Mississippian culture 1

Mississippian culture

A map showing approximate areas of various Mississippian and related cultures.

The Mississippian culture was amound-building Native American culturethat flourished in what is now theMidwestern, Eastern, and SoutheasternUnited States from approximately 800 CE to1500 CE, varying regionally.[1]

The Mississippian way of life began todevelop in the Mississippi River Valley (forwhich it is named). Cultures in the tributaryTennessee River Valley may have alsobegun to develop Mississippiancharacteristics at this point. Almost all datedMississippian sites predate 1539-1540(when Hernando de Soto explored the area).

Cultural traits

A Mississippian priest, with a ceremonial flint maceand severed head. Artist Herb Roe, based on a repoussé

copper plate.

A number of cultural traits are recognized as being characteristicof the Mississippians. Although not all Mississippian peoplespracticed all of the following activities, they were distinct fromtheir ancestors in adoption of some or all of these traits.1. The construction of large, truncated earthwork pyramid

mounds, or platform mounds. Such mounds were usuallysquare, rectangular, or occasionally circular. Structures(domestic houses, temples, burial buildings, or other) wereusually constructed atop such mounds.

2. Maize-based agriculture. In most places, the development ofMississippian culture coincided with adoption of comparativelylarge-scale, intensive maize agriculture, which supported largerpopulations and craft specialization.

3. The adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shellsas tempering agents in their shell tempered pottery.

4. Widespread trade networks extending as far west as theRockies, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico,and east to the Atlantic Ocean.

5. The development of the chiefdom or complex chiefdom level of social complexity.6. The development of institutionalized social inequality.7.7. A centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one.

Mississippian culture 2

8. The beginnings of a settlement hierarchy, in which one major center (with mounds) has clear influence or controlover a number of lesser communities, which may or may not possess a smaller number of mounds.

9. The adoption of the paraphernalia of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), also called the SouthernCult. This is the belief system of the Mississippians as we know it. SECC items are found in Mississippian-culturesites from Wisconsin (see Aztalan State Park) to the Gulf Coast, and from Florida to Arkansas and Oklahoma.The SECC was frequently tied in to ritual game-playing, as with chunkey.

The Mississippians had no writing system or stone architecture. They worked naturally occurring metal deposits,such as hammering and annealing copper for ritual objects like Mississippian copper plates and other decorations,[2]

but did not smelt iron or make bronze metallurgy.

Chronology

Stone effigies found at the Etowah Site

The Mississippi stage is usually divided into three or morechronological periods. Each of these periods is an arbitrary historicaldistinction that varies from region to region. At one site, each periodmay be considered to begin earlier or later, depending on the speed ofadoption or development of given Mississippian traits. The"Mississippi period" should not be confused with the "Mississippianculture". The Mississippi period is the stage, while Mississippian isreferred to as the cultural similarities that characterize this society.• Early Mississippi cultures had just transitioned from the Late

Woodland period way of life (500–1000 C.E.). Different groupsabandoned tribal lifeways for increasing complexity, sedentism,

centralization, and agriculture. The Early Mississippi period was from c. 1000 to 1200 C.E. Production of surpluscorn and attractions of the regional chiefdoms led to rapid population concentrations in major centers.

• The Middle Mississippi period reflects the high point of the Mississippi era. The expansion of the great metropolisand ceremonial complex at Cahokia (in present-day Illinois), the formation of other complex chiefdoms, and thespread and development of SECC art and symbolism are characteristic changes of this period. The Mississippiantraits listed above came to be widespread throughout the region. In most places, this period is recognized asoccurring c. 1200–1400 C.E.

• The Late Mississippi period, usually considered from c. 1400 to European contact, is characterized by increasingwarfare, 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 essentiallyMiddle Mississippian culture until the first significant contact with Europeans, the population of most areas haddispersed or were experiencing severe social stress by 1500.[3][4][5] Along with the contemporary Anasazi, thesecultural collapses coincide with the global climate change of the Little Ice Age. Scholars have theorized thatdrought and the collapse of maize agriculture, together with possible deforestation and overhunting by theconcentrated populations, forced them to move away from major sites.

Mississippian culture 3

Regional variations

Middle Mississippian

Hollow ceramic jug showing the underwater pantherfrom the Mississippian culture, found at Rose Moundin Cross County, Arkansas, U.S., 1400-1600. height: 8

inches (20 cm).

