Videos by John Grant Stauffer
The 11th century revival of mound building at Cahokia involved earth-moving events that were rapi... more The 11th century revival of mound building at Cahokia involved earth-moving events that were rapid-paced and large-scale. This paper investigates the nature and timing of the “Bareis Mounds’” construction, before episodes of plaza levelling occurred in the Ramey Field. The examined geophysical, micromorphological, and chronometric data indicates a rapid sequence of mound construction efforts occurred before massive artificial fills for levelling the East Plaza eventually buried it. Both mound and plaza constructions represent the mobilization of surplus labor for ambitiously planned events that anticipated Cahokia’s 12th century fluorescence and likely resembled labor-feasts not unlike historic Siouan and Muskogean examples. 67 views
Publications by John Grant Stauffer
Land, 2023
The distribution of mounds, plazas, and defensive palisades associated with Cahokia Mounds State ... more The distribution of mounds, plazas, and defensive palisades associated with Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (CMSHS) defines the core urban environment of Eastern North America’s first American Indian city. The large mounds surrounding Cahokia’s centrally located Grand Plaza, including the palisades that enclose them, are referred to as Downtown Cahokia. In this portion of the site, archaeologists have identified material culture (e.g., ceramics), earthen fills to level the plaza, and several earthen mound constructions. These findings suggest an occupational history for the area that occurred over the 9th–14th centuries CE, with the emergence of plaza delineation and earthwork construction beginning in the early 11th century CE. In sum, Downtown Cahokia and its Grand Plaza are considered by archaeologists to be a vibrant space characterized by ongoing American Indian transformations to an early metropolitan landscape. We conducted magnetometer and electromagnetic induction surveys at the western edge of the Grand Plaza. When compared with the LiDAR-derived visualizations we generated from this portion of the site, our aerial and terrestrial remote sensing data offered new information on the nature and sequence of monument construction in Downtown Cahokia, as well as architectural changes in domestic and special-use structures. These multi-scalar and complementary remote sensing datasets allowed us, without excavating, to trace important sequences of change in Downtown Cahokia’s history.
Keywords: Cahokia Mounds; USA; landscape archaeology; historic aerial photographs; LiDAR; magnetic gradiometry; electromagnetic induction
Illinois Antiquity, 2021
The Bareis Mound (#17) was partially excavated by a University of Illinois field school crew in 1... more The Bareis Mound (#17) was partially excavated by a University of Illinois field school crew in 1969, under the direction of Charles Bareis. Fifty years later, examination of Bareis's field notes and collected materials permitted an initial set of interpretations about the mound's construction and use, as well as the submission of organic samples for accelerated mass spectrometry dating. This article presents a summary of these findings ahead of the 2020 Ramey Field excavations at the Bareis Mound and offers an initial Bayesian chronological model for this locale within Cahokia's central precinct.
The Cahokian, 2020
This magazine article presents a general summary of the 2019 field season findings in the Ramey F... more This magazine article presents a general summary of the 2019 field season findings in the Ramey Field, where Charles Bareis's excavations from 1969 were partly re-exposed and his southernmost trench was expanded to document a large platform mound on the edge of the Edelhardt Meander. The platform mound atop the Spring Lake terrace consists of stratiform fills situated atop a filled submound context.
New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery, 2021
Carved on marine shell, copper, stone, and wood media, McAdams Style compositions provide signifi... more Carved on marine shell, copper, stone, and wood media, McAdams Style compositions provide significant insights into the production of discrete iconographic themes within regions of the Mississippian period Eastern Woodlands. Concentrated along the Central Mississippi River Valley, the style portrays spiders bearing motifs that are shared across media and other iconographic styles, but also exhibits its own compositional variations. In this paper, I investigate the geography of these iconographic commonalities and variations to approach the archaeological record and raise questions about the material cultures that engaged with them. I propose that spider themed compositions in McAdams style shell gorgets formalized a grammar that facilitated communications about the social roles of women. I also highlight the Orton and Rudder styles of Southern Appalachia as subsequent compositions that incorporated the spider theme and symbolic grammar of the McAdams style into their localized traditions.
The Cahokian, 2020
This brief article describes the goals of the 2020 field season in Cahokia's Ramey Field and the ... more This brief article describes the goals of the 2020 field season in Cahokia's Ramey Field and the nature of their execution after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Excavations are currently focused on re-exposing the field school trenches that were excavated under Charles Bareis' direction as a field school through the University of Illinois, Urbana, to understand the nature and timing of two platform mound construction contexts beneath fills that levelled an East Plaza complex.
Cahokia in Context: Hegemony and Diaspora, 2019
This chapter examines the evidence for indirect contact between occupants of the Cahokia, Illinoi... more This chapter examines the evidence for indirect contact between occupants of the Cahokia, Illinois, and Lake Jackson, Florida, sites with a specific focus on Mound 3 at Lake Jackson. Examined as part of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, the nature of this interaction was dictated by the exchange of iconography-laden burial goods in copper media. These material expressions occurred during the height of Mississippian period interaction between A.D. 1250-1500.
