Teoc Creek Site
Teoc Creek Archaeological Site · Carroll County Teoc
Late Woodland – Early Mississippian (c.700–1200 CE) Miller III – Mississippian·Late Woodland – Baytown – Early Mississippian·🇺🇸 Mississippi, Carroll County, Teoc, United States
About
About Teoc Creek Site
Teoc Creek is a small Late Woodland to Early Mississippian mound-hamlet on Teoc Creek in Carroll County, Mississippi, in the upper Yazoo Basin. 700–950 CE), it preserves a 5m conical burial mound (later capped by thin Mississippian sheet midden), wall-trench structures, and a sheet village with early maize CUP. Phillips' Lower Mississippi Survey mapped it as a Coles Creek–Marksville transition; Patricia Galloway later refined its ceramics (Baytown plain, Mulberry Creek cord-marked).
The mound yielded bundle burials and Carroll County bifaces. Now on private farmland, it documents Woodland sedentism before the Yazoo Mississippi fluorescence.
Why it mattersTeoc Creek is a small Late Woodland to Early Mississippian mound-hamlet on Teoc Creek in Carroll County, Mississippi, in the upper Yazoo Basin. The type-site for the Baytown-period Teoc Creek phase (c.700–950 CE), it preserves a 5m conical burial mound (later capped by thin Mississippian sheet midde Type-site defining regional sequence.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Chronology and phasing of construction
- 02Function of elite vs communal architecture
Theories
- 01Regional capital coordinating irrigation and exchange
- 02Ritual-ceremonial amphitheatre aligned to astronomy
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.700–1100 CE
- Period
- Late Woodland – Early Mississippian (c.700–1200 CE) Miller III – Mississippian
- Culture
- Late Woodland – Baytown – Early Mississippian
- Builders
- Baytown – Early Mississippian
- Purpose
- Baytown-phase hamlet with conical burial mound and early maize plaza on Teoc Creek alluvium, Yazoo Basin Woodland–Mississippian transition
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.700–1100 CE
Initial construction
c.800–900 CE
Major occupation / refurbishment
c.1000–1532
Late horizon / Inca incorporation where applicable
On the ground
Structures & features
33.6800° N · 89.9200° W · 85 m · 2 mapped features
Conical Burial Mound
mound5m high conical mound 25m diameter with bundle burials and Baytown ceramics
33.6802° N · 89.9199° WWall-Trench Village Sheet Midden
ancient village3 ha sheet midden with wall-trench structures and early maize pits south of mound
33.6797° N · 89.9202° W