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Mississippian culture

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Not to be confused withCulture of Mississippi.

TheMississippian culturewere collections ofNative Americansocieties that flourished in what is now theMidwestern,Eastern,andSoutheastern United Statesfrom approximately 800 to 1600, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earthenplatform mounds,and often other shaped mounds as well.[1][2]It was composed of a series of urban settlements andsatellite villageslinked together by loose trading networks.[3]The largest city wasCahokia,believed to be a major religious center, located in what is present-day southernIllinois.

Approximate areas of various Mississippian and related cultures

The Mississippian way of life began to develop in theMississippi RiverValley (for which it is named). Cultures in the tributaryTennessee RiverValley may have also begun to develop Mississippian characteristics at this point. Almost all dated Mississippian sites predate 1539–1540 (whenHernando de Sotoexplored the area),[4]with notable exceptions beingNatchezcommunities. These maintained Mississippian cultural practices into the 18th century.[5]

Cultural traits

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A priest with a ceremonial flint mace and severedsacrificial head,based on arepoussé copper plate
Mississippian copper plates
Reconstruction of theBirdmanburial atCahokia.
Ahuman sacrificeof fifty-threeNative Americanwomen atCahokia
Shell tempered ceramic effigy jug with swirls painted in clay slip,Rose Mound,Cross County, Arkansas,U.S., 1400–1600, 8 "(20 cm) high

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

  1. The construction of large, truncatedearthworkpyramid mounds, orplatform mounds.Such mounds were usually square, rectangular, or occasionally circular. Structures (domestic houses, temples,burial buildings,or other) were usually constructed atop such mounds.
  2. Maize-based agriculture. In most places, the development of Mississippian culture coincided with the adoption of comparatively large-scale, intensive maize agriculture, which supported larger populations and craft specialization.
  3. Shell-tempered pottery.The adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shells as tempering agents inceramics.
  4. Widespread trade networks extending as far west as theRocky Mountains,north to theGreat Lakes,south to theGulf of Mexico,and east to theAtlantic Ocean.
  5. The development of thechiefdomor complex chiefdom level of social complexity.
  6. The development of institutionalizedsocial inequality.
  7. A centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one.
  8. The beginnings of asettlement hierarchy,in which one major center (withmounds) has clear influence or control over a number of lesser communities, which may or may not possess a smaller number of mounds.
  9. The adoption of the paraphernalia of theSoutheastern Ceremonial Complex(SECC), also called the Southern Cult. This is the belief system of the Mississippians as we know it. SECC items are found in Mississippian-culture sites fromWisconsin(seeAztalan State Park) to the Gulf Coast, and fromFloridatoArkansasandOklahoma.The SECC was frequently tied into ritual game-playing, as withchunkey.

The Mississippians had nowriting systemor stone architecture. They worked naturally occurring metal deposits, such as hammering andannealingcopper for ritual objects such asMississippian copper platesand other decorations,[6]but did not smelt iron or practice bronzemetallurgy.

Chronology

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The Mississippian stage is usually divided into three or more chronological periods. Each period is an arbitrary historical distinction varying regionally. 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 "Mississippian period" should not be confused with the "Mississippian culture". The Mississippian period is the chronological stage, while Mississippian culture refers to the cultural similarities that characterize this society.

  • TheEarly Mississippian period(c. 1000–1200) had just transitioned from theLate Woodlandperiod way of life (500–1000). Different groups abandonedtriballifeways for increasing complexity, sedentism, centralization, and agriculture. Production of surplus corn and attractions of the regional chiefdoms led to rapid population concentrations in major centers.
  • TheMiddle Mississippian period(c. 1200–1400) is the apex of the Mississippian era. The expansion of the great metropolis and ceremonial complex atCahokia(in present-day Illinois), the formation of other complexchiefdoms,and the spread and development of SECC art and symbolism are characteristic changes of this period. The Mississippian traits listed above came to be widespread throughout the region.
  • TheLate Mississippian period(c. 1400–1540) 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 large-scale, public ceremonialism. Although some areas continued an essentially Middle Mississippian culture until the first significant contact with Europeans, the population of most areas had dispersed or were experiencing severe social stress by 1500.[7][8][9]Along with the contemporaneousAncestral Pueblo peoples,these cultural collapses coincide with the global climate change of theLittle Ice Age.The Little Ice Age led to a period of cold-season-like conditions which reduced effective moisture from 1200 to 1800, consistent with the population decline of Cahokia from 1200 and its abandonment from 1350 to 1400.[10]Scholars theorize drought and the reduction of maize agriculture, together with possible deforestation and overhunting by the concentrated populations, forced them to move away from major sites. This period ended with European contact in the 16th century.