The Kincaid Site as it may have looked at its peak

The term Middle Mississippian is also used to describe the core ofthe classic Mississippian culture area. This area covers the centralMississippi River Valley, the lower Ohio River Valley, and mostof the Mid-South area, including western and central Kentucky,western Tennessee, and northern Alabama and Mississippi. Sitesin this area often contain large ceremonial platform mounds,residential complexes and are often encircled by earthen ditchesand ramparts or palisades.[6]

Middle Mississippian cultures, especially the Cahokia politylocated near East St. Louis, Illinois, was very influential onneighboring societies. High status artifacts, including stonestatuary and elite pottery associated with Cahokia, have beenfound far outside of the Middle Mississippian area. These items,especially the pottery, were also copied by local artists.

• Cahokia: The largest and most complex Mississippian site andthe largest Pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, Cahokiawas possibly the first, and is considered to have been the mostinfluential of the Mississippian culture centers.

• Angel Mounds: A chiefdom in southern Indiana nearEvansville. It is thought by some archaeologists that the LateMississippian Caborn-Welborn culture developed from theAngel Phase people around 1400 CE and lasted to around 1700CE.[7]

• Kincaid Site: A major Mississippian mound center in southernIllinois across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky.

• Moundville: Ranked with Cahokia as one of the two most important sites at the core of the Mississippianculture,[8] located near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

• The Parkin Site: The type site for the "Parkin phase", an expression of Late Mississippian culture, believed bymany archaeologists to be the province of Casqui visited by Hernando de Soto in 1542.[9]

South Appalachian MississippianThe term South Appalachian Province was originally used by W. H. Holmes in 1903 to describe a regional ceramicstyle in the southeast involving surface decorations applied with a carved wooden paddle. By the late 1960sarchaeological investigations had shown the similarity of the culture which produced the pottery and the midwesternMississippian pattern defined by the Midwestern Taxonomic System in 1937. In 1967 James B. Griffin coined SouthAppalachian Mississippian to describe the evolving understanding of the peoples of the Southeast.[10] SouthAppalachian Mississippian area sites are distributed across a contiguous area including Alabama, Georgia, northernFlorida, South Carolina, and central and western North Carolina and Tennessee. Chronologically this area becameMississippianized later than the Middle Mississippian area (about 1000 CE as compared to 800 CE) to its northwestand is believed that the peoples of this area adopted Mississippian traits from their northwestern neighbors.[6]

Typical settlements were located on riverine floodplains and included villages with defensive palisades enclosing platform mounds and residential areas.[6] Etowah and Ocmulgee(both located in Georgia) are prominent examples of

Mississippian culture 4

the South Appalachian Mississippian settlements.

Caddoan Mississippian

Map of the Caddoan Mississippian culture andsome important sites

The Caddoan Mississippian area, a regional variant of theMississippian culture, covered a large territory, including what is nowEastern Oklahoma, Western Arkansas, Northeast Texas, and NorthwestLouisiana. Archaeological evidence that the cultural continuity isunbroken from prehistory to the present, and that the direct ancestorsof the Caddo and related Caddo language speakers in prehistoric timesand at first European contact and the modern Caddo Nation ofOklahoma is unquestioned today.[11]

The climate in this area was drier than areas in the eastern woodlands,hindering maize production, and the lower population on the plains tothe west may have meant fewer neighboring competing chiefdoms tocontend with. Major sites such as Spiro and the Battle Mound Site are in the Arkansas River and Red River Valleys,the largest and most fertile of the waterways in the Caddoan region, where maize agriculture would have been themost productive.[12] The sites generally lacked wooden palisade fortifications often found in the major MiddleMississippian towns. Living on the western edge of the Mississippian world, the Caddoans may have faced fewermilitary threats from their neighbors. Their societies may also have had a somewhat lower level of socialstratification.

The Caddoan people were speakers of one of the many Caddoan languages.[13] The Caddoan languages once had abroad geographic distribution, but many are now extinct. The modern languages in the Caddoan family includeCaddo and Pawnee, now spoken mainly by elderly people.The Hernando de Soto led an expedition into the area in the early 1540s, he encountered several Native groups nowthought to have been Caddoan. Composed of many tribes, the Caddo were organized into three confederacies, theHasinai, Kadohadacho, and Natchitoches, which were all linked by their similar languages.

