Mississippian culture

Mississippian culture

Last major prehistoric cultural development in the Eastern Woodlands of North America, c. AD 800–1731. Mississippian groups were located throughout much of what is now the southeastern and mid-continental United States, especially in the major river valleys. The culture was based on intensive cultivation of corn (maize), beans, squash, and other crops. The political and religious activities of the Mississippian took place in towns that functioned as local ceremonial centres, markets, and homes to those of elite status. Each town had a central ceremonial plaza with one or more pyramidal or oval earthen mounds surmounted by a temple, a pattern suggesting a connection to the ancient cultures of Mexico. The immense Cahokia Mounds near present-day Collinsville, Ill., U.S., was the culture's largest urban centre. Craftwork was executed in copper, shell, stone, wood, and clay. The last Mississippians seem to have been the Natchez, whose decline and dispersal between 1698 and 1731 were caused and recorded by the French. See also Southeast Indian; Woodland culture.