Angel Phase
Encyclopedia
The Angel Phase describes a 300-400-year cultural manifestation of the Mississippian culture
of the central portions of the United States of America, as defined in the discipline of archaeology
. Angel Phase archaeological sites date from c. 1050 - 1350 CE and are located on the northern and southern sides of the Ohio River
in southern Indiana
, such as National Historic Landmark
Angel Mounds
near present-day Evansville
; northwestern Kentucky, with Wickliffe Mounds
and the Tolu Site
; and Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site
in Illinois
. Additional sites range from the mouth of Anderson Creek in Perry County, Indiana
, west to the mouth of the Wabash
in Posey County, Indiana
.
assemblages in its region, the Angel Phase collection consists of well over 2.5 million individually catalogued objects. The count is rising yearly with continued excavation and research. Characteristic to Angel Phase mounds in particular, the assemblage is overwhelmingly ceramic
, with vessels and pottery fragments occupying just under 70% of the total count, or more than 1.8 million sherd
s. (Hilgeman, 2000:25). Of this vast quantity, 98% are plain or decorated with relatively common designs. The common decorations such as cord marking and fabric impressing are very rare.
Chipped-stone artifacts and debris are uncommon at Angel Phase mounds, consisting of less than 1% of all artifacts. Ground-stone artifacts are fewer, representing about one-seventh the frequency of their chipped counterparts. Fauna
l remains are, however, a significant portion of the assemblage, with specimen counts attributing about 20%.
From a regional perspective, certain patterns and comparisons can be observed between other assemblages and among time periods. First, the simplicity or plainness of the Angel collection is similar to comparable assemblages from the Tennessee
-Cumberland
region. It is considered more plain than other Ohio-Mississippi confluence assemblages. Second, there is a trend toward greater plainness as time progresses. From early Angel 2 phase to late Angel 3 phase, the percentage of decorated sherds relative to all sherds declined from 3% to 0.6%. This trend is in line with regional trends in Tennessee-Cumberland and Western Kentucky
assemblages that deemphasized painting as a mode of decoration from prior to 1200 CE compared to afterward.
, or they are absent/present in a stratigraphic
-level base at the time of maximum usage. Rim thickness and handle variation are markers that gradually shift in pottery styles over time. They can be associated with the general early period, with the loop handle shifting toward the strap handle later. The appearance of a Ramey Incised sherd demarcates an earlier period, and the appearance of a Parkin Punctuated sherd indicates a later period.
The context in which these artifact markers are found contributes to whether the chronology can be deemed viable and acceptable as a temporal scale. To ensure that this is true, a series of eliminations of questionable layers is conducted to create a sample that represents undisturbed archaeological stratigraphy.
valley in Illinois
, Kentucky, and Indiana, the Mississippian-culture towns of Kincaid
, Wickliffe
, Tolu
, and Angel Mounds
have been grouped together into a "Kincaid Focus" set, due to similarities in pottery assemblages and site plans. Most striking are the comparisons between the Kincaid and Angel sites, which include analogous site plans, stylistic similarities in artifacts, and geographic proximity. These connections have led some experts to hypothesize that the builders and residents were of the same society.
The 300-400 year span in which these types of artifacts and sites are found is called the “Angel Phase”. It is broken up into three subphases:
All four mound sites (above) include painted and incised sherds that are very rare, ranging from less than one percent near Kincaid to about three or four percent of the assemblage at Wickliffe. Some common pottery styles found in these sites include: Angel Negative Painted, Kincaid Negative Painted, and Matthews Incised (32). This pottery is shell tempered and ranges from the smoothed surface and coarser temper of Mississippi Ware to the more polished surface and finer temper of Bell Ware (31).
deposits, this was the earliest Middle Mississippian occupation of Angel. During this phase at Angel, pottery design indicates that this was the same time period as when Middle Wickliffe transitioned to Late Wickliffe phase, as well as Angelly.
The proposed Angel 1 phase (Stephan-Steinkamp Phase, 1100 to 1200?), is represented only by pottery sherds in the vicinity of, but not in, the Angel Mounds site. Mound A was constructed in the early 13th century, during the Angel 2 phase. The pottery found at the top of the mound dates to only Angel 2. This suggests that the mound was no longer in use for Angel 3 (1325 to 1450).