Plaquemine Mississippian

Map showing the geographical extent of thePlaquemine cultura and some of its major sites

The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture in the lowerMississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana.Good examples of this culture are the Medora Site (the type site for theculture and period) in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and theAnna, Emerald Mound, Winterville and Holly Bluff sites located inMississippi.[14] Plaquemine culture was contemporaneous with theMiddle Mississippian culture in the Cahokia site in St. Louis, Missouri.It is considered ancestral to the Natchez and Taensa Peoples.[15]

• Emerald Mound: A Plaquemine Mississippian period archaeologicalsite located on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton,Mississippi. The site dates from the period between 1200 and 1730CE. The platform mound is the second-largest Pre-Columbianearthwork in the country, after Monks Mound at Cahokia.

• Grand Village of the Natchez: The main village of the Natchez people, with three mounds. The only mound siteto be used and maintained into historic times.

Mississippian culture 5

Known Mississippian chiefdomsAlthough the Mississippian culture was heavily disrupted before a complete understanding of the political landscapewas written down, many Mississippian political bodies were documented and others have been discovered byresearch.

Related modern nationsMississippian peoples were almost certainly ancestral to the majority of the American Indian nations living in thisregion in the historic era. The historic and modern day American Indian nations believed to have descended from theoverarching Mississippian Culture include: the Alabama, Apalachee, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek,Guale, Hitchiti, Houma, Kansa, Missouri, Mobilian, Natchez, Osage Nation, Quapaw, Seminole, Tunica-Biloxi,Yamasee, and Yuchi.

Contact with Europeans

A map showing the de Soto route through theSoutheast

At Joara, near Morganton, North Carolina, Native Americans ofthe Mississippian culture interacted with Spanish explorers of theJuan Pardo expedition, who built a base there in 1567 called FortSan Juan. Expedition documentation and archaeological evidenceof the fort and Native American culture both exist. The soldierswere at the fort about 18 months (1567–1568) before the nativeskilled them and destroyed the fort. (They killed soldiers stationedat five other forts as well; only one man of 120 survived.)Sixteenth-century Spanish artifacts have been recovered from thesite, marking the first European colonization in the interior of whatbecame the United States.[16]

Scholars have studied the records of Hernando de Soto'sexpedition of 1539–1543 to learn of his contacts withMississippians, as he traveled through their villages of the Southeast. He visited many villages, in some cases stayingfor a month or longer. The List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition chronicles thosevillages. Some encounters were violent, while others were relatively peaceable. In some cases, de Soto seems to havebeen used as a tool or ally in long-standing native feuds. In one example, de Soto negotiated a truce between thePacaha and the Casqui.

De Soto's later encounters left about half of the Spaniards and perhaps many hundreds of Native Americans dead.The chronicles of de Soto are among the first documents written about Mississippian peoples, and are an invaluablesource of information on their cultural practices. The chronicles of the Narváez expedition were written before the deSoto expedition; the Narváez expedition that informed the Court of de Soto about the New World.After the destruction and flight of the de Soto expedition, the Mississippian peoples continued their way of life withlittle direct European influence. Indirectly, however, European introductions dramatically changed native societies inthe Eastern United States. Because the natives lacked immunity to new infectious diseases, such as measles andsmallpox, epidemics caused so many fatalities that they undermined the social order of many chiefdoms. Somegroups adopted European horses and changed to nomadism.[17] Political structures collapsed in many places.By the time more documentary accounts were being written, the Mississippian way of life had changed irrevocably. Some groups maintained an oral tradition link to their mound-building past, such as the late 19th-century Cherokee[18]. Other Native American groups, having migrated many hundreds of miles and lost their elders to diseases, did not know their ancestors had built the mounds dotting the landscape. This contributed to the myth of the

Mississippian culture 6

Mound Builders as a people distinct from Native Americans, which was rigorously debunked by Cyrus Thomas in1894.

Notes[1] Adam King, "Mississippian Period: Overview" (http:/ / www. georgiaencyclopedia. org/ nge/ Article. jsp?id=h-707), New Georgia

Encyclopedia, 2002, accessed 15 Nov 2009[2] Chastaina, Matthew L.; Deymier-Black, Alix C.; Kelly, John E.; Brown, James A.; Dunand,David C. (July 2011). "Metallurgical analysis of

copper artifacts from Cahokia" (http:/ / www. sciencedirect. com/ science/ article/ pii/ S0305440311000793). Journal of ArchaeologicalScience 38 (7). .

