Corn, or maize, was indisputably domesticated in Mesoamerica thousands of years before it became a Mississippian staple. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010. Following a site by site discussion of each region, the various structure types are examined with respect to space and time. During times of warfare or strife, the regional population took shelter in the fortified towns. That salt production took place is apparent by the literal pavement of broken bowls and other briquetage (by-products of salt-making) in Salt Mine Valley. The complexity of the costumes and designs suggests to some that there was Mesoamerican influence at this time. And is Mississippi still living in the past? After the destruction and flight of the de Soto expedition, the Mississippian peoples continued their way of life with little direct European influence. The Mississippian American Indian culture rose to power after A.D. 900 by farming corn. The site was occupied from AD 1100 to around AD 1450, inhabited by up to 1000 individuals at its peak. Resettled Farmers and the Making of a Mississippian Polity. Mississippian cultures lived in the Mississippi valley, Ohio, Oklahoma, and surrounding areas. This contributed to the myth of theMound Buildersas a people distinct from Native Americans, which was rigorously debunked byCyrus Thomasin 1894. Kay, Marvin, and George Sabo III Palimpsest 8(6):185229. The adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shells as tempering agents inceramics. The settlement consists of 140 identified structures of varying sizes, covering an area of 54-acres that were constructed from AD 1000 to AD 1550. Mississippian culture, the last major prehistoric cultural development in North America, lasting from about 700 ce to the time of the arrival of the first European explorers. Almost all dated Mississippian sites predate 15391540 (whenHernando de Sotoexplored the area),[4]with notable exceptions beingNatchezcommunities. From AD 1350, the inhabitants started to construct 29 truncated earthen pyramid platform mounds orientated around a central plaza for ceremonial gatherings and games. The magnitude of such public works and the distribution of temples suggest a dominant religious cult and a cadre of priest-rulers who could command the services of a large, stable, and docile population, as well as several artist-craftsman guilds. These maintained Mississippian cultural practices into the 18th century.[5]. Coles Creek sites appear to be larger, more numerous, and more complex than those of their predecessors. Overview: The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture (circa 1200 to 1700 CE) centered on the Lower Mississippi River valley. Thousands of Mississippian-era graves have been found in the city, and thousands more may exist in the surrounding area. Shell tempering may have been widely adopted because it was functional. The list consists of 27 members. Many descendants of the Mississippian culture view the mounds as sacred, and some tribes perform ceremonies at the ancient mounds to this day. The Mississippians had no writing system or stone architecture. Washington, Smithsonian Institution. and the occurrence of numerous burials often accompanied by elaborate grave goods. Morse, Dan F. and Phyllis A. Morse Although a minor amount of shell was present in the pottery made by earlier cultures in the southeastern United States, shell was used widely, and in many areas exclusively, in the Mississippi period after circa 1000 CE. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. [14], The Caddoan Mississippian area, a regional variant of the Mississippian culture, covered a large territory, including what is now easternOklahoma, westernArkansas, northeasternTexas, and northwesternLouisiana. Though other cultures may have used mounds for different purposes, Mississippian cultures typically built structures on top of them. Drexel A., Peterson (ed.). After his contact, their cultures were relatively unaffected directly by Europeans, though they were indirectly. Current issues are available through the Scholarly Publishing Collective. The chronicles of de Soto are among the first documents written about Mississippian peoples and are an invaluable source of information on their cultural practices. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto brought diseases and cultural changes that eventually contributed to the decline of many Mississippian cultures. Fayetteville, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. At a particular site, each period may be considered to begin earlier or later, depending on the speed of adoption or development of given Mississippian traits. The historic and modern day American Indian nations believed to have descended from the overarching Mississippian Culture include: the Alabama, Apalachee, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Guale, Hitchiti, Houma, Kansa, Missouria, Mobilian, Natchez, Osage, Quapaw, Seminole, Tunica-Biloxi, Yamasee, and Yuchi. The culture was based on intensive cultivation of corn (maize), beans, squash, and other crops, which resulted in large concentrations of population in towns along riverine bottomlands. The term Middle Mississippian is also used to describe the core of the classic Mississippian culture area. