Allison-Lamotte culture

Characteristics

Allison-Lamotte sites are commonly located along the Wabash or its tributaries; they generally occupy land that was in prairie before white settlement of the region, and many are found near marshes. It was a moundbuilding culture, although unlike many other moundbuilding cultures of the period, its mounds were often not used for mortuary purposes. Many Allison-Lamotte villages featured a circular plan with a central plaza surrounded by circular houses. Judging by phenomena such as house sizes, it is believed that the society lacked a substantial class structure. Members of the culture hunted heavily, commonly preying on animals such as deer, turkeys, turtles, and shellfish; among their leading plant foods were hickory nuts and domesticated squash. The culture's pottery and lithic technology were typical of Late Woodland peoples; earlier generations of the culture seemingly produced cord-marked pottery and later generations are thought to have favored a process of stamping their pottery to produce rough edges, while Allison-Lamotte projectile points are of a form substantially identical to points found at nearby sites of other cultures, such as the Mann site. Similarities between Allison-Lamotte and contemporary surrounding cultures are so great that after more than fifteen years of active research, no clear boundaries could be drawn between it and its neighbors.