Mississippian Period - New Georgia Encyclopedia. The Mississippian Period in the midwestern and southeastern United States, which lasted from about A.D. 800 to 1600, saw the development of some of the most complex societies that ever existed in North America. Mississippian people were horticulturalists. They grew much of their food in small gardens using simple tools like stone axes, digging sticks, and fire.
Corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, goosefoot, sumpweed, and other plants were cultivated. They also ate wild plants and animals, gathering nuts and fruits and hunting such game as deer, turkeys, and other small animals. Unlike contemporary people, Mississippian people spent much of their lives outdoors. Organization of Society The Mississippian way of life was more than just an adaptation to the landscape—it was also a social structure. This difference between elites and commoners rested more on ideological and religious beliefs than on such things as wealth or military power.
Settlements Certain Mississippian towns featured mounds. Cahokia Mounds. Virtual Learning Journey: Indian Mounds | Georgia Public Broadcasting. Mississippian culture | History, Facts, & Religion. 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. It spread over a great area of the Southeast and the mid-continent, in the river valleys of what are now the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with scattered extensions northward into Wisconsin and Minnesota and westward into the Great Plains.
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. Politically and culturally each large town or village dominated a satellite of lesser villages; government was in the hands of priest-rulers. Thus the complexes might be called theocratic village-states.
Moreover, warfare, which was apparently frequent, produced larger alliances and even confederacies. Read More on This Topic. Mississippian Culture | World Civilization. Learning Objective Describe the economies of Mississippian cultures Key Points Mississippian cultures lived in the Mississippi valley, Ohio, Oklahoma, and surrounding areas.The “three sisters”—corn, squash, and beans—were the three most important crops.Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto brought diseases and cultural changes that eventually contributed to the decline of many Mississippian cultures.
Terms three sisters Corn, squash, and beans. Mounds Formations made of earth that were used as foundations for Mississippian culture structures. The Mississippian Period lasted from approximately 800 to 1540 CE. A number of cultural traits are recognized as being characteristic of the Mississippians. The construction of large, truncated earthwork pyramid mounds, or platform mounds. Mississippian Cultures. Although hunting and gathering plants for food was still important, the Mississippians were mainly farmers. A typical Mississipian town was built near a river or creek. Platform Mounds. Native Americans:Prehistoric:Mississippian. Corn changed Native American life. It was one of the most productive plants cultivated by Native Americans. The harvest provided sufficient food for the difficult winter months and seed for spring planting. The increased investment in agriculture and related changes in social and religious practices gave rise to a new way of life that archaeologists call Mississippian.
Archaeologists use the term Mississippian because many of the major centers of this new way of life occur in the Mississippi River valley. The Mississippian period begins 1,100 years ago (A.D. 900) and continues in Illinois until 550 years ago (A.D. 1450). Let's explore Mississippian life in more detail.