The Vacant Quarter Revisited: Late Mississippian Abandonment of the Lower Ohio Valley Author(s): Charles R. Cobb and Brian M. Butler Source: American Antiquity, Vol. 67, No. 4 (Oct., 2002), pp. 625-641 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1593795 Accessed: 18-09-2017 03:13 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1593795?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Antiquity This content downloaded from 132.174.250.143 on Mon, 18 Sep 2017 03:13:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE VACANT QUARTER REVISITED: LATE MISSISSIPPIAN ABANDONMENT OF THE LOWER OHIO VALLEY Charles R. Cobb and Brian M. Butler The idea that a substantial portion of the North American midcontinent centered on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers conflu- ence was largely depopulated around A.D. 1450-1550-Stephen Williams's "Vacant Quarter" hypothesis-has been generally accepted by archaeologists. There has been, however, some disagreement over the timing and extent of the abandonment. Our long-term research along the Ohio River in southern Illinois's interior hill country has yielded a substantial corpus of late Mis- sissippian period radiocarbon dates, indicating that depopulation of the lower Ohio Valley occurred at the early end of Williams's estimate. Furthermore, the abandonment was a widespread phenomenon that involved Mississippian groups living in remote settings, as well as along major drainages. Although causes for the Vacant Quarter are still debated, evidence from other regions indicates that regional abandonment by agricultural groups was not a unique event in the Eastern Woodlands. Los arque6logos, en general han aceptado la hipotesis del "Cuadrante Vacante ", es decir, la idea de que la mayorfa de la zona central de los EE. UU. cerca de la confluencia de los rfos Ohio yMississippifue abandonada alrededorde 1450-1500. Sin embargo, existe desacuerdo sobre lafecha y la extension del abandono. Nuestras investigaciones del interior montafioso del rfo Ohio en el sur de Illinois han resultado en un corpus defechas de radiocarbono catorce que provienen del periodo Mississippi. Estasfechas indican que el abandono ocurrio al principio del periodo propuesto por Williams. Adema's, aunque las causas del "Cuadrante Vacante " todavfa son debatidas, existe evidencia en otras regiones de abandono por grupos agricultores, que indica que el aban- dono regional nofue un evento aislado en los Woodlands del este. n theearly 1980s, StephenWilliams (1980, 1983) to environmental changes that led to "population proposed the late Mississippian period aban- rearrangement" rather than loss (Williams 1990: donment of a region he referred to as the "Vacant 177-180). Quarter." With the Ohio-Mississippi River conflu- Williams admitted the evidence to support his ence as its nexus, the Vacant Quarter spanned the hypothesis, though compelling, was patchy. He fur- American Bottom in Illinois southward to the base ther observed that the "vacant situation here is also of the Missouri bootheel, and extended up the lower mainly a phenomenon of the alluvial valley areas. Ohio River into southeast Indiana (Figure 1). The The uplands, surrounding the Vacant Quarter, still boundaries of the region were originally defined byprobably supported a reasonable population of long- the presence/absence of protohistoric horizon mark- term settled groups, but this notion needs more test- ers, and Williams set the abandonment date around ing" (Williams 1990:173). Our decade-long research A.D. 1450 to 1550. It is still far from clear what led in southern Illinois has indeed tested this notion for to such a large-scale demographic shift, although, as one upland region in the presumed Vacant Quarter, Williams (1990) points out, such shifts were com- resulting in the conclusion that abandonment was mon occurrences in the American Southwest and likely a widespread phenomenon that cross-cut envi- elsewhere, including other regions of the Southeast ronmental zones. We present dates from three late (e.g., parts of Kentucky and Tennessee) during the villages that support a terminus for Mississippian Colonial era. Reasons forwarded to account for the occupation along the lower Ohio River, south of the Vacant Quarter range from pandemics introduced by Wabash confluence, around A.D. 1450. Europeans (if abandonment occurred in the 1500s), These dates are important because there is wide- Charles