Archaeologists classify the time period of man living in North America from about 1000 B.C. until about AD 700 as the Woodland Period. They identify the last major prehistoric cultural development in the Woodland Period as the Mississippian because many of the major centers of this new way of life occurred in the Mississippi River valley. The Mississippian culture began around AD 900 and lasted until just after the coming of the Spanish in the mid-16th century. Mississippian groups were located throughout much of what is now the southeastern and mid-continental United States, especially in the major river valleys. These people adapted to conditions that occured in parts of the river valley. Natural levees of fertile soil that rose above the river's banks made ideal sites for villages and gardens. Beyond the levees, ox-bow lakes (U-shaped lakes formed when a wide meander from the main stream of a river is cut off) supplied fish that were easily caught. Ducks and geese migrated through the valley during the spring and fall. Nut-bearing trees and game were plentiful in the uplands beyond the valley.
Mississippian farmers grew the same crops as their Woodland ancestors, the Adena and the Hopewell; however, they lived a more settled life than those cultures because they relied more and more on corn (maize), squash, and beans. Over half of their diet came from farming, rather than hunting and gathering. They added the hoe as a tool to work their agricultural fields. Because their food supply could support more people, their villages grew in size and density. Yet they had to move to new sites, perhaps every ten years, as their soil became less fertile.
New pottery vessel forms were developed during this period. They included jars, bowls, plates, bottles, and colanders. Handles were added to jars, and human and animal figures were attached to some bowls and bottles. Craftwork was made from copper, shell, stone, wood, and clay. Shells and a variety of other materials were obtained from distant locations through trade. Mississippians probably acquired marine shell through a trade network that reached the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The city of Cahokia was a Mississippian marketplace where one might obtain marine shell,
Arizona Department of Education 1 The Mississippian Culture different types of stone for making arrow points or woodworking tools, or finished goods like chert (a type of quartz) hoes. In the marketplace, one might have exchanged white-tailed deer hides or beaver pelts for marine shell or another unusual good.
http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/m_trade.html
An engraved Mississippian bean pot
Religious and ceremonial life is revealed in part by the figures shown on engraved shell gorgets, a type of jewelry worn around the neck. It is also reflected in the placement of whole ceramic vessels with shell spoons, pipes, and shell necklaces in burial sites.
http://www.mississippian-artifacts.com/html/shell/s-02.html
A rattlesnake-etched shell gorget
Arizona Department of Education 2 The Mississippian Culture
During this period people began to construct rectangular houses. They also began to live in large year-round settlements. The political and religious activities of the Mississippian took place in towns that functioned as local ceremonial centers, markets, and homes to those of elite status. Each town had a central ceremonial plaza with one or more pyramidal or oval earthen mounds with a temple rising above. These were similar in style to the ancient cultures of Mexico. The immense Cahokia Mounds near present-day Collinsville, Illinois, (near St. Louis, Missouri) was the culture's largest urban center. As many as 2,000 people may have lived in some of the large Mississippian towns, but it is estimated that as many as 20,000 lived in the great mound city of Cahokia at its height around 1000 CE! Cahokia was the center of a political and trade network of communities scattered up and down the Mississippi River and perhaps of other Mississippian communities elsewhere. For reasons that are still not entirely clear, Cahokia’s influence faded 700 years ago and soon thereafter the city appears to have been largely abandoned. Some archaeologists believe that the sheer number of Cahokia's residents may have used up many of the local resources, making it difficult to maintain the city.
http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/khc/prehistory.htm
The archaeological remains of a Mississippian house showing trenches within which walls were set and the location of interior posts
Arizona Department of Education 3 The Mississippian Culture
The arrival of Europeans on America's eastern shores brought the Mississippians’ story to a close. Long before the first explorers and traders arrived, items of European manufacture filtered through the trade networks. Diseases, many previously unknown to the native residents, also preceded the Europeans arrival. The last Mississippians seem to have been the Natchez, whose decline and dispersal between 1698 and 1731 were caused and recorded by the French. Today, the Mississippian heritage survives in the rich archaeological record.
http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/m_id.html
Human face on a pipe bowl Pearl and marine shell necklace
http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/travel/mounds/eme.htm
This is an Aerial view of the Emerald Mound, built by ancestors of the Natchez Indians. It is the second largest ceremonial mound in the United States.
Arizona Department of Education 4 The Mississippian Culture
Adapted from: http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=267 http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/khc/prehistory.htm http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/project/index.html http://www.answers.com/topic/mississippian-culture
Standards Connections: Grade 6 Social Studies: Strand 1 Concept 2 PO 4 Reading: Strand 1 Concept 4, Strand 3 Concept 1
Arizona Department of Education 5 The Mississippian Culture