[3] Pauketat, Timothy R. (2003) “Resettled Farmers and the Making of a Mississippian Polity,” American Antiquity Vol. 68 No. 1[4] Pauketat, Timothy R. (1998) “Refiguring the Archaeology of Greater Cahokia,” Journal of Archaeological Research Vol. 6 No. 1[5] Sullivan, Lynne P., Archaeology of the Appalachian Highlands, Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2001 ISBN 1-57233-142-9[6] "Southeastern Prehistory:Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ seac/ outline/ 05-mississippian/ index. htm).

National Park Service. . Retrieved 2011-06-16.[7] David Pollack (2004). Caborn-Welborn - Constructing a New Society after the Angel Chiefdom Collapse. University of Alabama Press. p. Pp.

24. ISBN 0-8173-5126-4.[8] "Southeastern Prehistory: Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ history/ seac/ outline/ 05-mississippian/ index.

htm). "National Park Service". . Retrieved 2007-12-04.[9] Hudson, Charles M. (1997). Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun. University of Georgia Press.[10] Ferguson, Leland G. (October 25 and 26, 1974). "South Appalachian Mississippian : A Definition and Introduction" (http:/ / www.

southeasternarchaeology. org/ PDF/ bulletins/ SEAC Bulletin 18. pdf). In Drexel A., Peterson. Thirty First Southeastern ArchaeologicalConference. Atlanta, Georgia. pp. 8-9. .

[11] "Tejas-Caddo Fundamentals-Caddoan Languages and Peoples" (http:/ / www. texasbeyondhistory. net/ tejas/ fundamentals/ languages.html). . Retrieved 2010-02-04.

[12] "Tejas-Caddo Fundamentals-Mississippian World" (http:/ / www. texasbeyondhistory. net/ tejas/ fundamentals/ miss. html). . Retrieved2010-02-04.

[13] "Tejas-Caddo Fundamentals-Caddoan Languages and Peoples" (http:/ / www. texasbeyondhistory. net/ tejas/ fundamentals/ languages.html). . Retrieved 2010-02-04.

[14] "Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ seac/ outline/ 05-mississippian/ index. htm). . Retrieved 2008-09-08.[15] "The Plaquemine Culture, A.D 1000" (http:/ / bcn. boulder. co. us/ environment/ cacv/ cacvbrvl. htm). . Retrieved 2008-09-08.[16] Constance E. Richards, " Contact and Conflict (http:/ / www. warren-wilson. edu/ ~arch/ berrysitepress/ amerarchspring2008. pdf)",

American Archaeologist, Spring 2004, accessed 26 Jun 2008[17] Bense pp. 256–257, 275–279[18][18] Hudson pp. 334

External references• Bense, Judith A. Archaeology of the Southeastern United States: Paleoindian to World War I. Academic Press,

New York, 1994. ISBN 0-12-089060-7.• Cheryl Anne Cox; and David H. Dye, eds; Towns and Temples along the Mississippi University of Alabama Press

1990• Hudson, Charles; The Southeastern Indians. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1976. ISBN

0-87049-248-9.• O'Conner, Mallory McCane. Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast. University Press of Florida, Florida A & M

University, Gainesville, Fla., 1995. ISBN 0-8130-1350-X.• Pauketat, Timothy R.; The Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America.

University of Alabama Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-8173-0728-8.• Pauketat, Timothy R.; “The History of the Mississippians” in North American Archaeology Blackwell Publishing

Ltd., 2005.

Mississippian culture 7

External links• The Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ seac/ misslate. htm), National Park Service

Southeastern Archaeology Center• Mississippian World (http:/ / www. texasbeyondhistory. net/ tejas/ fundamentals/ miss. html), Texas Beyond

History• Cahokia Mounds (http:/ / www. cahokiamounds. com/ cahokia. html)• Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site (http:/ / www. ngeorgia. com/ parks/ etowah. html)• Indian Mounds of Mississippi, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary (http:/ /

www. nps. gov/ nr/ travel/ mounds/ )• Moundville Archaeological Park (http:/ / www. ua. edu/ academic/ museums/ moundville/ )• Chucalissa Museum and Archaeological site (http:/ / chucalissa. memphis. edu/ )• Encyclopedia of Alabama: Mississippian Period (http:/ / www. encyclopediaofalabama. org/ face/ Article.

