. Moore noted in 1908, following a visit, that some thirty rises and mounds, small and large, could be counted within the enclosure. Nine years later Calvin S. Brown visited and counted only twenty-five or so mounds within the wall.[6] In 1928 and again in 1936 James A. Ford recorded only twenty-two mounds. In a site report in January 1941, Jesse D. Jennings described twenty-seven mounds and some questionable rises.^[6] C. B. Moore's original estimate is believed to most accurately reflect the situation; many of the smaller earthworks have been lost to recent and intense cultivation.

In January and February 1908,

Numerous other archaeologists with varying degrees of success followed up Moore's excavations. Each of the later excavations found an extremely different system of mounds. In the 1920s the site was damaged by the then-plantation owner Mr. Charles W. Perry who pastured cattle on the large mounds and cultivated the smaller mounds.[6] The cattle foraged the cover of the larger mounds and their trampling eroded much of the site, erasing the ramps described by Moore. In 1949 Philip Phillips, Paul Gebhard and Nick Zeigler began performing test excavations of the Holly Bluff site. These were the first truly scientific excavations carried out at the site. The interpretations of the data provided the first reliable conclusions of the culture history.^[6] These tests finally provided evidence that the Holly Bluff site had been occupied for approximately one millennium.^[6] The conclusions proved that the Holly Bluff site was an important phase of the Coles Creek culture. From 1958 to 1960, "hundreds of skeletons were removed" from Mound C.^[6]

See also

• Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley
• Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
• List of Mississippian sites
• List of burial mounds in the United States

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Holly Bluff Site.

• UM Museum of Anthropology