Skip to main content.
Open today 10 am – 5 pm

Natchez Bluffs Archaeological Project

Project hero image.
2022 field crew during excavations at the Pumpkin Lake site in Jefferson County, MS. Drone photo by Marc D’Agostino

Curatorial Section

American

Research Discipline

Archaeology

Dates

2015 - Present

Project Phase

Active Fieldwork/Data Collection

The Lower Mississippi Valley is home to thousands of earthen mounds and associated settlements, and the variable form, size, and elaboration of these sites has given rise to unresolved debates about their functions and meanings. Beginning in 2015 under the direction of Dr. Megan Kassabaum, the Natchez Bluffs Archaeological Project has investigated four sites in the region—Smith Creek, Feltus, Lessley, and Pumpkin Lake—that span the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and from egalitarian to hierarchical social organization.

Focusing on a series of mound sites that served as important ritual centers for over 1,000 years, the project—which involves a large number of Penn graduate and undergraduate students—investigates the relationships between monument construction and identity, as well as foodways and politics, through archaeological excavation and analysis.

Help Expand Global Research

New field work endowments will ensure our continued leadership in national and international field research and discovery.

Make a Gift

Wilkinson, Adams, Jefferson, and Claiborne Counties in Mississippi
Mound sites and associated settlements in the Natchez Bluffs region of the Lower Mississippi River Valley, named after the 200-foot vertical bluff overhanging the river. The surrounding area includes cypress swamps and hardwood forests, as well as springs, rivers, and lakes.

The Mississippi River played a defining role in the lives of pre-colonial communities in the eastern United States. Due to the natural abundance of the river and its associated floodplains, the Lower Valley region was always advanced in terms of monumental constructions and is home to thousands of earthen mounds and associated settlements. The mounds demonstrate high levels of variation in terms of form, size, and elaboration and have given rise to many unresolved debates as to their functions and meanings. The Natchez Bluffs Archaeological Project focuses on a series of mound sites that served as important ritual centers for over 1000 years, as well as the domestic sites associated with them. The primary research goal is to understand the complex relationships that existed between monument construction and identity, as well as foodways and politics, through archaeological excavation and analysis of the recovered materials.

Beginning in 2015 under the direction of Dr. Megan Kassabaum, the project has thus far focused on four mound sites—Smith Creek, Feltus, Lessley, and Pumpkin Lake—and associated settlements that span the transitions from egalitarian to hierarchical social organization and from hunting and gathering to agriculture. The project involves a large number of Penn graduate and undergraduate students both in the field and in the North American Archaeology Lab where the excavated materials are housed. Exhibitions at both the Penn Museum and the Wilkinson County Museum in Woodville, MS have displayed artifacts recovered by the project and interpreted this important history for public audiences.

Photo of project.
Part of the 2016 field crew clean trowels a unit revealing a large Tchefuncte Culture circular structure at the Smith Creek site in Wilkinson County, MS. Photo by Megan Kassabaum
Photo of project.
Mound stratigraphy in the 2015 excavations at the Smith Creek site in Wilkinson County, MS showing basketloading and veneering. Photo by Megan Kassabaum
Photo of project.
Students screening mound fill at the Smith Creek site in Wilkinson County, MS. Photo by Megan Kassabaum
Photo of project.
Graduate students at work in a unit in the mound at Lessley in Wilkinson County, MS during the 2018 season. Photo by Grace Vargo-Willeford
Photo of project.
Students shovel testing during a 2022 survey of the Pumpkin Lake site in Jefferson County, MS. Photo by Megan Kassabaum
Photo of project.
Visitors examine artifacts on display in the Wilkinson County Museum in Woodville, MS during the opening weekend in 2018. Photo by Grace Vargo-Willeford
Photo of project.
Excavated materials from Smith Creek on display in the Penn Museum’s Moundbuilders: Ancient Architects of North American exhibit (2017–2020). Penn Museum staff photographer
Photo of project.
This piece from the Penn Museum collection, recovered from the Feltus site by Montroville W. Dickeson in 1846, depicts the underwater panther, a mythical being that was thought to inhabit the underworld. UPM object 14716
Photo of project.
This image of the Feltus site in Jefferson County, MS as sketched by Montroville W. Dickeson and painted by John J. Egan ca. 1850 is one of the 25 panels that make up the “Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley.” Saint Louis Art Museum, Eliza McMillan Trust 34:1953

Researchers

  • Megan C. Kassabaum
    University of Pennsylvania | Principal Investigator
  • Matthew Capps
    University of Pennsylvania | Graduate Student

This project is open to student participation, email mkass@sas.upenn.edu for more information.

Research Access to the Collections

The Penn Museum welcomes and encourages researchers to make use of its collections, including objects from all over the world, as well as extensive photographic, film, and document archives.

Find Out How
1