An Ancient Shiloh - But In America

There was a community of Shiloh in Tennessee:

Ancient America: Shiloh

Mississippian is a cultural complex whose hearth appears to be in the American Bottom area near the Mississippi River in Illinois. The most spectacular characteristic of Mississippian material culture was the construction of earthen pyramids. The pyramids, usually called mounds, have a flat top which provided a space for a ceremonial building or a chiefly residence...communities became larger and more complex. Mississippian culture spread out into the American southeast and about 1050 Mississippian people established a village at Shiloh, Tennessee. The site was enclosed by a palisade and had a population of 300-400.

...The houses were basically round, with wattle and daub walls. The walls were supported by a series of heavy posts, usually 2 to 3 inches in diameter. These poles were placed at four foot intervals around the perimeter of the house and the spaces between the poles were then filled with panels of cane strips. The canes were then covered with a thick coating of mud plaster.

...Shiloh appears to have been a White town, that is, a town associated with peace...In 1400, the town of Shiloh was abandoned. There is no archaeological evidence that the residents were driven away from the site by violence: their departure seems to have been peaceful. One possible reason for the abandonment of the site could have been that some other location offered greater advantages. After more than three centuries of farming, it was possible that declining soil nitrogen, essential for maize agriculture, had resulted in decreasing agricultural yields.

Another reason for the abandonment might be seen in the collapse of the Mississippian city of Cahokia in Illinois. Since Shiloh appears to have had strong ties to Cahokia, the collapse or decentralization of the Mississippian peoples may have lead to population migrations...

Regards from Shiloh, Benjamin Region.

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