Regional variations

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Middle Mississippian

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Replica of a Mississippian house from over 1000 years ago excavated at theAztalansite of theOneotaregion in an exhibit at theWisconsin Historical Museum
A mound diagram of the Mississippian cultural period showing the multiple layers of mound construction, mound structures such as temples or mortuaries, ramps with log stairs, and prior structures under later layers, multiple terraces, and intrusive burials.
Cahokia,the largest Mississippian culture site
Kincaid,showing its platform mounds and encircling palisade

The termMiddle Mississippianis also used to describe the core of the classic Mississippian culture area. This area covers the central Mississippi River Valley, the lower Ohio River Valley, and most of the Mid-South area, including western and central Kentucky, western Tennessee, and northern Alabama and Mississippi. Sites in this area often contain large ceremonial platform mounds, residential complexes and are often encircled by earthen ditches and ramparts orpalisades.[11]

Middle Mississippian cultures, especially the Cahokia polity located nearEast St. Louis, Illinois,were very influential on neighboring societies. High-status artifacts, includingstone statuaryandelite potteryassociated with Cahokia, have been found far outside of the Middle Mississippian area. These items, especially the pottery, were also copied by local artists.

South Appalachian Mississippian

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Stone effigiesfound at theEtowah site

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. By the late 1960s, archaeological investigations had shown the similarity of the culture that produced the pottery and the midwesternMississippian patterndefined in 1937 by the Midwestern Taxonomic System.

In 1967,James B. GriffincoinedSouth Appalachian Mississippianto describe the evolving understanding of the peoples of the Southeast.[14]South Appalachian Mississippian area sites are distributed across a contiguous area including Alabama, Georgia, northern Florida, South Carolina, central and western North Carolina, and Tennessee. Chronologically this area became influenced by Mississippian culture later than the Middle Mississippian area (about 1000 as compared to 800) to its northwest. It is believed that the peoples of this area adopted Mississippian traits from their northwestern neighbors.[11]

Typical settlements were located on riverine floodplains and included villages with defensive palisades enclosing platform mounds and residential areas.[11]EtowahandOcmulgeein Georgia are both prominent examples of major South Appalachian Mississippian settlements. Both include multiple large earthwork mounds serving a variety of functions.

Villages with single platform mounds were more typical of the river valley settlements throughout the mountainous area of southwest North and South Carolina and southeastern Tennessee that were known as the historic Cherokee homelands. InWestern North Carolinafor example, some 50 such mound sites in the eleven westernmost counties have been identified since the late 20th century, following increased research in this area of the Cherokee homeland.[15]

Caddoan Mississippian

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Main article:Caddoan Mississippian culture
Map of the Caddoan Mississippian culture
Spiro,in eastern Oklahoma

The Caddoan Mississippian area, a regional variant of the Mississippian culture, covered a large territory, including what is now easternOklahoma,westernArkansas,northeasternTexas,and northwesternLouisiana.Archaeological evidence has led to a scholarly consensus that the cultural continuity is unbroken from prehistory to the present, and that theCaddoand relatedCaddo languagespeakers in prehistoric times and at first European contact are the direct ancestors of the modernCaddo Nation of Oklahoma.[16]

The climate in this area was drier than areas in the eastern woodlands, hindering maize production, and the lower population on the plains to the west may have meant fewer neighboring competing chiefdoms to contend with. Major sites such asSpiroand theBattle Mound Siteare in theArkansas RiverandRed RiverValleys, the largest and most fertile of the waterways in the Caddoan region, where maize agriculture would have been the most productive.[17]The sites generally lacked woodenpalisadefortifications often found in the major Middle Mississippian towns. Living on the western edge of the Mississippian world, the Caddoans may have faced fewer military threats from their neighbors. Their societies may also have had a somewhat lower level ofsocial stratification.

The Caddoan people were speakers of one of the manyCaddoan languages.[16]These languages once had a broad geographic distribution, but many are now extinct. The modern languages in the Caddoan family include Caddo andPawnee.

