Spanish Fort Site (Holly Bluff, Mississippi)

Archaeological site

United States historic place

Spanish Fort Site (22SH500)

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

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Location| Spanish Fort Rd., south of Holly Bluff, Mississippi
Coordinates| 32°45′17″N 90°30′30″W﻿ / ﻿32.75472°N 90.50833°W﻿ / 32.75472; -90.50833
Area| 18 acres (7.3 ha)
NRHP reference No.| 88000234[1]
Added to NRHP| April 6, 1988

The Spanish Fort Site (22-SH-500) is an archaeological site in the Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is one of three major earthwork sites in the far southern portion of the Yazoo River valley, and it has been designated a historic site because of its archaeological value. Despite its name, the site was not built by the Spanish, and its original purpose is believed to have been ceremonial, not martial.

## Location and excavations[edit]

The Spanish Fort Site lies along the Sunflower River nearly 10 miles (16 km) downstream from the community of Holly Bluff.[2]: 201 Along with the nearby Leist A and Little Spanish Fort sites, it is a semicircular earthwork that has received little archaeological attention. In 1988, the site was classified as having been built by peoples of the Anderson Landing phase, but this assignment was largely due to the presence of an Anderson Landing site near the earthworks.[2]: 199 The site first appeared in print in the early twentieth century in the account of archaeologist Clarence Bloomfield Moore, who sank a few test pits at the site; according to his report, the site comprised an embankment and a group of mounds.[2]: 200 Eighteen years later, another survey estimated the enclosure's area at 45 acres (18 ha). From 1949 to 1955, yet another expedition collected artifacts from the surface and conducted more test excavations; they found evidence of occupation by the Marksville (Issaquena phase), Coles Creek (Aden phase), and Baytown (Deasonville phase) cultures.[2]: 202

## Conclusions[edit]

Excavations at Little Spanish Fort led an archaeologist working with the Forest Service to conclude in 1993 that the three sites could not be assigned a single conclusive date,[2]: 217 due to the presence of cultural material as old as the Archaic period and as recent as the Mississippian period. However, the study suggested that the enclosure itself was constructed during the early portion of the Middle Woodland period; the site has yielded pottery with characteristics that appear to have been created as local peoples' culture was changing from Tchefuncte to Marksville.[2]: 199 Radiocarbon dating shows that the Little Spanish Fort, which also was built during the Marksville period, was constructed approximately 2110 BP (160 BC) — despite their names, the earthwork sites were built long before the first Spanish presence in the region.[2]: 214 Archaeologists have disputed the reasons for building the Spanish Fort and the other nearby earthworks: some hold that their circular or semicircular shape represented a method for humans to contain the vast cosmos, while others argue that the process of construction was their builders' method of joining in the cosmos. Scholars are agreed that the Spanish Fort Site and similar sites were ceremonial locations, rather than fortifications.[2]: 217

## Preservation[edit]

In 1988, about 18 acres (7.3 ha) of the Spanish Fort Site were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, due to the site's archaeological significance. Spanish Fort is one of five Sharkey County sites on the National Register, along with Leist A, the Rolling Fork Mounds, the Savory Site, and the Cary Site. The Little Spanish Fort is not listed on the National Register.[1]

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Jackson, H. Edwin. "Little Spanish Fort: An Early Middle Woodland Enclosure in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi". Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 23.2 (1998): 199-220.

## Further reading[edit]

* Moore, Clarence B. "Certain Mounds of Arkansas and Mississippi". Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 13 (1908): 480-605.

* v
* t
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Coles Creek and Plum Bayou cultures

* Late Woodland period
* List of archaeological periods (North America)

Coles Creek sites|

* Aden site
* Balmoral Mounds
* Boone's Mounds
* Churupa Plantation Mound
* Coles Creek Site
* Crippen Point site
* Cypress Grove Mound
* DePrato Mounds
* Feltus Mound Site
* Filhiol Mound Site
* Fisher site
* Flowery Mound
* Frogmore Mound Site
* Ghost Site Mounds
* Greenhouse site
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* Marsden Mounds
* Mazique Archeological Site
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* Raffman site
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* Shackleford Church Mounds
* Spanish Fort
* Sundown Mounds
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* Troyville Earthworks
* Venable Mound
* Wade Landing Mound

Coastal
Coles Creek sites|

* Atchafalaya Basin Mounds
* Bayou Black Mound (16TR78)
* Bayou Cypremont (16SMY7)
* Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds
* Bayou L’Ours Site
* Bayou Portage Mounds
* Bayou Sorrel Mounds (16IV4)
* Clovelly Site (16LF64)
* Cypress Point Site (16VM112)
* Eagle Point Site (16IB123)
* Gibson Mounds (16TR5)
* Greenwood Cemetery Site (16SMY10)
* Kleinpeter Mounds
* Little Cheniere Site (16CM22)
* Little Pecan Island Site
* Jerry Haas Site (16SJ51)
* Machias Lake (16SB2)
* Morgan Mounds
* Pecan Mounds (16SM37)
* Pennison Mounds (16AS16)
* Portage Mounds (16SM5)
* Richeau Field Site (16TR82)
* Schwing Place Mound (16IV13)
* Sims site
* Southwest of Cut Off Lagoon (16SB50)
* St. Gabriel Mounds (16IV128)
* Temple Mounds Site (16LF4)

Plum Bayou sites|

* Baytown Site
* Chandler Landing Site
* Coy Site
* Dogtown Site
* Hayes site
* Maberry Site
* Plum Bayou Mounds
* Roland Site

Related topics
Eastern Agricultural Complex
Fourche Maline culture
Mississippian culture
Natchez
Plaquemine culture
Platform mound
Taensa
Troyville culture

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Miscellaneous|

* Aridoamerica
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* Chanunpa
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* Clovis point
* Container Revolution
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* Eden point
* Effigy mound
* Falcon dancer
* Folsom point
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* Horned Serpent
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* Medicine wheel
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* Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing
* Mound Builders
* N.A.G.P.R.A.
* Norse colonization of North America
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* Piasa
* Projectile point
* Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
* Stickball
* Three Sisters agriculture
* Thunderbird
* Transoceanic contact
* Underwater panther
* Water glyphs

Related
Genetic history
Pre-Columbian era

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U.S. National Register of Historic Places

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