Kincaid’s largest platform mound, which is similar to Angel Mound A (MX10), was also used only until about 1300.
According to pottery deposits throughout the Angel site, only half the area was occupied for Angel 2. The dating of human remains buried at the site and Angel 3 pottery suggest that the majority of the site (north, west, east, and interior areas) was in use during Angel 3. There appeared to be more activity and a more populous occupation during Angel 3 than during Angel 2.
Archaeologists theorize that by 1450 CE with the collapse of the Angel chiefdom, many of the Angel people had relocated downriver to the confluence of the Ohio and Wabash
rivers. A new Late Mississippian cultural group subsequently emerged and are known as the Caborn-Welborn culture.
, et al. (1951:229) grouped the lower Ohio Valley Mississippian towns of Angel, Kincaid, Tolu
and Wickliffe into the “Kincaid focus”.
Radiocarbon dating was used together with analysis of regional trends of assemblages to fill in aspects of the temporal range of the Angel Mounds site. As the discipline of archaeology changed, the focus of research in Mississippian archaeology changed with it. Chronology by seriation
became an essential step towards answering more complex questions, instead of being only the final result of a study. “The second major change in Mississippian studies is that pottery analysis is addressing new questions – compositional, technological, functional and stylistic…” Compositional studies include:
Breakthroughs in Mississippian archaeology technology studies include:
Functional studies include:
Stylistic advances in Mississippian pottery related to the Southwestern Ceremonial Complex group defined by Waring and Holder. Mississippian pottery, especially from Angel and Kincaid, has been grouped with Southeastern pottery because they shared the same motifs.
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
of the central portions of the United States of America, as defined in the discipline of archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. Angel Phase archaeological sites date from c. 1050 - 1350 CE and are located on the northern and southern sides of the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
in southern Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, such as National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
Angel Mounds
Angel Mounds
Angel Mounds State Historic Site is located on the Ohio River in Vanderburgh and Warrick Counties eight miles southeast of Evansville and just upriver of the confluence of the Green and Ohio rivers. Administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Indiana State Museums...
near present-day Evansville
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Indiana and the largest city in Southern Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 117,429. It is the county seat of Vanderburgh County and the regional hub for both Southwestern Indiana and the...
; northwestern Kentucky, with Wickliffe Mounds
Wickliffe Mounds
Wickliffe Mounds is a prehistoric, Mississippian culture archaeological site located in Ballard County, Kentucky, just outside the town of Wickliffe, about three miles from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Archaeology investigations have linked the site with others along the Ohio...
and the Tolu Site
Tolu Site
The Tolu Site is a prehistoric archeological site of the Mississippian culture near the unincorporated community of Tolu, Crittenden County, Kentucky, United States. It was built and occupied between 1200-1450 CE. No carbon dating has been performed at the site, but analysis of pottery styles...
; and Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site
Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site
The Kincaid Mounds Historic Site, circa 1050-1400 CE, was among the largest prehistoric Mississippian culture chiefdom centers, located at the southern tip of present day U.S. state of Illinois...
in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Additional sites range from the mouth of Anderson Creek in Perry County, Indiana
Perry County, Indiana
Perry County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 19,338. The county seat is Tell City. It is the hilliest county as well as one of the most forested counties of in Indiana as it features more than of Hoosier National Forest...
, west to the mouth of the Wabash
Wabash River
The Wabash River is a river in the Midwestern United States that flows southwest from northwest Ohio near Fort Recovery across northern Indiana to southern Illinois, where it forms the Illinois-Indiana border before draining into the Ohio River, of which it is the largest northern tributary...
in Posey County, Indiana
Posey County, Indiana
As of the census of 2000, there were 27,061 people, 10,205 households, and 7,612 families residing in the county. The population density was 66 people per square mile . There were 11,076 housing units at an average density of 27 per square mile...
.
Angel Phase assemblage
One of the most extensive Mississippian artifactArtifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
assemblages in its region, the Angel Phase collection consists of well over 2.5 million individually catalogued objects. The count is rising yearly with continued excavation and research. Characteristic to Angel Phase mounds in particular, the assemblage is overwhelmingly ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
, with vessels and pottery fragments occupying just under 70% of the total count, or more than 1.8 million sherd
Sherd
In archaeology, a sherd is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels as well....
s. (Hilgeman, 2000:25). Of this vast quantity, 98% are plain or decorated with relatively common designs. The common decorations such as cord marking and fabric impressing are very rare.
