Winterville
The Winterville site consists of about 23 mounds in a double plaza layout, with Mound A in the center, with a surrounding embankment; the mounds along the northwest border follow an old bank line of the Mississippi River, but this was more likely an old stream bed rather than an active Mississippi channel at the time the mounds were constructed, and this stream bed gave the site its shape (Phillips 1970, 476). Mound A is 55 feet high, and excavations by C.B. Moore yielded almost nothing in terms of artifacts (Phillips 1970, 477-8), though has a clear ramp on the northeast side, and excavations by Phillips, Griffin, and Ford in 1940 revealed a layer of briquettes five feet below the surface in addition to the ceramics and briquettes on the surface (LMS Archives Online, 19-L-1). The owner of the land before it was sold to the local government for a park was fairly conscientious about not disturbing the area too much because of the historical significance (LMS Archives Online, 19-L-1).
From the little amount of artifactual evidence present at the time of the mid-century surveys, three components are represented at the site: Baytown period with a relationship to Deasonville, though without markers; Mayersville or Crippen point, which is well distributed; almost no evidence of a Coles Creek occupation, follow by a final and seemingly most intense occupation of the Mississippian Deer Creek phase, concluded at the time because other sites from this phase have similar mounds and little artifactual evidence was present at Winterville (Phillips 1970, 479-82). Surface collection has historically been difficult at the site because of thick grass and clover cover, and test pits revealed clear stratigraphy but still very little pottery (LMS Archives Online, 19-L-1).
Brain revisited the site in the late 1960s, and USM began field school excavations at the site in 2005 and has been back repeatedly to the site, with nine of the 23 mounds now incorporated into an archaeological park that is administered by MDAH (Jackson 2013, 8). Brain's work at the site found that the majority of the mound construction occurred between 1200 and 1350 CE, which is when the Crippen Point phase village site grew into a large ceremonial mound center after suggested contact with societies from north of the site (Brain 1989). In the 2006 field season, remote sensing was acquired for 11,500 square meters that revealed 135 anomalies, many of which may represent prehistoric features, though one area was found to be a historic drainage ditch after being opened by a track-hoe (Jackson 2008). Well preserved ceramics and faunal remains were recovered from a trash pit excavation in the Mound D area that yielded a large amount of data for the analysis of the site in its transitional phase around the year 1200 CE (Jackson 2008). The USM research excavations have been collecting radiocarbon samples to more accurately date the site, as well as remapping the entire site with a total station (Jackson 2008).