Moundbuilders

The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 to 1500 A.D., varying regionally.This moundbuilding tradition of these Mississippian peoples gave them the common name of Moundbuilders.

The Mississippian way of life began to develop in the Mississippi River Valley (for which it is named). Cultures in the Tennessee River Valley may have also begun to develop Mississippian characteristics at this point. Almost all dated Mississippian sites predate 1539 (when Hernando de Soto explored the area), and very few European artifacts have been discovered at Mississippian sites, indicating that this culture dates almost entirely before European contact. However, there were a few tribes who continued to practice moundbuilding into the early 1700s.

A number of cultural traits are recognized as being characteristic of the Mississippian Moundbuilders. Although not all Mississippian peoples practiced all of the following activities, all of them were distinct from their ancestors in their adoption of some or all of these traits.

• The construction of truncated pyramid mounds, or platform mounds. Such mounds were usually square, rectangular, or occasionally circular. Structures (domestic houses, temples, burial buildings, or other) were usually constructed atop such mounds.
• Maize-based agriculture. In most places, the development of Mississippian culture coincided with adoption of comparatively large-scale, intensive maize agriculture.
• The adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shell tempering agents in their ceramics.
• Widespread trade networks extending as far west as the Rockies, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic Ocean.
• The development of the chiefdom or complex chiefdom level of social complexity that could be comparable at different points to post-Roman, pre-consolidation tribal England.
• The development of institutionalized social inequality.
• A centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one.
• The beginnings of a settlement hierarchy, in which one major center (with mounds) has clear influence or control over a number of lesser communities, which may or may not possess a smaller number of mounds.
• The adoption of the paraphernalia of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), also called the Southern Cult. This is the belief system of the Mississippians as we know it. SECC items occur from Wisconsin (see Aztalan State Park) to the Gulf Coast, and from Florida to Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The Mississippians had no writing system or stone architecture. They could work naturally occurring metal deposits, but did not smelt iron or make bronze metallurgy.

Early Mississippian cultures are those which had just made the transition from the Late Woodland period way of life (500–1000 A.D.). Different groups abandoned tribal lifeways for increasing complexity, sedentism, centralization, and agriculture. The Early Mississippian period is considered to be, in most places, c. 1000–1200 A.D.

The Middle Mississippian period is often considered the high point of the Mississippian era. The formation of complex chiefdoms besides Cahokia and the spread and development of the SECC art and symbolism are characteristic changes of this period. The Mississippian traits listed above came to be widespread throughout the region. In most places, this period is recognized as occurring c. 1200–1400 A.D.

The Late Mississippian period, usually considered from c. 1400 to European contact, is characterized by increasing warfare, political turmoil, and population movement. The population of Cahokia dispersed early in this period (1350–1400), perhaps migrating to other rising political centers. More defensive structures are often seen at sites, and sometimes a decline in mound-building and ceremonialism. Although some areas continued an essentially Middle Mississippian culture until the first significant contact with Europeans, most areas had dispersed or were experiencing severe social stress by 1500.