Chipped-stone artifacts and debris are uncommon at Angel Phase mounds, consisting of less than 1% of all artifacts. Ground-stone artifacts are fewer, representing about one-seventh the frequency of their chipped counterparts. Fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
l remains are, however, a significant portion of the assemblage, with specimen counts attributing about 20%.
From a regional perspective, certain patterns and comparisons can be observed between other assemblages and among time periods. First, the simplicity or plainness of the Angel collection is similar to comparable assemblages from the Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
-Cumberland
Cumberland Plateau
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the...
region. It is considered more plain than other Ohio-Mississippi confluence assemblages. Second, there is a trend toward greater plainness as time progresses. From early Angel 2 phase to late Angel 3 phase, the percentage of decorated sherds relative to all sherds declined from 3% to 0.6%. This trend is in line with regional trends in Tennessee-Cumberland and Western Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
assemblages that deemphasized painting as a mode of decoration from prior to 1200 CE compared to afterward.
Artifact seriation
The chronology of Angel pottery is based upon certain markers that occur in the assemblage. These markers are chosen because they either appear to follow a continuous change over time, which allows classification by seriationSeriation
Seriation is a way of situating an object within a series:*Seriation *Seriation...
, or they are absent/present in a stratigraphic
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....
-level base at the time of maximum usage. Rim thickness and handle variation are markers that gradually shift in pottery styles over time. They can be associated with the general early period, with the loop handle shifting toward the strap handle later. The appearance of a Ramey Incised sherd demarcates an earlier period, and the appearance of a Parkin Punctuated sherd indicates a later period.
The context in which these artifact markers are found contributes to whether the chronology can be deemed viable and acceptable as a temporal scale. To ensure that this is true, a series of eliminations of questionable layers is conducted to create a sample that represents undisturbed archaeological stratigraphy.
Spatiotemporal distribution
In the lower Ohio RiverOhio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
valley in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Kentucky, and Indiana, the Mississippian-culture towns of Kincaid
Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site
The Kincaid Mounds Historic Site, circa 1050-1400 CE, was among the largest prehistoric Mississippian culture chiefdom centers, located at the southern tip of present day U.S. state of Illinois...
, Wickliffe
Wickliffe Mounds
Wickliffe Mounds is a prehistoric, Mississippian culture archaeological site located in Ballard County, Kentucky, just outside the town of Wickliffe, about three miles from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Archaeology investigations have linked the site with others along the Ohio...
, Tolu
Tolu Site
The Tolu Site is a prehistoric archeological site of the Mississippian culture near the unincorporated community of Tolu, Crittenden County, Kentucky, United States. It was built and occupied between 1200-1450 CE. No carbon dating has been performed at the site, but analysis of pottery styles...
, and Angel Mounds
Angel Mounds
Angel Mounds State Historic Site is located on the Ohio River in Vanderburgh and Warrick Counties eight miles southeast of Evansville and just upriver of the confluence of the Green and Ohio rivers. Administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Indiana State Museums...
have been grouped together into a "Kincaid Focus" set, due to similarities in pottery assemblages and site plans. Most striking are the comparisons between the Kincaid and Angel sites, which include analogous site plans, stylistic similarities in artifacts, and geographic proximity. These connections have led some experts to hypothesize that the builders and residents were of the same society.
The 300-400 year span in which these types of artifacts and sites are found is called the “Angel Phase”. It is broken up into three subphases:
- Jonathan Creek (1000/1100-1200CE),
- Angelly (1200-1300CE), and
- Tinsley Hill (1300-1450CE) (30).
All four mound sites (above) include painted and incised sherds that are very rare, ranging from less than one percent near Kincaid to about three or four percent of the assemblage at Wickliffe. Some common pottery styles found in these sites include: Angel Negative Painted, Kincaid Negative Painted, and Matthews Incised (32). This pottery is shell tempered and ranges from the smoothed surface and coarser temper of Mississippi Ware to the more polished surface and finer temper of Bell Ware (31).
Chronology
Many of the structures in the site were built in the early Angel 2 phase (1200 to 1325). According to the stratigraphy of middenMidden
A midden, is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, vermin, shells, sherds, lithics , and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation...
deposits, this was the earliest Middle Mississippian occupation of Angel. During this phase at Angel, pottery design indicates that this was the same time period as when Middle Wickliffe transitioned to Late Wickliffe phase, as well as Angelly.
