The Archaeology Of The Breeden Site

Abstract

The Breeden Site cultural sequence reenforcesthe general culture history already established for the Bad-Cheyenne Region and the more inclusive Middle Missouri Tradition. House remains and the bulk of the ceramic materials from the site indicate habitation of the area by peoples of the Initial Middle Missouri Variant and the PostContact Coalescent Variant.Component A at the Breeden Site and the Monroe and Anderson components at the Dodd Site exhibit a complex of diagnosticcultural traits significant enough to define a new phase - the Anderson Phase. A temporal span of approximately A.D. 950to 1250 is suggested for the phase. Component B of the Breeden Site, an early manifestation of the Post-Contract Coalescent Variant, is closely associated with components of the Felicia Phase and the putative Talking Crow Phase. Breeden Component B probably represents an upriver movement of Coalescent peoples from the Big Bend area, eventually being assimilated into the Arikara populations of the Bad River Phase within the Bad-Cheyenne Region.