R. Cobb * Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902 Brian M. Butler m Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901 American Antiquity, 67(4), 2002, pp. 625-641 Copyright( 2002 by the Society for American Archaeology 625 This content downloaded from 132.174.250.143 on Mon, 18 Sep 2017 03:13:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 626 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 67, No. 4, 2002 IL - 'S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.' AR~~~~~~~~~ \0 100 200 300 ILES Figure 200di 400 60 KILOMETERS Figure 1. Boundaries of Vacant Quarter in relation to research area (adapted from Williams [1990]). spread, but not universal, support for the Vacant accommodate Williams's original position. Quarter hypothesis. Three positions have taken Nevertheless, Lewis is likely correct in his asser- shape, and resolution of the timing of abandonment tion that late Mississippian diagnostics could vary would be a major step toward addressing its cause widely in the midcontinent. A preferred route toward (O'Brien and Wood 1998:331-335). First, there is addressing these debates, one that has been largely the original proposal that the onset of abandonment lacking, is the documentation of large bodies of likely occurred in the fifteenth century. An alterna- radiocarbon dates for individual late Mississippian tive is that abandonment began 50-100 years earlier occupations that firmly bracket their occupation than posited by Williams (Morse and Morse spans. Our 10 years of work on three sites in the 1983:280,282-283). Finally, R. Barry Lewis (1986, southern Illinois interior provide some of the best evi- 1990) maintains that there was no Vacant Quarter; dence for dating the twilight of the Mississippian instead, he believes that we merely have a poor han- period in the lower Ohio Valley. With mounting evi- dle on identifying variability in artifact types diag- dence to support the Vacant Quarter hypothesis, com- nostic of late sites over such a large area. On the other bined with signs for similar large-scale phenomena hand, the only solid dates from his proposed Jack- elsewhere in the late prehistoric Eastern Woodlands, son phase (A.D. 1500-1700) of western Kentucky there is a need to address more systematically how and southeastern Missouri-from the Hess and regional abandonment by agricultural societies was Callahan-Thomson hamlets (two dates from each a regular feature of the prehistoric cultural landscape, site)-are now calibrated to an interval of aboutA.D. much as our colleagues in the American Southwest 1420-1500 (Lewis 1990:45); thus, these occupations have done. This content downloaded from 132.174.250.143 on Mon, 18 Sep 2017 03:13:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Cobb and Butler] LATE MISSISSIPPIAN ABANDONMENT OF THE LOWER OHIO VALLEY 627 /CABORN-WELBORN ~. DILLOW'S BLUFF*0 * ti er RIDGE CREEK <i Dogtooth Ben MOuds aMcNoom W-ickliffe Rowlandtown *XsGXTinsley Hill Andalex Chambers Jonathan Creek 25 km Figure 2. Research sites in southern ]Illinois and selected Mississippian settlements in the lower Ohio Valley. Mississippian Period Chronology in the Lower Muller 1986, 1993; Riordan 1975). The number and Ohio Valley complexity of the outlying settlements in the Black Bottom peaked in the thirteenth century. A palisade The Mississippian sequence in the lower Ohio Val- was built at Kincaid sometime in the not-otherwise- ley (Figure 2) has been the subject of an evolving dis- dated "middle phase" of the site. By A.D. 1300 cussion from somewhat different perspectives (Butler mound building ceased, at least in terms of additions 1991; Clay 1997; Lewis 1990, 1996; Muller 1986; to the major mounds. Contraction and concentration Wesler 1991). Much of the discussion relates to the in the habitation area characterized the post-1300 trajectory of the two major mound centers in the occupation at the site. Occasional stone box graves region, Kincaid (in southeastern Illinois) and Angel placed intermittently on mound tops suggest signs (in southwestern Indiana). Although researchers do of breakdown in the old rules of space and mound not agree on all aspects of this sequence, the general use. Kincaid ceases to be a settlement of major con- outlines of a consensus based on calibrated radio- sequence late in the Mississippian sequence. There carbon dates are as follows: Early Mississippian refers is no hard information