The Walls Phase is an archaeological phase

Archaeological phase

Archaeological phase and phasing refers to the logical reduction of contexts recorded during excavation to near contemporary archaeological horizons that represent a distinct "phase" of previous land use. These often but not always will be a representation of a former land surface or occupation...

 in southwestern 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...

 and northwestern Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 of the Late Mississippian culture

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....

. Chucalissa Indian Village is a Walls Phase mound and plaza complex located on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

. Other contemporaneous groups in the area include the Parkin Phase, Tipton Phase

Tipton Phase

The Tipton Phase is an archaeological phase in southwestern Tennessee of the Late Mississippian culture. Other contemporaneous groups in the area include the Parkin Phase, Walls Phase, Menard Phase, and the Nodena Phase. The Tipton Phase is the last prehistoric people to inhabit the area before the...

, Menard Phase

Menard-Hodges Site

The Menard-Hodges Site , is an archaeological site in Arkansas. It includes two large mounds as well as several house mounds. It is the type site for the Menard phase, a protohistoric Mississippian culture group. It is considered as a possible candidate for the Province of Anilco encountered by the...

, and the Nodena Phase

Nodena Phase

The Nodena Phase is an archaeological phase in eastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri of the Late Mississippian culture which dates from about 1400–1650 CE. The Nodena Phase is known from a collection of villages along the Mississippi River between the Missouri Bootheel and Wapanocca Lake...

. The Walls Phase is the last prehistoric people to inhabit the Memphis area before the arrival of Europeans. During the early 1540s the Hernando de Soto Expedition passed through the area, stopping at many villages along the way. It is thought that the Walls Phase may be the Province of Quizquiz, a Tunican people encountered by de Soto on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Settlement pattern

The Walls Phase settlements consist of one large site , located at De Soto Park in Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, nine single mound

Platform mound

A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...

 sites, and six smaller moundless villages scattered along the natural levee

Levee

A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...

s and bluffs of De Soto County, Mississippi and Shelby County, Tennessee

Shelby County, Tennessee

Shelby County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the state's largest both in terms of population and geographic area, with a population of 927,644 at the 2010 census...

. Included among the secondary sites are Chucalissa, the Lake Cormorant site, the Irby site, the Cheatham site, and the Woodlyn site. Although only a few of those sites have surviving mounds. The phase itself is named for a site near the small hamlet of Walls, Mississippi

Walls, Mississippi

Walls, is a village located in Northern DeSoto County, Mississippi near the Mississippi River, part of the larger region known as "The Delta", and known for its rich, dark soil.-History:...

. The Belle Meade Phase is located across the Mississippi River from the Walls Phase on its western bank, and the Tipton Phase

Tipton Phase

The Tipton Phase is an archaeological phase in southwestern Tennessee of the Late Mississippian culture. Other contemporaneous groups in the area include the Parkin Phase, Walls Phase, Menard Phase, and the Nodena Phase. The Tipton Phase is the last prehistoric people to inhabit the area before the...

is located directly north, also on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River.

Pottery

Walls ceramics consist mainly of large globular jars, short necked water bottles and many different bowl forms. The pottery was usually decorated by incising and engraving lines, punctated patterns and the application of handles and appendages to the vessel form. The frequency of different vessel types and pastes have helped to define the phase from surrounding phases. Like at most Mississippian sites, Mississippi Plain and Bell Plain are the most common types. Other types include Parkin Punctated, Barton Incised, Old Town Red Filmed, Walls Engraved, Rhodes Incised, Ranch Incised, and Hull Engraved.