Prehistoric Games of North American Indians, 2017
This paper examines the archaeology, folklore, and iconography attesting to the antiquity of the ... more This paper examines the archaeology, folklore, and iconography attesting to the antiquity of the Apalachee Ball Game. We examine the “Apalachee Ball Game Myth” as recorded by Friar Juan Paiva in 1676 as well as several Mississippian archaeological contexts and carved shell objects (ca. A.D. 1350-1550) that thematically portray episodes in this myth. Using the evidence gleaned from these several sources, we can demonstrate that the ideology underlying the Apalachees’ Ball Game dates from at least the Middle Mississippian Period (A.D. 1150-1350). Furthermore, we place these findings within the context of the historic Mission San Luis site to elucidate the impacts of the juego de la pelota’s removal before Colonel James Moore attacked the mission and scattered its occupants in 1704. The overall emphasis is our hypothesis that the significance of games such as these permeates multiple spheres of cultural activity and functions as a means of social cohesion.
The Lake Jackson Mounds site, located near Tallahassee, Florida, has long been considered to be a... more The Lake Jackson Mounds site, located near Tallahassee, Florida, has long been considered to be a frontier Mississippian center. This assertion is primarily based on elaborate burial goods recovered during salvage excavations. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) on the two largest intact mounds at Lake Jackson revealed new information about their morphology and construction histories. These findings demonstrate that mound-building practices at the site were distinct from earlier, local Woodland mound-building traditions, and more similar to those of other Mississippian centers, such as Etowah and Moundville. Lake Jackson revitalized mound building in the Tallahassee area under the influence of external connections with groups in the Mississippian interaction network. These findings show how mound building was an integral practice for expressing and expanding Mississippian ideologies and rituals. This work also shows the utility of GPR in exploring mounds' morphologies and construction histories.
Excavation and Interpretations of the Oneida Cameron Site, August-December 2009: Colgate University SOAN 353 Class, Sep 2010
As part of an archaeological field methods class at Colgate University, students participated in ... more As part of an archaeological field methods class at Colgate University, students participated in excavations held at the Cameron site, an Oneida village that has yielded multiple longhouse structures, late prehistoric and Contact period artifacts, and numerous midden features. Due to expanding agricultural operations in the near vicinity, the class was permitted to excavate strategically placed test pits within the site perimeter. All class members contributed to the report as co-authors.
Conference Presentations by John Grant Stauffer
This poster provides recently and previously collected geophysical survey data to reveal landscap... more This poster provides recently and previously collected geophysical survey data to reveal landscape modifications between the late Emergent Mississippian (A.D. 850-1050) and early Mississippian (A.D. 1050-1200) periods in Cahokia’s Ramey Field. Drawing from archived field records from Charles Bareis’ 1969 field school, geophysical results are tentatively compared with known stratigraphic contexts for interpretations about the site’s initial landscape characteristics in the area immediately east of Monks Mound. Identified anomalies indicate that several landscape modifications took place in the vicinity of Mound 17, including one or more previously unnumbered mound structures in the study area.
Carved on marine shell, copper, stone, and wood media, McAdams Style compositions provide signifi... more Carved on marine shell, copper, stone, and wood media, McAdams Style compositions provide significant insights into the production of discrete iconographic themes within particular regions of the Mississippian period Eastern Woodlands. In particular, this style frequently portrays spiders bearing central cross motifs. These depictions both tie in to broader pan-regional themes and exhibit localized variations in composition. I highlight geographic variations within the style to approach the archaeological record and raise questions about past behaviors in a way that orients investigations about their use-life. I propose that particular iconographic themes relate to forums of activity and social roles with reference to the archaeological contexts and the cultural landscapes they occupy.
This paper provides an investigation of Cahokia's East plaza and its associated architectural rem... more This paper provides an investigation of Cahokia's East plaza and its associated architectural remains. Defined here as the area bounded by Mounds 31, 36, 38 (Monk's Mound), and 51, the plaza was initially distinguished by an absence of surface debris, noted during controlled surface collection efforts in the Ramey Tract by Elizabeth D. Benchley and Barbara J. Vander Leest. Based largely on ceramics that were acquired by these investigators, the proposed time of construction has been placed between the Lohman and early Stirling phases, around the same time as the West, North, and Grand (South) plazas are believed to have been completed. As a relatively early construct that was overshadowed by the rise of Cahokia's other forms of monumental architecture, the area in which the East plaza was established became a palimpsest for the site's pioneering architects. Nevertheless, it comprised an essential component of the site's cosmologically oriented layout. As such, it retained its own architectural nuances and metaphors, some of which are celebrated in our fragmentary understanding of Native oral histories.
Paper for the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Vancouver (2017).
