CONTENTS Illustrations Preface Introduction PART I THE PREHISTORIC BACKGROUND 14 1 Richard A. Krause Trends and Trajectories in American Archaeology: Some Questions about the Mississippian Period in Southeastern Prehistory 2 fames B. Griffin Changing Concepts of the Prehistoric Mississippian Cultures of the Eastern United States 3 Bruce D. Smith Mississippian Patterns of Subsistence and Settlement PART II THE AGE OF EXPLORATION 4 John H. Parry Early European Penetration of Eastern North America 5 Jeffrey P. Brain The Archaeology of the Hernando de Soto Expedition 6 Chester B. DePratter, Charles M. Hudson, and Marvin T.

Smith The Hernando de Soto Expedition: From Chiaha to Mabila 7 Charles H. Fairbanks From Exploration to Settlement: Spanish Strategies for Colonization PART III COLONIZATION AND CONFLICT 8 Wilcomb E. Washburn The Southeast in the Age of Conflict and Revolution 9 Eugene Lyon Continuity in the Age of Conquest: The Establishment of Spanish Sovereignty in the Sixteenth Century 10 William S. Coker and Hazel P. Coker The Siege of Mobile, 1780, in Maps 162 11 Michael C. Scardaville Approaches to the Study of the Southeastern Borderlands Notes Bibliography Contributors Index ILLUSTRATIONS Reconstruction of the Gypsy Joint Site 15 Distribution of Middle Mississippi Valley Group of Aboriginal Pottery 46 Main Features of a River-Valley Floodplain 66 Seasonal Utilization of Wild and Domesticated Food Sources by Mississippian Groups 7 3 Distribution of a Mississippian Population within a River-Valley Floodplain 76 Reconstruction of the Powers Fort Site 78 Hernando de Soto Claiming the Mississippi 81 Official Route of the De Soto Expedition Commission, Superimposed on Amalgamated Field of Alternate Hypotheses 98 Some Probable Hernando de Soto Artifacts rn4 Distribution of Clarksdale Bells rn6 Zimmerman's Island, 1925 n2 Zimmerman's Island, Enlargement 113 Chief Coosa Welcomes the Hernando de Soto Expedition 119 Hernando de Soto's Expedition: Chiaha to Mabila 125 The Hernando de Soto Expedition Encounters Chief Tascaluza 135 Bernardo de Galvez 141 Preparations for the Mobile Campaign, August 17, 1779-January 11, 1780 Expedition Sails from New Orleans to Mobile, January 12-February 21 1780 Expedition Puts In at Mobile Pass, February 1780 Reinforcements from Havana and Move to First Spanish Encampment, February 18-25, 1780 175 Preliminary Negotiations with British and Move to Second Spanish Encampment, February 26-March 51 1780 177 Reinforcements from Pensacola and Construction of Spanish Battery, March 5-11, 1780 179 Bombardment and Surrender of Fort Charlotte and Arrival and Departure of Spanish Fleet, March 12-May 20, 1780 181.