An outline, era by era

Mississippian culture (Cahokia); Ancestral Puebloans

Medieval / Post-Classical Era · ~500 – ~1500 CE

The Mississippian culture was a way of life that spread across the river valleys of the central and southeastern United States from about 800 to 1500 CE. Its people grew maize intensively, built towns around large earthen platform mounds, and lived under chiefs whose power rested on ritual and farming. The greatest Mississippian centre was Cahokia, near modern St. Louis, which reached its height around 1050 to 1200 CE and was the largest settlement north of Mexico.

The Ancestral Puebloans lived in the Four Corners region of the arid Southwest, where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. From about 500 CE they farmed maize, beans and squash, and built pit houses, then stone pueblos and cliff dwellings. Chaco Canyon was a major ceremonial centre from about 850 to 1150 CE, and Mesa Verde was settled heavily in the 1200s. Both societies left no written records, so we know them through archaeology and the oral traditions of their descendants. Both had been transformed or left their great centres by about 1300 to 1400 CE.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Maize farming spreads north

    Event

    What happened

    Maize, first domesticated in Mexico thousands of years earlier, reaches the eastern woodlands and the Southwest over many centuries. In the Mississippi valley, farmers begin growing it intensively around 800 CE, helped by new, hardier varieties and by fertile river floodplains. In the Southwest, maize farming is established by about 2000 BCE and becomes the base of village life.

    The rest is history

    Reliable harvests allowed denser populations and stored surpluses. Isotope studies of skeletons show that maize became a major part of the diet in the Mississippi valley only after about 900 CE. That shift went together with the rise of towns and chiefly rule at Cahokia and elsewhere. In the Southwest, the same crops supported the growth of Ancestral Puebloan villages.

    Sources

    1. BookFagan, Brian M. Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent. London: Thames & Hudson, 2005.
    2. BookSmith, Bruce D. The Emergence of Agriculture. New York: Scientific American Library, 1995.

  2. Pueblo villages take shape

    Event

    What happened

    From about 500 CE, people of the Four Corners region, known later as Ancestral Puebloans, settle in pit houses and grow maize, beans and squash. They make fine pottery and, after about 700 CE, build above-ground rooms of stone and adobe. These grow into the multi-room villages called pueblos.

    The rest is history

    These farming villages were the base from which the larger Puebloan centres grew. The earlier people of the region are often called Basketmakers, from their woven work. Tree-ring dating allows many of the buildings to be dated to the exact year. The pueblo tradition continues today in the Hopi, Zuni and Rio Grande pueblos.

    Sources

    1. BookCordell, Linda S., and Maxine E. McBrinn. Archaeology of the Southwest. 3rd ed. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2012.
    2. BookPlog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. London: Thames & Hudson, 1997.

  3. Chaco Canyon becomes a great centre

    Event

    What happened

    Between about 850 and 1150 CE, the Ancestral Puebloans build a cluster of huge stone buildings in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Pueblo Bonito alone had hundreds of rooms and several storeys. Roads and outlying communities link the canyon to a wide region, and timber for the roofs is hauled from mountains many kilometres away.

    The rest is history

    Chaco was probably a ritual and political centre rather than a large farming town. Burials at Pueblo Bonito contained turquoise, shell and macaw remains, showing long-distance trade with Mexico. Chaco's influence faded after about 1150 CE, during a period of drought. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    Sources

    1. BookLekson, Stephen H. The Chaco Meridian: One Thousand Years of Political and Religious Power in the Ancient Southwest. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
    2. BookPlog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. London: Thames & Hudson, 1997.

  4. Cahokia's rapid rise around 1050 CE

    Event

    What happened

    Around 1050 CE the small settlement at Cahokia, on the Mississippi floodplain, grows very quickly. Houses are laid out on a new plan around a great plaza, and Monks Mound, a terraced platform mound, is raised in stages. The population soon reaches many thousands, with more in the surrounding villages.

    The rest is history

    Archaeologists sometimes call this the Cahokian 'big bang', and its causes are debated. Some think a charismatic leadership or religious movement drew people in from across the region. Monks Mound is about 30 metres high and is the largest earthwork in the Americas north of Mexico. Cahokia's influence reached across much of the Mississippi valley, and the site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    Sources

    1. BookPauketat, Timothy R. Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi. New York: Viking, 2009.
    2. BookMilner, George R. The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.

  5. Mound 72 and Woodhenge at Cahokia

    Event

    What happened

    At Cahokia, a ridge-top burial mound known as Mound 72 was built in stages in the 1000s CE. Excavations in the 1960s found rich burials, including a man laid on a bed of shell beads, and mass graves of young people. Nearby, circles of large posts, called Woodhenge, were rebuilt several times, probably to mark the sun's seasonal positions.

    The rest is history

    The burials show a society with rank, ritual and organised violence or sacrifice. The shell beads and other goods point to wide trade networks. Woodhenge suggests careful sky-watching tied to ceremony and farming. Melvin Fowler's excavation of Mound 72 gave the first clear picture of Cahokia's ritual life.