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [21] 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. Ferguson, Leland G. (October 2526, 1974). Native Americans living in Louisiana at this time are associated with Caddo and Plaquemine cultures. The people constructed 13 earthen mounds, 6 of which are large platform mounds, and hundreds of residential dwellings over an area of 100 acres. Salt is an important nutrient that must be added to diets based mainly on agricultural produce. This contributed to the myth of the Mound Builders as a people distinct from Native Americans. Middle Mississippian cultures, especially the Cahokia polity located nearEast St. Louis, Illinois, were very influential on neighboring societies. Mississippian artists produced unique art works. Maize agriculture did not become the dietary staple that it was for Mississippian peoples elsewhere. There is evidence for maize in ritual contextsfor instance at the terminal Coles Creek period Lake Providence Mounds siteby 1150 CE. The emergence of Mississippian culture in the Appalachian Summit is abrupt and a hypothesis of extended, in situ cultural evolution is tenuous. However, there is no concrete evidence of direct contacts between the Mississippian Southeast and Mesoamerica. Only the Natchez Bluffs region and regions to the south withstood the Mississippian cultural influences. Early, Ann M. The termSouth Appalachian Provincewas originally used byW. H. Holmesin 1903 to describe a regional ceramic style in the southeast involving surface decorations applied with a carved wooden paddle. The Spread of Shell-Tempered Ceramics along the Northern Coast of the Gulf of Mexico.Southeastern Archaeology27, no. [14], The Caddoan Mississippian area, a regional variant of the Mississippian culture, covered a large territory, including what is now eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, northeastern Texas, and northwestern Louisiana. Each period is an arbitrary historical distinction varying regionally. Kincaid Site: A major Mississippian mound center in southernIllinoisacross theOhio RiverfromPaducah, Kentucky. Here, the remains of numerous individuals representing many previous generations were reburied beneath a conjoined, three peak mound. The site lends its name to a widespread late . Keyes, Charles R.Prehistoric Man in Iowa. The three examples presented here, the Transylvania, Salt Mine Valley, and Sims sites, are all late, occurring in what archaeologists call the protohistoric or early colonial period, when Europeans were present but their direct contact with American Indians was limited. [3] 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 the most productive. In historic Southeastern Indian towns, such rituals were performed to renew and reaffirm relationships between humans and the spirit world. Cultural traditions at Cahokia involved dramatic changes in subsistence, artifacts, architecture, organization of space, settlement locations, public feasts, and mortuary rituals. Refiguring the Archaeology of Greater Cahokia. In Louisiana, the influence of Mississippian culture was evident by 1200 CE. At its height, the population of Moundville is estimated to have been around 1000 people within the main settlement, with 10,000 additional people living in villages and farmsteads in the surrounding countryside. House, John H. Corrections? Soil nutrients and timber resources were depleted. The Transylvania mound site is in East Carroll Parish. In one example, de Soto negotiated a truce between the Pacaha and the Casqui. The environmental consequences of population concentration and overfarming played some role in these changes. Scholars have studied the records of Hernando de Soto's expedition of 15391543 to learn of his contacts with Mississippians, as he traveled through their villages of the Southeast. Courtesy of the artist. The site was occupied by the Macon Plateau culture from around AD 950 during the Early Mississippian-culture phase, although archaeological evidence suggests that there has been near continuous occupation by various peoples going back 17,000 years from the Paleo-Indian period. Sullivan, Lynne P., and Robert C. Mainfort, eds. There were large Mississippian centers in Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma. The adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shells as tempering agents in their shell tempered pottery. Plaquemine and Mississippian. In Archaeology of Louisiana, edited by Mark A. Rees, 172194. Some of the mounds are low, simple cone shapes. However, there were other Mississippians as the culture spread across modern-day US. These ideas were manifested in beautiful objects of stone, copper, clay, shell, and other materials. Maize-based agriculture. . Warfare between groups and transmission of Old World diseases moving ahead of direct contact with Europeans might also have contributed to declines in some areas. Angel mounds was a regional trading centre, built on the banks of the Ohio River in the present-day State of Indiana.
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