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MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD

750 A.D. — 1575 A.D.

Emergent - 750 - 950 A.D.

Early - 950 - 1250 A.D.

Middle - 1250 - 1450 A.D.

Late - 1450 - 1575 A.D.

Throughout most of the Mississippi Valley and the southeast, a new and dynamic cultural tradition appeared.  It embodied ceremonial and political concepts that were even more advanced than those of earlier cultures.

Also, there was a gradual change from the pattern of living in small villages to gradual mound centers.  Fresh and vigorous ideas were introduced.  Great ceremonial and political centers arose during this time like Cahokia, Moundville, Etowah, Link Farm, Mound Bottom, Angel, Aztalan, Spiro, Town Creek and many smaller ones.

This new tradition or culture that appeared is called the "Mississippian" because much of it was concentrated in the confines of the river valley of the same name.

In formal anthropological terms, Mississippian groups had "ranked societies and chiefdoms" (Fried 1967, Service 1971).  Only a few people were allowed to fill some leadership or a special privilege status role in Mississippian society.  Some of these roles were chiefs, war leaders or shamans.  Some of these social roles and statuses were inherited or were passed down within one family or clan for generations.  (Kentucky Archaeology, R. Barry Lewis)

These Mississippian settlements formed a hierarchy of sorts.  The most archaeologically important were the planned towns with centrally located plazas flanked by structures set on platform mounds with earthen steps and ramps.  These towns were the political, social and religious centers of Mississippian society.  (Lewis and Stout, 1992, Stout and Lewis 1993)  These sites are some of the largest and most complex archaeological sites in the Mississippi Valley.

In the search for the beginnings of this new cultural tradition, the closest resemblances can be found far south in Middle America where temple mounds originated. The great centers of civilization in the valleys of Mexico, Guatemala and in the Yucatan were existing long before the Mississippian tradition developed.   Also, some of the same elements that have been found in Middle America concerning arts and crafts and complex rituals can also be found in Mississippian society.  This just goes to show that the temple mound age of the Mississippian tradition seems to reflect a widespread movement of peoples who brought with them a Middle American tradition.

By A.D. 900, the aboriginals of the Tennessee River Valley as well as the Mississippi River Valley were more dependent upon agriculture than upon any other activity.  As a matter of fact, it was a Mississippian hallmark, which even surpassed hunting and gathering as the primary economic base.  Maize, beans, squash and sunflowers and gourds were grown by the people. Fishing was important as well as collecting fresh water mussels for the shells and the food they contained.  Hunting and gathering were still practiced but not to the degree that they had been.

The Mississippian Tradition showcased large temple mounds with ramps up the sides for access to the temples.  The towns were generally fortified, enclosing several rectangular mounds, burial mounds, and houses.  During the Early Mississippian a great mound center developed in the tremendously rich American Bottoms where the Missouri River empties into the Mississippi River.  Cahokia, at its height of development, comprised five and one-half square miles.  It had an estimated population of 38,000 people.  It was the largest, most densely populated aboriginal site in North America.  Cahokia not only served as a ceremonial center but also as a population center.  Cahokia affected a large area.  It served a series of dependent villages within a radius of thirty to fifty miles and acted as a base for the colonization of much of the upper and central Mississippi River Valley.  Also at Cahokia, archaeologists unearthed the remains of a large circle of posts, a "woodhenge" if you will, whose alignments may have been used for simple astronomical observations.

As far as major trade is concerned, several items were traded with peoples as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas River and as far west as Oklahoma and as far east as Middle Tennessee.

A continuous stream of people from other places brought salt, skins, bow wood and other items to barter.  Pottery was another trade item of importance, especially the finer wares.  The Mississippian Cultural Period Indians demonstrated great skill when it came to making pottery vessels from the local clays.  The pottery of the Mississippians not only shows examples of natural forms but also shows proficiency of different techniques of manufacturing in surface finish, shape, decoration and design, and firing.

Paintstone, red ochre or hematite ground to powder was used for body paint as well as for coloring pottery vessels and for painting symbolic paintings on bluffs.

Celts, stone chopping tools, were used primarily in woodworking.  For example, celts were used to finish hollowing out large wooden canoes, which made it possible to traverse the whole length of the Mississippi Valley to transport goods from one place to another.

The bow and arrow was the weapon of choice for Mississippian Indians.  The Mississippian’s projectile points (true arrowheads) were quite small compared to earlier Indian traditions.  The points are basically isosceles triangular forms with characteristic incurvate blades, but some exhibit straight and excurvate variations.  Others are straight based, excurvate-bladed that are elliptical in shape.  Delicacy and symmetry are characteristic.

Ceremonial flints, some of great length, were made to resemble swords, knives, hooks, and batons.  Monolithic axes (axes carved from a single stone) were used for ceremonial purposes.  Elaborate headdresses made from copper, as well as elongated copper embossed plaques resembling falcons have been found by archaeologists.  Ceremonial stone and copper celts and bi-pointed knives have been found.  All of these similar artifacts and symbolic forms, ritual objects and religious symbols are collectively referred to as the “Southeastern Ceremonial Complex” because all the aboriginals living at these Mississippian Period sites shared a set of religious beliefs.

At Cahokia there were strong indications, as throughout the Mississippi Valley, of an obsession with death.  "At one Cahokia burial mound, the remains of four men, their heads and hands cut off, were found.  In a pit beside them were the corpses of 53 young women.  All of them had been sacrificed simultaneously, perhaps in a ritual related to the burial of a notable."   (Reader's Digest, "America's Fascinating Modern Heritage.")

If conjectures are right, the rich and powerful went to their graves accompanied by others who would continue to see to their lifestyles for all eternity.  The aristocracy in the afterlife would continue to perform the same functions that were discharged on earth. "The rulers and aristocrats of Cahokia lived atop some of the mounds or on the terraces beneath their summits -- the higher one's house, the more lofty one's status."  (Reader's Digest, "America's Fascinating Modern Heritage.")

The main structure at Cahokia is called Monk's Mound because French trappists once raised vegetables on its terraces.  This massive mound is truly a landmark of its kind.  It rises to a height of 100 feet.  Its base is 1,000 feet long and is more than 700 feet wide.

"Archaeological strides have revealed that Monk's Mound was built in 14 stages, the initial structure having been begun in A.D. 900, and the final layers having been added sometime after A.D. 1,150.  On the flat summit of Monk's Mound there once stood a great structure that spread over an area that could have contained three modern tennis courts.  This post and wattle structure surmounted by a thatch roof was not only a temple but also the residence of Cahokia's ruler.

"Fronting on the Great Pyramid and surrounded by smaller mounds was an immense plaza that may have served a dual function as the city's marketplace and on ceremonial occasions, the gathering spot for city residents.

"It was at Cahokia that Mississippian culture reached its apex sometime about A.D. 1,200.  Nowhere else in the far reaching Mississippi Valley was art so sophisticated, ceremonies so resplendent, religious fervor so great, trade so profitable, or industry so diverse as in Cahokia."  (Reader's Digest, "America's Fascinating Modern Heritage.")

Other great mound centers arose later, like Moundville, Alabama, and Etowah, Georgia, and Emerald Mound in Mississippi, and Spiro, Oklahoma, and Mound Bottom in Cheatham County, Tennessee, just not to the extent that Cahokia went.

Finally, Cahokia became a victim of its own success, the town's growing population and growing bureaucracy requiring more food than the surrounding countryside could produce.