The Mississippians

The "downtown" of massive Cahokia, A.D. 1200. Illinois, U.S.A.
(click for larger picture)

Before the Europeans arrived in North America, the eastern and southern United States were the centres of remarkable civilizations. To archaeologists, this whole area is known as the "Eastern Woodlands" cultural zone. It extends from southern Ontario and Quebec in Canada down into Virginia, Florida, Alabama and Texas in the U.S.A.

The American mid-west, south and south-west was divided into many different nation, language and cultural groups, organized under rulers who exercised varying degrees of authority and power over their people. Archaeologists (paternalistically) refer to these societies as "chiefdoms", perhaps because Western society was uncomfortable ascribing the status of "states" to these groups for ideological reasons.

The Mississippian and related nations were divided into many separate states, organized in towns and villages that functioned with a great degree of political and economic independence. Leaders were usually revered religious figures, in some ways similar to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and the kings of early Mesopotamia.

These societies were very similar to other classical societies around the globe. They had internal social conflicts, which often left strong archaeological evidence. They had wars with their neighbours, frequently brutal and extensive. They had religious philosophies. They endured catastrophies. The people migrated all over the continent, just as the Europeans, Asians and Africans did.

It was possible that the Mississippians even had contact with the civilizations of southern North America (The Aztecs and Mayans of Mexico), and the Anasazi of the American South-West. Their art shows a powerful interest in death-cults, superficially similar to the Mayans, Aztecs and other civlizations of Mexico, and they grew corn (maize) and other related crops. Their traders and contacts ranged from the south all the way into the forests of Canada and the copper mines north of Lake Superior, and further research shows that their reach also extended south.

The peoples of North America had many complex mythologies, distinct Weltanschauungs (world-views) and a plethora of different ways of life. There was great cultural diversity. In this way, North America was identical to Europe, Asia and Africa.

Temple and chief cabin of the Acolapissa, Mississippi.
Drawing by Alexandre de Batz. "Native Land: Mississippi 1540-1798", by Mary Ann Wells, page 60.

Mississippian states had highly developed agricultural economies. These societies were classic models for the development of agricultural and urban civilization. The whole of the American mid-west was under cultivation. Annual flooding, replenished the floodplains and made them immensely fertile, while today the natural flooding of the rivers has been made much more disastrous by riverine mismanagement. The plentiful waterways running through the region acted as natural highways, ferrying people, goods and ideas over great distances. Roads and paths stretched everywhere (De Soto was later to use these passages on his rampage through the region). The Mississippi and Ohio valleys were conduits for art, culture, religion, trade and politics.

As craftspeople they excelled. Unlike the Incan and other Andean people of South America, the Mississippians hadn't developed the technology for smelting metals, but they did use flattened copper and mica. Their technologies made brilliant use of the resources at hand. They used complex wooden weirs to trap fish. Specialized craftspeople mastered many intricate skills, some of which are still practiced.

Their arts were highly developed. Sculpture and engravings from the Mississippian period are impressive even by modern standards. Art that survives on items of copper, stone, clay, wood and shell shows a complex iconography and strong religious sentiments, often preoccupied with death, war and violence.

They built their settlements from wood and earth. Major towns and cities had many huge mounds with buildings constructed on their tops, used for ceremonial and administrative purposes. They seem to have developed a form of astronomy and maintained highly adaptive and complex urban infrastructures, including walled town, canals, artificial reservoirs, irrigation and many other social and organizational accomplishments.

Like many cities in the ancient Middle East, Asia and Europe, the urban areas in North America were often built around religious centres. Vast earthen mounds sat in the middle of these cities. Some later peoples of the region seemed to share a basic belief system. Their leaders were representatives or descendants of the "sun", and were often treated as semi-sacred. Their religious philosophies were very complex, and are only poorly understood today.