When most people think of “ancient American civilizations,” the Aztec, Maya, or Inca cultures probably come to mind immediately, because the societies in Mesoamerica have left behind permanent structures for millions of visitors from around the world to see each year. At the same time, however, from about 1000-1500 CE, an equally complex culture formed along the banks of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers. From Red Wing, Minnesota to Greenhouse, Louisiana, and from Spiro, Oklahoma to Macon, Georgia, societies built impressive mound structures that served as ritual platforms, burial sites, and residences for the elites. These mounds also served as the focal points of urban areas of varying sizes that were connected to each other through trade and ideology, forming a culture that modern historians have since designated the “Mississippian culture.”
It has only been recently that modern archaeological, anthropological, and historical methods were utilized to create a somewhat accurate image of the Mississippian culture’s reach and importance in the wider contexts of American and world history. Today, historians have a much better understanding of many aspects of Mississippian culture, including its chronology, the religion of the people, urbanization, and how the people lived, and the fact that there were fully functioning complex societies that had sophisticated forms of government and long-distance trade networks. The mounds they made, which continue to serve as standing testaments to their extraordinary accomplishments, continue to be studied by experts who still have plenty of questions about the societies that produced them. But one thing’s for sure: with no evidence of a written language and a high probability that the groups spoke different languages (based on the earliest lingual patterns encountered from each region), what the Mississippian culture accomplished in the span of a few centuries is nothing short of phenomenal.
