Plum Bayou culture is a Pre-Columbian

Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...

 Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 culture that lived in what is now east-central Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 from 650—1050 CE, a time known as the Late Woodland Period. Archaeologists defined the culture based on the Toltec Mounds site and named it for a local waterway.

Relationship to other cultures

The Baytown culture

Baytown culture

The Baytown culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 300 to 700 CE in the lower Mississippi River Valley, consisting of sites in eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, Louisiana, and western Mississippi. The Baytown Site on the White River in Monroe County, Arkansas is...

 (300 to 650 CE) preceded the Plum Bayou culture, and was then followed by early 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....

s, which flourished from 900—1600 CE, until diseases brought by European decimated their populations.

The Plum Bayou culture had contact with the Coles Creek culture

Coles Creek culture

Coles Creek culture is a Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi valley in the southern United States. It followed the Troyville culture. The period marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area...

, located along 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...

, and early Caddoan cultures, located in river valleys of the Red, Ouachita

Ouachita River

The Ouachita River is a river that runs south and east through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Louisiana, joining the Tensas River to form the Black River near Jonesville, Louisiana.-Course:...

, and Arkansas Rivers in Arkansas and into Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

.

Exotic materials found at Plum Bayou sites reveal trade with the Ozark Plateau, West Gulf Coastal Plain, and the Ouachita Mountains

Ouachita Mountains

The Ouachita Mountains are a mountain range in west central Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. The range's subterranean roots may extend as far as central Texas, or beyond it to the current location of the Marathon Uplift. Along with the Ozark Mountains, the Ouachita Mountains form the U.S...

.

Major Plum Bayou sites with single or multiple mounds include:

• Toltec Mounds (3LN42), Lonoke County
• Coy site (3LN20), Lonoke County
• Hayes site (35CS196), Arkansas County
  Arkansas County, Arkansas
  Arkansas County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,019. The county has two county seats, De Witt and Stuttgart...
  
  
• Baytown Site
  Baytown Site
  The Baytown Site is a Pre-Columbian Native American archaeological site located on the White River at Indian Bay, in Monroe County, Arkansas. It was inhabited by peoples of the Baytown culture , in a time known as the Late Woodland period...
  
   (3MOI), Monroe County
  Monroe County, Arkansas
  Monroe County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of 2010, the population is 8,149. The county seat is Clarendon, while its largest city is Brinkley...
  
  
• Roland site (3AR30), Arkansas County
  Arkansas County, Arkansas
  Arkansas County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,019. The county has two county seats, De Witt and Stuttgart...
  
  
• Chandler Landing site, Prairie County
• Dogtown site
• Maberry site, Woodruff County

Settlements

Plum Bayou culture was one of the earliest groups to built ceremonial community centers with platform 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...

s and rectangular plazas. They primarily lived in small villages in the uplands and floodplains of the White

White River (Arkansas)

The White River is a 722-mile long river that flows through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Missouri.-Course:The source of the White River is in the Boston Mountains of northwest Arkansas, in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest southeast of Fayetteville...

 and Arkansas River

Arkansas River

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...

s. Archaeologists divide Plum Bayou settlements into "single household, multiple household, multiple household with mound, and multiple mound sites."

Subsistence

Farmers grew crops such as amaranth

Amaranth

Amaranthus, collectively known as amaranth, is a cosmopolitan genus of herbs. Approximately 60 species are recognized, with inflorescences and foliage ranging from purple and red to gold...

, chenopodium

Chenopodium

Chenopodium is a genus of about 150 species of perennial or annual herbaceous flowering plants known as the goosefoots, which occur almost anywhere in the world. It is placed in the family Amaranthaceae in the APG II system; older classifications separate it and its relatives as Chenopodiaceae, but...

, bottle gourd, knotweed, little barley, maygrass, squash, sunflower

Sunflower

Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...

, and sumpweed. In some later Plum Bayou sites, maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 was cultivated in small amounts. Supplementing their farming, Plum Bayou peoples also hunted game and gathered wild plants, such as cherries, grapes, plums, persimmons, and nuts.

Material culture

This culture is defined in part by its ceramics. Much of Plum Bayou ceramics was plainware, tempered with shells. Named types of ceramics found at Plum Bayou sites include Coles Creek incised var. Keyo, Larto Red, Officer Punctated, and French Fork incised. Red slip, or clay paint, was also used to decorate some ceramic vessels.

Decline

While neighboring cultures adopted maize cultivation and increasingly complex religions and political organization, the Plum Bayou people did not. People continued to occupy the region, but they abandoned their ceremonial sites. The exact descendants of the Plum Bayou culture are not known; however, Quapaw people today are responsible for Plum Bayou human remains and artifacts through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...

.

See also

• Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley