The Mississippian period is an archaeological cultural era in the history of the Southern United States and adjacent areas of the Eastern Woodlands spanning the end of the 10th century to the 16th century. It was preceded by the Late Woodland period and succeeded by the colonial-era Mississippian shatter zone. The Mississippians were characterized by theocratic governance, population centers, and the predominance of maize agriculture. This stood in contrast to the peoples of the preceding Woodland period, who primarily used Eastern Agricultural Complex crops,Mueller, Natalie G., Gayle J. Fritz, Paul Patton, Stephen Carmody, and Elizabeth T. Horton. "Growing the lost crops of eastern North America's original agricultural system." Nature plants 3, no. 7 (2017): 1-5. and whose mound-building activities were more limited to burial mounds. The Mississippian period is itself subdivided into the Early, Middle and Late Mississippian periods.
Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with the preceding Woodland period was incomplete. Despite the emphasis on maize, the old Eastern Agricultural Complex crops remained in use by Mississippians. The flat-topped platform mound, once thought to be a uniquely Mississippian trait, has been found to have its origins as far back as the Archaic period, although summit structures still appear to be a uniquely Mississippian occurrence.Knight, Vernon James. "Feasting and the emergence of platform mound ceremonialism in eastern North America." Feasts: Archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power (2001): 311-333. pp. 311-312.Kassabaum, Megan C. "Early platforms, early plazas: Exploring the precursors to Mississippian mound-and-plaza centers." Journal of Archaeological Research 27, no. 2 (2019): 187-247. Most Mississippians retained the Hopewell clan system, where each clan functioned like a ritual society rather than solely kin groups, and travelers were able to obtain hospitality from a fellow clan member thousands of miles from their original home.Tooker, Elisabeth. "Clans and moieties in North America." Current Anthropology 12, no. 3 (1971): 357-376.
Founded in 1050, the city of Cahokia likely had a population of at least 22,400 at its peak around 1124.Kessler, Nicholas V., Erin M. Benson, Timothy R. Pauketat, Jason D. Kirk, and Matthew D. Therrell. "Age and origin of a Cahokian wooden monument at the Mitchell site, Illinois, USA." PloS one 20, no. 10 (2025): e0333783.Hedman, Kristin M., Thomas E. Emerson, Matthew A. Fort, John M. Lambert, Alleen M. Betzenhauser, and Timothy R. Pauketat. "Corn, climate, and the human population of Greater Cahokia." In Following the Mississippian Spread: Climate Change and Migration in the Eastern US (ca. AD 1000-1600), pp. 37-63. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022. Archaeologists believe it to be a planned social and religious project, with towering mounds built by a mix of Caddoan, Natchezan,Butler, Amanda J. "Mississippian missionaries: bundling a Cahokian religious movement." PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021. p. 16. hdl:2142/113062. Muskogean,Sullivan, Lynne P., Kevin E. Smith, Scott C. Meeks, and Shawn M. Patch. "Tracking Mississippian Migrations from the Central Mississippi Valley to the Ridge and Valley with a Unified Absolute Chronology." American Antiquity 89, no. 2 (2024): 221-237. and Dhegiha Siouan peoples. Between 1050 and 1150, the Cahokians briefly established a series of missionary outposts as far as 500 miles north of Cahokia.Pauketat, Timothy R., Robert F. Boszhardt, and Danielle M. Benden. "Trempealeau entanglements: An ancient colony's causes and effects." American Antiquity 80, no. 2 (2015): 260-289. Despite its failure and rejection by the local woodland population in the north, other Cahokian projects seem to have greater success, like in Angel Mounds, which was used as a pilgrimage site for Cahokians.Watts, Elizabeth Lorraine. Assembling Mississippian Communities: Integration, Identity, and Everyday Practices in the Angel Hinterlands. Indiana University, 2020. p. 329. The end of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (around 900 to the early 1100s), and the start of a decades long drought (1150–1200) in Illinois brought political instability to the region.
These developments resulted in an exodus of some 50% of Cahokians at the time to the Nashville area (likely ancestral to the Koasati people), that region peaking in population around 1275, as well as the exodus of several thousand more to other regions like Angel on the Ohio and Etowah in the Appalachians, kickstarting the Middle Mississippian period. Many Mississippian mound centers outside Cahokian influence began to rise in prestige, like Moundville in Alabama, the Yazoo basin in Mississippi, and the Oconee basin in Georgia. As the elite of these mound sites drew in more and more exotic trade goods, the Mississippian world saw an influx of religious concepts from the west around 1300, notably the Datura Ritual Complex.
The Late Mississippian period (1400–1600) was marked by less elaborate, but territorially larger paramount chiefdoms. These various paramountciesRANDOLPH, J. WIDMER. "The Structure of Southeastern Chiefdoms." The Forgotten Centuries: Indians and Europeans in the American South, 1521-1704 (1994): 125. functioned less like the Middle Mississippian complex-chiefdoms, with a powerful center and a less powerful periphery, but more as a confederation of various mound sites headed by a paramount, a primus inter pares known as the "Gran Cacique" by Spanish settlers.Hudson, Charles. The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Exploration of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566-1568. University of Alabama Press, 2005. Many settlements nucleated, increased defenses with larger defenses, and furthered development of archery technology. Entire river basins, like the Savannah River, were transformed into 'Vacant Quarters'; sparsely settled buffer zones that lay between growing paramount chiefdoms.Dye, David H. "Megadrought in the Carolinas: the archaeology of Mississippian collapse, abandonment, and coalescence: by John S. Cable, Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press, 2020, xvi, 311 pp., figs., maps, tables, index, 64.95(cloth), , 64.95 (ebook), ." (2020): 232-233.
History
Emergent Mississippian/Terminal Late Woodland ()
The Mississippian peoples had their origins in preceding Woodland groups, inheriting the Hopewell clan system, Hopewell units of measurement, as well as reusing some Hopewell period mound centers. The Post-Hopewell Late Woodland Period was characterized by the use of new bow and arrow technology,Buikstra, Jane E. The mound-builders of eastern North America: A regional perspective. Stiching Nederlands Museum voor Anthropologie en Praehistorie, 1988. p. 26. an uptick in maize consumption,Buikstra, Jane E. The mound-builders of eastern North America: A regional perspective. Stiching Nederlands Museum voor Anthropologie en Praehistorie, 1988. p. 25. elaboration of platform mound construction, and new forms of political organization. The latter half of this period, between 900 AD and 1000 AD, is known as the transitioned to the Emergent Mississippian or Terminal Late WoodlandFortier, Andrew C., and Dale L. McElrath. "Deconstructing the emergent Mississippian concept: The case for the terminal late woodland in the American bottom." Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology (2002): 171-215. period. Although the Emergent Mississippian period continued much of the same trends as the Late Woodland period, this period is noteworthy for beginning to build summit structures on platform mounds, beginning production of shell-tempered pottery, and growing trade networks across the Mississippian world. The Emergent Mississippian/Terminal Late Woodland is categorized as distinct from the rest of the Late Woodland also because of the growth of Cahokia during this period.
Early Mississippian period ()
The Early Mississippian period was principally characterized by the growth and apex of city of Cahokia. Including downtown Cahokia near Collinsville, as well as the East St. Louis precinct, this urban center likely peaked in population and power around 1124 with at least 22,400 people, and possibly a few thousand more in St. Louis. Construction primarily occurred during the Edelhardt phase (1000–1050) and Lohmann phase (1050–1100). Archaeologists believe it to be a planned social and religious project, involving towering earthen pyramids built by a mix of Caddoan, Natchezan, Muskogean, and Dhegiha Siouan peoples. It was perhaps related to astronomical events like Halley's Comet or SN 1054.
Between 1050 and 1100, Cahokians also briefly established a series of missionary outposts in the Midwest as far as to the north, like Trempealeau Mounds, Aztalan, and the Apple River valley. pp. 46, 336-340 There have been various theories for these various regions on why Cahokians came and were allowed to stay in these regions. For Cahokians, their principal reasons were likely centered around spreading their way of life and religion, as well as certain natural geography that affirmed their religion. For the native woodlanders, embracing Cahokian way of life was for alliance purposes, access to resources, and to support a growing elite group centered based on new sacred objects. Despite the abandonment of these initial outposts, later Cahokian projects seem to have greater success, like in the Central Illinois River Valley, whose ruling elite are thought to have come from Cahokia.Butler, Amanda J. "Mississippian missionaries: bundling a Cahokian religious movement." PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021. p. 341. or Angel Mounds, thought to be reliant on Cahokia and founded in part by Cahokians (or at least Angel priests educated in Cahokia).
Towards the end of the 11th century, expansion also began southward. Notable examples include the Carson Mounds site, believed to be a Cahokian exclave, as well as the mounds at Lake Providence, Louisiana, which may have had Cahokian residents. This expansion was interrupted however, by a new crisis in the Midwest, one that would eventually spell the end of Cahokian hegemony. The end of the Medieval Climate Anomaly had triggered the start of a dry spell in Illinois, with two droughts occurring between 1150 and 1200, and a third around 1275, bringing much political instability to the region. This instability resulted in a serious exodus of Central Mississippians to regions that previously held links with Cahokia, like the Nashville area, where immigration hit its peak around 1275. Several thousand fled eastward, along the Ohio River. Although this migration was principally to Mississippian mound centers like Prather and Angel, several Early Fort Ancient (1000–1300) sites appears to have had a disproportionately high amount of non-local remains during this time period as well, with possible origins in parts of Tennessee or the Central Mississippi valley. Such sites include Turpin and State Line, as well as Guard, Schomaker, and Horseshoe Johnson. Several groups of Central Mississippian travelers likely also migrated to Georgia, occupying the Macon Plateau after 1100, as well as causing the Nashville Mississippian migration to Etowah.King, Adam. "The Cahokian Diaspora, Etowah, and South Appalachian Mississippian." In Cahokia in Context: Hegemony and Diaspora, edited by Charles H. McNutt and Ryan M. Parish, 352–366. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2020. Most of these Cahokian "diaspora" groups were likely families returning to their ancestral lands after staying in Cahokia for several generations, as opposed to invading migrants.Emerson, Thomas E., Kristin M. Hedman, Tamira K. Brennan, Alleen M. Betzenhauser, Susan M. Alt, and Timothy R. Pauketat. "Interrogating diaspora and movement in the greater Cahokian world." Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 27, no. 1 (2020): 54-71.