The widespread exchange of masterful artworks in the Mississippian period has long been a topic o... more The widespread exchange of masterful artworks in the Mississippian period has long been a topic of interest among North American archaeologists. In particular, the Braden style, an artistic tradition whose origin has been placed at Cahokia, is recognizable on objects unearthed from locales that are remarkably distant from the American Bottom. On the opposite side of the Eastern Woodlands, the Lake Jackson site hosted burials in Mound 3 that contained a variety of these objects whose creation conformed to traditional Cahokian craftsmanship. While the contents of Mound 3's burials have been investigated to explore ties to other major ceremonial centers in the Greater Southeast, the nature of those ties and their timing have not been fully investigated, especially in consideration of Cahokia. This paper offers an assemblage based exploration of exchange between these two different and distant sites.
This paper examines the archaeology, folklore, and iconography attesting to the antiquity of the ... more This paper examines the archaeology, folklore, and iconography attesting to the antiquity of the Apalachee Ball Game. We examine the “Apalachee Ball Game Myth” as recorded by Friar Juan Paiva in 1676 as well as several Mississippian archaeological contexts and carved shell objects (ca. A.D. 1350-1550) that thematically portray episodes in this myth. Using the evidence gleaned from these several sources, we can demonstrate that the ideology underlying the Apalachees’ Ball Game dates from at least the Middle Mississippian Period (A.D. 1150-1350). Furthermore, we place these findings within the context of the historic Mission San Luis site to elucidate the impacts of the juego de la pelota’s removal before Colonel James Moore attacked the mission and scattered its occupants in 1704. The overall emphasis is our hypothesis that the significance of games such as these permeates multiple spheres of cultural activity and functions as a means of social cohesion.
As mysterious masters of the Olman microcosm, Olmec rulers oversaw the creation and projection of... more As mysterious masters of the Olman microcosm, Olmec rulers oversaw the creation and projection of their cosmic visions through both massive and miniscule forms of media. Believed to be incarnate gods, these stewards of life and death exercised authority that transcended the natural world. Acting as a surrogate ruler, the Las Limas monument is charged with a supernatural aura, manifested in the cryptic symbols its incised visage exhibits. As such, this inanimate object bears all of the markings that signify its membership within an elite politico-religious caste. Therefore, this brief analysis constructs a three-tiered interpretation of the monument itself and the iconography it projects to a multi-generational audience, building on the initial research of Dr. F. Kent Reilly III. It attempts to both account for the symbolic language it bears and identify the intentions behind its construction. The purpose is to communicate how the Las Limas monument exists as the embodiment of an Olmec perspective of rulership that extends into infinity.
Throughout the American Southeast, archaeological manifestations of ancestral cults have long bee... more Throughout the American Southeast, archaeological manifestations of ancestral cults have long been recognized as institutions based on cosmologically oriented rituals. Undertaken with a purposeful application of esoteric knowledge, respected members of the community were interred in artfully constructed burials that were recreations of a mythic past, celebrated in long lived oral traditions. Situated in the periphery of the Mississippian interaction network, Mound 3 at the Lake Jackson site hosted the southernmost reconstructions of these memorialized events. Given this, we provide an examination of the symbolic layout and construction of timber box sepultures that housed elderly women in the mound. In these funerary ceremonies that sought to ensure a prosperous future, the passing of elder women were commemorated in rites emphasizing fertility and regeneration. Seeing them off on journeys to supernatural realms, witnesses to these public spectacles observed practices oriented toward reliving an ancient folklore centered on the preternatural character old-woman-who-never-dies.
Magnetometer and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey at Lake Jackson Mounds (8LE1) revealed evi... more Magnetometer and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey at Lake Jackson Mounds (8LE1) revealed evidence of possible Mississippian-style structures. Located in Tallahassee, Florida, Lake Jackson ins an important site on the edge of the Mississippian interaction network. The site features seven earthen mounds, making it the largest center in area during the Fort Walton period (A.D. 1000-1500). Combining evidence from subsurface remote sensing with data from earlier excavations provides new insights into the site’s layout.
Thesis Chapters by John Grant Stauffer
Along the periphery of the Mississippian Art and Ceremonial Complex, the Lake Jackson site existe... more Along the periphery of the Mississippian Art and Ceremonial Complex, the Lake Jackson site existed as a multi-mound ceremonial center whose material contents included objects bearing widespread symbols connected with complex traditions in the long-lived history of Native American iconography and ceremonialism. This thesis investigates the occupation chronology of the site through an analysis of its ceramic assemblage and artifact proveniences with a particular focus on Mound 5, a stratigraphically complex platform mound feature. Through the application of Accelerated Mass Spectrometry dating, stratigraphic analysis, and ceramic analysis, this document offers tentative explanations for the onset of Mississippian ceremonial behavior at the site and its temporal placement within the late prehistoric duration of the Fort Walton archaeological culture.
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Videos by John Grant Stauffer
Publications by John Grant Stauffer
Keywords: Cahokia Mounds; USA; landscape archaeology; historic aerial photographs; LiDAR; magnetic gradiometry; electromagnetic induction
Conference Presentations by John Grant Stauffer
Paper for the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Vancouver (2017).
Thesis Chapters by John Grant Stauffer
Keywords: Cahokia Mounds; USA; landscape archaeology; historic aerial photographs; LiDAR; magnetic gradiometry; electromagnetic induction
Paper for the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Vancouver (2017).