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This article evaluates aspects of an occupational history that was developed for the Town Creek site, a small Mississippian center in the North Carolina Piedmont that was occupied sometime between A.D. 1150-1400. Town Creek's occupational history suggests that its Mississippian community consisted of multiple, discrete household groups, and that these groups were important throughout the center 's existence. Analyses of architectural, mortuary, and ceramic data indicate that Town Creek began as a town with a substantial domestic population, but it evolved into more of a vacant center later in time. This decline in domestic population coincided with significant evidence for site-wide ritual activity that included the construction of a platform mound and the use of cemeteries informer house locations. Parallels between the small center at Town Creek and some of the largest Mississippian centers, especially the persistence of household-group spaces and an emphasis on ritual activities later in time, suggest that interaction among discrete social groups within a ritual context was a salient part of being Mississippian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vessel shape, size, and use-alterations are used to identify vessel types and vessel functions among Mississippian ceramics from the Town Creek site in central North Carolina. Possible functions are discussed for vessel types, and broad distinctions are made regarding vessels that possibly were used for cooking, serving and eating, or storage. The composition of the overall vessel assemblage at Town Creek indicates that it is generally comparable with other Mississippian assemblages. A consideration of the distribution of vessel types by context allows some insights into the association of different activities with different parts of the Mississippian community at Town Creek, namely, that the mound area was associated with distinctive vessel assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]