Hernando de Soto led an expedition into the area in the early 1540s, heencountered several native groupsnow thought to have been Caddoan. Composed of many tribes, the Caddo were organized into three confederacies, theHasinai,Kadohadacho,andNatchitoches,which were all linked by their similar languages.

Plaquemine Mississippian

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Main article:Plaquemine culture
Map showing the geographical extent of the Plaquemine culture and some of its major sites

The Plaquemine culture was anarchaeological culturein the lowerMississippi RiverValley in westernMississippiand easternLouisiana.Good examples of this culture are theMedora site(thetype sitefor the culture and period) inWest Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana,and theAnna,Emerald Mound,WintervilleandHolly Bluffsites located in Mississippi.[11]Plaquemine culture was contemporaneous with the Middle Mississippian culture at theCahokiasite nearSt. Louis,Missouri. It is considered ancestral to theNatchezandTaensaPeoples.[18]

Known Mississippian settlements

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Main article:List of Mississippian sites

Although the Mississippian culture was heavily disrupted before a complete understanding of the political landscape was written down, many Mississippian political bodies were documented and others have been discovered by research.

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Mississippian peoples were ancestral to the majority of the American Indian nations living in this region when European trade began.[19]The historic and modern day American Indian nations believed to have descended from the overarching Mississippian culture include: theAlabama,Apalachee,Arikara,Caddo,Chickasaw,[20]Catawba,[citation needed]Choctaw,[20]Muscogee Creek,Guale,Hitchiti,Ho-Chunk,[citation needed]Houma,Iowa,[citation needed]Kansa,Koroas,[20]Missouria,Mobilian,Natchez,[20]Omaha,Osage(possibly),[20]Otoe,[citation needed]Pawnee,Ponca,[citation needed]Quapaw(possibly),[20]Seminole(broad origins),[21]Taensas,[20]Tunicas,[20]Yamasee,Yazoos,[20]andYuchi.[citation needed]

Contact with Europeans

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See also:Mississippian shatter zone
A map showing the de Soto route through the Southeast

Scholars have studied the records ofHernando de Soto's expedition of 1539–1543 to learn of his contacts with Mississippians, as he traveled through their villages of the Southeast. He visited many villages, in some cases staying for a month or longer. Thelist of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expeditionchronicles those villages. Some encounters were violent, while others were relatively peaceful. In some cases, de Soto seems to have been used as a tool or ally in long-standing native feuds. In one example, de Soto negotiated a truce between thePacahaand theCasqui.

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 invaluable source of information on their cultural practices. The chronicles of theNarváez expeditionwere written before the de Soto expedition; the Narváez expedition 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 with little direct European influence. Indirectly, however, European introductions dramatically changed these native societies. Because the natives lackedimmunitytoinfectious diseasesunknowingly carried by the Europeans, such asmeaslesandsmallpox,epidemics caused so many fatalities that they undermined the social order of many chiefdoms. Some groups adopted European horses and changed tonomadism.[22]Political structures collapsed in many places.

AtJoara,nearMorganton, North Carolina,Native Americans of the Mississippian culture interacted withSpanishcolonizers of theJuan Pardoexpedition, who built a base there in 1567 calledFort San Juan.Expedition documentation and archaeological evidence of the fort and Native American culture both exist. The soldiers were at the fort about 18 months (1567–1568) before the natives killed them and destroyed the fort. (They killed soldiers stationed at five other forts as well; only one man of 120 survived.) Sixteenth-century Spanish artifacts have been recovered from the site, marking the first European colonization in the interior of what became the United States.[23]

