Moundville

3 Moundville and the Mississippians

3 Moundville and the Mississippians Many people think of traditional American Indian culture as timeless and changeless. This idea is false because culture change, either slow or rapid, is a basic human condition. The people of Moundville benefited from a long series of culture changes experienced by the populations throughout what is now the eastern United States or Eastern Woodlands. To understand Moundville, we must first examine life in the Eastern Woodlands in the centuries before Moundville was built. Archaeologists divide Eastern Woodlands prehistory, or the time without written records, into periods of culture change.1 • Paleoindian (10,000?–8000 b.c.). This time span began with the uncertain date of the first peopling of the Eastern Woodlands near the end of the last Ice Age. Recognized by their distinctive stone spear points, small mobile bands hunted herd animals such as bison and mastodons. • Archaic (8000–1000 b.c.). This long time span began with the onset of modern climate conditions. Using the spear-thrower to hunt deer and other species present today, Archaic peoples found ways to gather and process many kinds of wild foods, especially plant foods, and aquatic foods such as fish and mussels . Inventions included ground stone axes, stone bowls, nets, and dugout canoes. People formed larger settlements in river valleys and along coasts as populations grew. Trade networks linked groups together to acquire stone, shell, and copper as people fashioned ornaments to mark their social status. The first pottery and plant domestication appeared toward the end of this time span. • Woodland (1000 b.c.–a.d. 800). During this time span, populations in the Eastern Woodlands perfected the inventions and practices begun in the Late Archaic period. Native domesticated plants with oily and starchy seeds contributed to the diet, but people continued to rely on wild foods. Ceremonial centers with burial mounds and earthwork enclosures were widely established. Long-distance trade distributed status-marking ornaments and shared symbols of burial-mound ceremonialism . Two important items, the bow and corn (maize), were products developed elsewhere and acquired by local populations late in Woodland times. moundville and the mississippians 35 36 chapter three Paleoindians. (Courtesy of The University of Alabama Museums.) Archaic Indians. (Courtesy of The University of Alabama Museums.) moundville and the mississippians 37 Woodland Indians. (Courtesy of The University of Alabama Museums.) Mississippian Indians. (Courtesy of The University of Alabama Museums.) The Mississippians The people of Moundville were part of an American Indian cultural development known as Mississippian , named for the central Mississippi River valley where this way of life first appeared a little more than a thousand years ago. The Mississippians lived in fortified towns organized by powerful leaders, built earthen mounds, maintained trade networks, engaged in warfare, and shared symbols and rituals. The Mississippians were not a single “tribe” but a collection of societies spread across different regions that shared similar cultural practices. The Mississippians built larger settlements and lived in more complex societies than did their Woodland ancestors. Bow-and-arrow warfare and reliance on corn as a staple food changed how people lived. The technological differences between Mississippian and Woodland societies were minor compared to changes in the way society was organized . Living in larger settlements created opportunities for new community organizations. The Mississippians developed new ideas, beliefs, and values. Unlike earlier populations, Mississippian societies were divided into families who inherited social privileges and those who did not. Settlements joined together into political territories with permanent offices of leadership or “chiefs.” These changes took place in the central Mississippi River valley during the Emergent Mississippian period (a.d. 800–1000).2 The new social order proved so successful that by the year 1050, the 38 chapter three largest Mississippian settlement, Cahokia, was well established in Illinois near present-day St. Louis.3 Set among a cluster of large towns with dozens of mounds, Cahokia was the capital of a regional territory with a population that numbered in the thousands . The largest mound, Monk’s Mound, is 100 feet tall, covers more than 14 acres, and contains an estimated 22 million cubic feet of soil. The capital’s residents acquired hard stone, marine shell, and other raw materials through trade relationships with distant populations that lacked Cahokia’s power and influence. Skilled artisans, working part-time in their homes, converted these valuables into everyday tools and special...