jsp?id=h-1130)• Animation: Towns and Temples of the Mississippian Culture-5 Sites (http:/ / www. youtube. com/

watch?v=yL8UuoYFYpQ)

Article Sources and Contributors 8

Article Sources and ContributorsMississippian culture  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=497629925  Contributors: 22star, Aaron Walden, Alansohn, Ali K, Allens, Alltat, Alpha Quadrant, Altairisfar,Aramgar, Aranea Mortem, Auto-de-fe, AxiomOfFaith, Bertport, Bobblehead, Brighterorange, BurtAlert, CaroleHenson, Cflm001, Cmdrjameson, Conaughy, Confuzion, Cuchullain, CzarNick,Decumanus, Demiurge1000, Dmitri Lytov, Dougweller, Doulos Christos, DoxTxob, Dufekin, El C, Emperorbma, Enlil Ninlil, Epbr123, Falcon8765, Fat&Happy, Fishal, Flamebroil,Fluffernutter, FoxCE, Friedchicken95, Funandtrvl, Gadfium, Geologyguy, Gilliam, Glenn, Gracenotes, Grunty Thraveswain, Gurch, Hadal, HamburgerRadio, Harland1, Heironymous Rowe,Hibbity Dibbity, History102, Hmains, Inter, Iune, J.delanoy, Jackfork, Jason Palpatine, Jayjg, Jerdwyer, Jfknrh, Jonnabuz, JustAGal, Kaare, Kbh3rd, Kdammers, Kevin Myers, Klilidiplomus,Kukini, Linkfix2001, Linkracer, Look2See1, MTBradley, Madman2001, Martin451, Mayooranathan, Mkruijff, Modernist, Modulatum, MorganaFiolett, Nat Krause, NawlinWiki, Nbarth,Neutrality, Noles1984, Nono64, North Shoreman, Omnipedian, PL290, Parkwells, ParticleMan, Pedro, Peyre, Poetaris, Pollinator, Pschemp, RIH-V, Rich Farmbrough, Richard Keatinge,Rjensen, Rmhermen, Robfergusonjr, Rorro, Ruy Pugliesi, Ryuhaku, SMC, Saksham, Sam Hocevar, SarahStierch, Schumi555, Scromett, Someguy1221, Sonofmetal, Sorie, Sortior, Stephenb,Striker383, Student7, TShilo12, Thaurisil, Tiailds, Tide rolls, Tpkunesh, TriNotch, Twalls, Ulric1313, Uyvsdi, Vrenator, Vsmith, WBardwin, Wareh, Warling, WaynaQhapaq, Wiki alf,Wtmitchell, Yahuli, Yerpo, Zanter, Zendare97, Zerocannon, Zqmann, 270 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Mississippian cultures HRoe 2010.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Mississippian_cultures_HRoe_2010.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike3.0  Contributors: Heironymous RoweImage:Chromesun mississippian priest digital painting.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Chromesun_mississippian_priest_digital_painting.jpg  License: GNU FreeDocumentation License  Contributors: Herb Roe Original uploader was Heironymous Rowe at en.wikipediaImage:Etowah statues HRoe 2007.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Etowah_statues_HRoe_2007.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Heironymous Rowe at en.wikipediaImage:Mississippian Underwater Panther ceramic.JPG  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Mississippian_Underwater_Panther_ceramic.JPG  License: Creative CommonsAttribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported  Contributors: Heironymous Rowe, Madman2001Image:Chromesun kincaid site 01.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Chromesun_kincaid_site_01.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0  Contributors: Painted by Herbert Roe. Original uploader was Heironymous Rowe (Herbert Roe) at en.wikipediaFile:Caddoan Mississippian culture map HRoe 2010.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Caddoan_Mississippian_culture_map_HRoe_2010.jpg  License: CreativeCommons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors: Heironymous RoweFile:Plaquemine culture map HRoe 2010.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Plaquemine_culture_map_HRoe_2010.jpg  License: Creative CommonsAttribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors: Heironymous RoweFile:DeSoto Map HRoe 2008.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:DeSoto_Map_HRoe_2008.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors:Heironymous Rowe (talk) Original uploader was Heironymous Rowe at en.wikipedia

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/