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-centuryCherokee.[24]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 theMound Buildersas a people distinct from Native Americans, which was rigorously debunked byCyrus Thomasin 1894.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Adam King (2002)."Mississippian Period: Overview".New Georgia Encyclopedia.Archived fromthe originalon 1 March 2012.Retrieved15 Nov2009.
  2. ^John H. Blitz."Mississippian Period".Encyclopedia of Alabama.Alabama Humanities Foundation.
  3. ^"Metropolitan Life on the Mississippi".Washington Post.Archived fromthe originalon 2010-01-15.
  4. ^"Mississippian Period Archaeological Sites".About Education.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-12-20.Retrieved2016-12-13.
  5. ^Barnett, Jim."The Natchez Indians".Mississippi History Now.Retrieved 1 Oct 2013.
  6. ^Chastain, Matthew L.; Deymier-Black, Alix C.; Kelly, John E.; Brown, James A.; Dunand, David C. (July 2011). "Metallurgical analysis of copper artifacts from Cahokia".Journal of Archaeological Science.38(7): 1727–1736.Bibcode:2011JArSc..38.1727C.doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.03.004.
  7. ^Pauketat, Timothy R. (2003). "Resettled Farmers and the Making of a Mississippian Polity".American Antiquity.68(1): 39–66.doi:10.2307/3557032.JSTOR3557032.S2CID163856087.
  8. ^Pauketat, Timothy R. (1998). "Refiguring the Archaeology of Greater Cahokia".Journal of Archaeological Research.6(1): 45–89.doi:10.1023/A:1022839329522.S2CID195219118.
  9. ^Sullivan, Lynne P.,Archaeology of the Appalachian Highlands,University of Tennessee Press, 2001ISBN1-57233-142-9.
  10. ^Pompeani, D.P., Bird, B.W., Wilson, J.J., William P. Gilhooly III, Aubrey L. Hillman, Matthew S. Finkenbinder & Mark B. Abbott (5 July 2021)."Severe Little Ice Age drought in the midcontinental United States during the Mississippian abandonment of Cahokia".Sci Rep.11(13829): 13829.Bibcode:2021NatSR..1113829P.doi:10.1038/s41598-021-92900-x.hdl:1805/29952.PMC8257696.PMID34226591.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^abcde"Southeastern Prehistory:Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period".National Park Service.Retrieved2011-06-16.
  12. ^David Pollack (2004).Caborn-Welborn - Constructing a New Society after the Angel Chiefdom Collapse.University of Alabama Press.p. 24.ISBN978-0-8173-5126-7.
  13. ^Hudson, Charles M.(1997).Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun.University of Georgia Press.ISBN9780820318882.
  14. ^Ferguson, Leland G. (October 25–26, 1974). Drexel A., Peterson (ed.).South Appalachian Mississippian: A Definition and Introduction(PDF).Thirty First Southeastern Archaeological Conference. Atlanta, Georgia. pp. 8–9. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2012-03-14.
  15. ^Steere, Benjamin A. (2015)."Revisiting Platform Mounds and Townhouses in the Cherokee Heartland: A Collaborative Approach"(PDF).Southeastern Archaeology.34(3): 196–219.doi:10.1179/2168472315Y.0000000001.S2CID155444628.Retrieved15 Dec2020.
  16. ^ab"Tejas-Caddo Fundamentals-Caddoan Languages and Peoples".Archived fromthe originalon 2020-06-14.Retrieved2010-02-04.
  17. ^"Tejas-Caddo Fundamentals-Mississippian World".Archived fromthe originalon 2010-01-21.Retrieved2010-02-04.
  18. ^"The Plaquemine Culture, A.D 1000".Cedar Mesa Project.Retrieved2013-10-02.
  19. ^Ethridge, Robbie Franklyn (2010).From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion and the Transformation of the Mississippian World, 1540–1715.Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.ISBN978-0-8078-9933-5.
  20. ^abcdefghiDuVal, Kathleen (2006). "Table 1. Indian Peoples of the Mid-Continent 1670s–1750s".The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent.Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 66–67.ISBN978-0-8122-0182-6.
  21. ^Mahon, John K.; Weisman, Brent R. (1996). "Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee Peoples". In Gannon, Michael (ed.).The New History of Florida.Gainesville: University Press of Florida. pp. 183–187.ISBN978-0-8130-1415-9.
  22. ^Bense pp. 256–257, 275–279
  23. ^Constance E. Richards, "Contact and ConflictArchived2009-06-24 at theWayback Machine",American Archaeologist,Spring 2004, accessed 26 Jun 2008
  24. ^Hudson pp. 334

References

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  • Bense, Judith A.Archaeology of the Southeastern United States: Paleoindian to World War I.Academic Press, New York, 1994.ISBN0-12-089060-7.
  • 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.ISBN0-87049-248-9.
  • Keyes, Charles R.Prehistoric Man in Iowa. Palimpsest 8(6):185–229. (1927).
  • O'Connor, Mallory McCane.Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast.University Press of Florida, Florida A & M University, Gainesville, Fla., 1995.ISBN0-8130-1350-X.
  • Pauketat, Timothy R.;The Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America.University of Alabama Press, 1994,ISBN978-0-8173-0728-8.
  • Pauketat, Timothy R.; "The Forgotten History of the Mississippians" inNorth American Archaeology.Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005.
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