    Sources

    1. BookFowler, Melvin L., Jerome Rose, Barbara Vander Leest, and Steven R. Ahler. The Mound 72 Area: Dedicated and Sacrificial Burials at Cahokia. Illinois State Museum Reports of Investigations 54. Springfield: Illinois State Museum, 1999.
    2. BookPauketat, Timothy R. Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi. New York: Viking, 2009.

  6. Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

    Event

    What happened

    In the 1200s CE, Ancestral Puebloans at Mesa Verde in Colorado build villages in large alcoves in the canyon walls, such as Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House. Tree rings show much of this building took place between about 1190 and 1280 CE. Earlier they had lived in villages on the mesa tops.

    The rest is history

    The cliff dwellings are among the best known Puebloan sites. By about 1300 CE the Mesa Verde region was left almost empty, as people moved south to the Rio Grande and other areas. Drought, crop failure, conflict and social upheaval are all argued to have played a part. The region became a national park in 1906.

    Sources

    1. BookLekson, Stephen H. A History of the Ancient Southwest. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press, 2009.
    2. BookCordell, Linda S., and Maxine E. McBrinn. Archaeology of the Southwest. 3rd ed. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2012.

  7. Decline of Cahokia and the Puebloan migrations

    Event

    What happened

    After about 1200 CE Cahokia's population falls, and by around 1350 the city is largely empty. A wooden stockade is built around its centre in the 1200s. In the Southwest, the Four Corners region is abandoned by about 1300 CE and people resettle along the Rio Grande and in the Hopi and Zuni lands.

    The rest is history

    The reasons are debated. Scholars point to climate shifts, floods, drought, overuse of timber, disease and conflict, and no single cause is agreed. Mississippian towns elsewhere, such as Moundville and Etowah, continued for a time. Puebloan peoples did not vanish, since their descendants live in the pueblos today.

    Sources

    1. BookMilner, George R. The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.
    2. BookLekson, Stephen H. A History of the Ancient Southwest. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press, 2009.

  8. The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex

    Event

    What happened

    From about 1000 to 1500 CE, Mississippian towns share a set of images and objects. They include engraved shell cups, copper plates, and designs of falcons, serpents, hands and eyes. These objects turn up from Oklahoma to Georgia and Florida.

    The rest is history

    The shared imagery suggests common religious ideas across many separate chiefdoms. Some motifs can be compared with stories recorded among later Native peoples of the Southeast and Plains. Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma and Etowah in Georgia yielded some of the finest pieces. When Europeans arrived in the 1500s, some Mississippian chiefdoms still survived, as the Spanish expedition of Hernando de Soto (1539 to 1543) recorded.

    Sources

    1. BookReilly, F. Kent, and James F. Garber, eds. Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian Iconography. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.
    2. PrimaryNarratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto. Spanish expedition accounts, 1539 to 1543, including that of the Gentleman of Elvas, published 1557.

  9. The Mound Builder myth

    Popular belief

    The legend

    In the 1700s and 1800s many Americans of European descent claim that the great mounds of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys were built by a lost race, such as wandering Israelites, Vikings or a vanished advanced people. The ancestors of living Native Americans, it is said, could not have built them.

    The rest is history

    The idea was used to justify taking Native land. In 1894 Cyrus Thomas of the Smithsonian published a report for the Bureau of Ethnology that showed from excavations that the mounds were built by ancestors of Native peoples. Radiocarbon dating later gave the dates for Cahokia and other sites. The myth has no support in the evidence.

    Sources

    1. BookSilverberg, Robert. Mound Builders of Ancient America: The Archaeology of a Myth. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1968.
    2. BookThomas, Cyrus. Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1894.

  10. The Anasazi mystery: a people who vanished

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that the Anasazi mysteriously vanished around 1300 CE, leaving empty cliff houses and no explanation. Some versions blame a sudden disaster or an invasion.

    The rest is history

    The people did not vanish. They moved, and their descendants are today's Pueblo peoples, such as the Hopi, Zuni, Acoma and the Rio Grande pueblos, whose oral histories record these migrations. The word Anasazi, from a Navajo term often translated as 'ancient enemies', is now often avoided in favour of Ancestral Puebloans. Archaeology shows a gradual departure over decades, driven by drought, conflict and social change.

    Sources

    1. BookLekson, Stephen H. A History of the Ancient Southwest. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press, 2009.
    2. BookKantner, John. Ancient Puebloan Southwest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

  11. Cahokia as a lost Aztec colony

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A popular claim holds that Cahokia was founded or ruled by Mexican people, such as Toltecs or Aztecs, who came north to build a colony.

    The rest is history

    There is no evidence for a Mexican conquest or colony. Cahokia grew from local Native societies, and its pottery, houses and burials are of local type. Some objects and ideas, such as maize and platform mounds, may reflect distant contacts or shared traditions, but how far is debated. The Aztecs rose only in the 1300s, after Cahokia's peak.

    Sources

    1. BookPauketat, Timothy R. Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
    2. BookMilner, George R. The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.

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