at The University of Southern Mississippi

Prehistory of the Southeastern United States. My research and teaching area of specialization is the prehistory of the southeastern United States, particularly in subsistence practices, ritual integration, and political and economic organization of middle range societies ranging from the Middle Archaic to Mississippian Period. I am particularly interested in exploring how prehistoric animal use reflects economic as well as social organization in these societies. Extensive local fieldwork in collaboration with my graduate students has produced significant advances in our understanding of the prehistory of southeast Mississippi. In addition to my own research efforts and teaching responsibilities, I am editor for the Mississippi Archaeological Association, publisher of Mississippi Archaeology.

Prehistoric Subsistence. A central research concern is the reconstruction of prehistoric subsistence patterns, in particular animal use. My zooarchaeological research includes not only environmental parameters affecting subsistence strategies but also the cultural rules that dictate patterns of animal procurement and consumption, particularly in the context of ritual activities. An important aspect of this research has focused on the zooarchaeological record of the Moundville chiefdom. Susan Scott and I recently finished analyzing faunal samples from elite mound contexts at Moundville, which along with assemblages from two Moundville-phase farmsteads, the Grady Bilbo site (1TU66) and the Gilliam site (1TU904), have illuminated both economic and ritual aspects of animal use in this prehistoric chiefdom. Extending this inquiry into faunal use in prehistoric chiefdoms is ongoing analysis of two Caddo sites in southwest Arkansas, the Martin site, a prehistoric farmstead, and the multi mound Grandview site. Other recent zooarchaeological investigations include the Middle Woodland Marksville site and the Middle Archaic Watson Brake site both in Louisiana, and with Susan Scott, collections from several Chickasaw sites in the Tupelo area, excavated by WPA and National Park Service archaeologists.

Winterville Mounds. In 2005, in the context of teaching the Southern Miss field school and in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, I began excavating at the Winterville Mounds, one of the major Mississippian centers in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Research there will focus on the nature and variety of activities that took place on and near the mounds by documenting architecture on the mound summits and recovering refuse related to mound use. It will also document the extent and nature of off-mound residential areas of the site. A multi year excavation project is envisioned at Winterville. See 2006 report

Archaeology of the Southern Gulf Coastal Plain. Southern Miss’s location lends itself to ongoing research focusing on prehistoric lifeways of the southern Gulf coastal plain, particularly southeast Mississippi. Archaeological field schools, several CRM projects, and especially graduate student research have considerably furthered our understanding of prehistoric chronology and cultural trends in the area. A number of Southern Miss anthropology theses, including ones by Rita Fields, Michael Dunn, Phillip Hodge and Scot Keith, have contributed to our notions about prehistoric hunter-gatherer settlement and technological organization in the area.

Archaeology and Public Policy. Cultural resource management provides the primary source of employment of graduate level archaeologists. It is the goal of the graduate program to train students in the practical and well as the scientific aspects of archaeology. Courses provide the student with exposure to archaeological theory from an anthropological perspective, prehistoric and historic archaeology and culture history, analytical methods, and the legal basis and logistics of CRM archaeology.

Recent publications

H. Edwin Jackson (in press) Prehistoric Faunal Exploitation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. In Time's River: Archaeological Syntheses in the Yazoo Basin and Lower Mississippi River Valley, edited by E. Peacock and J. Rafferty. University of Alabama Press

J. S. Girard, H. E. Jackson, K. M. Roberts, 2007 Fish Hatchery 2 (16NA70): A Late Prehistoric Site on the Caddo-Lower Mississippi Valley Margin. Louisiana Archaeology 27: 15-70.

Joe W. Saunders and others, 2005 Watson Brake, a Middle Archaic Mound Complex in Northeast Louisiana. American Antiquity. 70(4): 631-668.

H. Edwin Jackson, 2005 Darkening the Skies: A Zooarchaeological Accounting of Passenger Pigeons in the Prehistoric Southeast. In Engaged Anthropology: Essays in Honor of Richard I. Ford, edited by M. Hegmon and S. Beiselt University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology Anthropological Papers.

Susan L. Scott and H. Edwin Jackson, 2004. Faunal Remains from the US Park Service Excavations at MLE14, MLE18, MLE90 and MLE112. In The Chickasaws: Economics, Politics, and Social Organization in the Early 18th Century, edited by Jay K. Johnson. Final Report, National Endowment for the Humanities.

H. Edwin Jackson and Susan L. Scott, 2003. Patterns of Elite Faunal Utilization at Moundville, Alabama. American Antiquity 68(3):552-572.

H. E. Jackson, M. Higgins, and R. Reams, 2002. Woodland Cultural and Chronologial Trends in the Southern Gulf Coastal Plain: Recent Research in the Pine hills of Southeastern Mississippi. The Woodland Southeast, edited by D. G. Anderson and R. Mainfort. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

H. E. Jackson and S. L. Scott, 2002. Woodland Faunal Exploitation in the Mid-South. The Woodland Southeast, edited by D. G. Anderson and R. Mainfort. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

H. E. Jackson and Susan L. Scott, 2001. Archaic Faunal Utilization in the Louisiana Bottomlands. Southeastern Archaeology. 20(2):187-196.

S. L. Scott and H. E. Jackson, 1998. Early Caddo Ritual and Patterns of Animal Use: An Analysis of Faunal Remains from the Crenshaw Site (3MI6), Southwestern Arkansas. Bulletin of the Arkansas Archaeology Society 37:1-37.

H. E. Jackson, 1998. Little Spanish Fort: An Early Middle Woodland Enclosure in the Lower Yazoo Basin, Mississippi. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 23(2):199-220.

J. W. Saunders, R. D. Mandel, R. T. Saucier, E. T. Allen, C. T. Hallmark, J. K. Johnson, H. E. Jackson, C. M. Allen, G. L. Stringer, D. S. Frink, J. K. Feathers, S. Williams, K. J. Gremillion, M. F. Vidrine, and R. Jones, 1997. A Mound Complex in Louisiana at 5400-5000 Years Before the Present. Science 777:1796-1799.

H. Edwin Jackson and Susan L. Scott, 1995. The Faunal Record of the Southeastern Elite: The Implications of Economy, Social Relations, and Ideology. Southeastern Archaeology 14(2): 103-119.

Courses Taught ANT 101. Introduction to Anthropology ANT 331. Survey ofArchaeological Methods ANT 433/533. Prehistoric Southeastern Indians ANT 435/535. Archaeological Field Methods ANT 431/531. Advanced Prehistoric Analysis ANT 437/537. Heritage Resources and Public Policy ANT 631. Graduate Seminar in Archaeology

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Resources Available
Archaeology Lab
Physical Anthropology Lab
Research & Teaching Collections (Mississippi, Eastern North America)
Zooarchaeology Reference Collection
Scanning Electron Microscope (at Polymer Science)

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Contact Information
Office: LAB 442
Phone: (601) 266-6887
Fax: (601) 266-6373
E-mail: ed.jackson@usm.edu

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