The proposed Angel 1 phase (Stephan-Steinkamp Phase, 1100 to 1200?), is represented only by pottery sherds in the vicinity of, but not in, the Angel Mounds site. Mound A was constructed in the early 13th century, during the Angel 2 phase. The pottery found at the top of the mound dates to only Angel 2. This suggests that the mound was no longer in use for Angel 3 (1325 to 1450).
Kincaid’s largest platform mound, which is similar to Angel Mound A (MX10), was also used only until about 1300.
According to pottery deposits throughout the Angel site, only half the area was occupied for Angel 2. The dating of human remains buried at the site and Angel 3 pottery suggest that the majority of the site (north, west, east, and interior areas) was in use during Angel 3. There appeared to be more activity and a more populous occupation during Angel 3 than during Angel 2.
Archaeologists theorize that by 1450 CE with the collapse of the Angel chiefdom, many of the Angel people had relocated downriver to the confluence of the Ohio and Wabash
Wabash River
The Wabash River is a river in the Midwestern United States that flows southwest from northwest Ohio near Fort Recovery across northern Indiana to southern Illinois, where it forms the Illinois-Indiana border before draining into the Ohio River, of which it is the largest northern tributary...
rivers. A new Late Mississippian cultural group subsequently emerged and are known as the Caborn-Welborn culture.
History of research
The history of research concerning Angel Phase and Mississippian archaeology is chiefly focused on the study of shell-tempered pottery. The first accounts of the process of shell-tempered pottery in the Southeast were described by Dumont. In his historical account, Dumont described how women were in charge of the process. He described in rich detail the skill and elements involved in the creation of shell-tempered pottery. Pottery of the region has been studied by archeologists both to define chronology of sites and to understand cultural relationships. “Fay-Cooper ColeFay-Cooper Cole
.Fay-Cooper Cole was a professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago and most famously was a witness for the defense for John Scopes at the Scopes Trial.-External links:...
, et al. (1951:229) grouped the lower Ohio Valley Mississippian towns of Angel, Kincaid, Tolu
Tolu Site
The Tolu Site is a prehistoric archeological site of the Mississippian culture near the unincorporated community of Tolu, Crittenden County, Kentucky, United States. It was built and occupied between 1200-1450 CE. No carbon dating has been performed at the site, but analysis of pottery styles...
and Wickliffe into the “Kincaid focus”.
Radiocarbon dating was used together with analysis of regional trends of assemblages to fill in aspects of the temporal range of the Angel Mounds site. As the discipline of archaeology changed, the focus of research in Mississippian archaeology changed with it. Chronology by seriation
Seriation
Seriation is a way of situating an object within a series:*Seriation *Seriation...
became an essential step towards answering more complex questions, instead of being only the final result of a study. “The second major change in Mississippian studies is that pottery analysis is addressing new questions – compositional, technological, functional and stylistic…” Compositional studies include:
- the first thin-section analyses conducted by Porter;
- microscopic examination of paste and temper in order to identify non-local vessels and improve the classification of sherds; and
- more recent studies focused on resources and exchange patterns.
Breakthroughs in Mississippian archaeology technology studies include:
- detailed information on manufacture of pottery by Million and van der Leeuw;
- Stimmel's finding that sodium chlorideSodium chlorideSodium chloride, also known as salt, common salt, table salt or halite, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaCl. Sodium chloride is the salt most responsible for the salinity of the ocean and of the extracellular fluid of many multicellular organisms...
improves the workability of shell-tempered clay; and - studies conducted by Steponaitis, Bronitsky and Hamer to assess the resistance of fine shell-tempered versus coarse shell-tempered pottery to thermal and mechanical stresses.
Functional studies include:
- the difference between ceremonial pottery and utilitarian pottery by Sears and Childress;
- “Smith noted that a number of innovations in pottery technology are associated with the cultivation, storage, processing and preparation of maize.”
- Hally's use of vessel morphology and surface to describe how the vessel's function was altered.
Stylistic advances in Mississippian pottery related to the Southwestern Ceremonial Complex group defined by Waring and Holder. Mississippian pottery, especially from Angel and Kincaid, has been grouped with Southeastern pottery because they shared the same motifs.