The Coosa is a river in Georgia, best known today for fabulous white water kayaking opportunities. But it is also the name of a 15th-17th century AD Mississippian polity, the largest Mississippian polity known in the American southeast.
Drawing of Figured Copper Plate from Mound C in the Etowah Mound Group. Cyrus Thomas, 1894.
The towns and villages that made up the Coosa polity were ensconced in the Mississippian culture, sharing (at least some) pottery types, residential architecture, subsistence practices, platform mounds, copper engravings, shell carving and, of course, governmental and religious practices with the vast Mississippian trade network from Minnesota to Louisiana, Texas to Florida.
The paramount chief of Coosa likely lived at what today is the archaeological site of Little Egypt, Georgia. Population estimates for the Coosa polity in 1540 when the Hernando de Soto expedition arrived range between 18,000 and 50,000 people in as many as 50-80 villages within a stretch of about 300 miles of the Coosa River.
- Read more about the Coosa Polity
- Little Egypt
- Guide to Mississippian Culture
Comments
The coosa river is mostly in Alabama and has no white water kayaking !
It took about 15 seconds to Google Coosa river and learn that it is in both Georgia and Alabama. It is also popular for it’s white water kayaking.
The Coosa starts in Georiga as a small spring . When it gets to Alabama it is about as wide as a two lane road .Take another 15 seconds and zoom in on the map . They do have kayaking draging .
Any link between Coosa & Egypt?
No. Little Egypt is the name of the archaeological site, but that’s just a whim of the archaeologist, not a real reference to Egypt.
What the heck is kayaking draging? Is this particular to Alabama rivers?