ABSTRACT
Around a thousand years ago, communities of farmers dominated the portion of the Eastern Woodlands drained by the Mississippi River and its eastern tributaries. The Mississippians built numerous large and small towns scattered across the Eastern Woodlands, but their initial heartland was centered on the “American Bottom” stretch of the Mississippi Valley where Cahokia was established, the largest urban center north of Mexico. People of the Middle Mississippi Valley spawned colonies and other regional variants as social and political pressures resulted in chiefdom organizations throughout much of the Southeast. These offshoots included the major Caddoan, Plaquemine, Moundville, and Savannah cultures and smaller variants, as well as several Gulf Coast cultures. Each was home to a set of related chiefdoms. Archaeologically, each chiefdom is generally marked by a single major center surrounded by a constellation of smaller tributary communities. The bow and arrow appeared by around 800 ce. Mesoamerican plant domesticates, notably maize and beans, were added to squash and other local cultigens. These crops sustained population growth and the emergence of towns featuring permanent homes and earthen temple structures. Mississippian communities persisted into the sixteenth century, but their inhabitants were devastated by epidemics linked to the arrival of Europeans.
