The statement that best describes the people of the Mississippian Period is that they were farmers who used simple tools to grow their food in small gardens . They would also fish and gather food such as muscles, in order to create a large enough food supply in addition to produce from these gardens and farms.
How did the Mississippians live?
Mississippian peoples lived in fortified towns or small homesteads , grew corn, built large earthen mounds, maintained trade networks, had powerful leaders, and shared similar symbols and rituals. The term “Mississippian” comes from the Mississippi River Valley, where the tradition first developed.
Mississippian people were organized as chiefdoms or ranked societies . Chiefdoms were a specific kind of human social organization with social ranking as a fundamental part of their structure. In ranked societies people belonged to one of two groupings, elites or commoners.
What did Mississippians eat?
Mississippians depended on corn for food , and they cleared and planted fields near their towns and villages. The amount of cultivated plant food in the Mississippian diet distinguishes it from the typical Woodland period diet.
How did Mississippians protect themselves?
Before the arrival of Europeans, how did Mississippian villages protect themselves? They built palisades and moats .
How did the Mississippian culture organized their government and society?
Explain how the Mississippian Culture organized their government and society. – Mississippians had a relatively strict type of caste system that they used to determine the roles in society people would have . ... – Mississppians left Cahokia around 1450 and then continued to leave other large Mississippians cities by 1600.
What is the definition of Mississippians?
1 : of or relating to Mississippi, its people, or the Mississippi River . 2 : of, relating to, or being the period of the Paleozoic era in North America following the Devonian and preceding the Pennsylvanian or the corresponding system of rocks — see Geologic Time Table.
Why did Cahokia disappear?
Then, A Changing Climate Destroyed It. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Ill. A thriving American Indian city that rose to prominence after A.D. 900 owing to successful maize farming, it may have collapsed because of changing climate.
What did the Mississippians believe in?
Mississippian people shared similar beliefs in cosmic harmony, divine aid and power , the ongoing cycle of life and death, and spiritual powers with neighboring cultures throughout much of eastern North America.
What were mounds used for?
Rectangular, flat-topped mounds were primarily built as a platform for a building such as a temple or residence for a chief. Many later mounds were used to bury important people . Mounds are often believed to have been used to escape flooding.
What language did the Mississippians speak?
Today, Choctaw is the traditional language of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. About 80 percent of the approximately ten thousand tribe members speak the language fluently.
What resources did the Mississippians use for weapons?
What resources did the Mississippians use to make weapons and tools? Tools and weapons were made from bone, wood, stone, and clamshells . Copper, mica, and clamshells were used to make decorative objects. Moundbuilders also made pottery, wove baskets, carved canoes, and sewed clothing from animal hides and plant fibers.
Where did the Mississippians come from?
It's called “Mississippian” because it began in the middle Mississippi River valley, between St. Louis and Vicksburg . However, there were other Mississippians as the culture spread across modern-day US. There were large Mississippian centers in Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma.
What are the Mississippians known for?
The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earthen platform mounds, and often other shaped mounds as well .
Why did the Mississippians decline?
Maize agriculture provided an important food source for large Mississippian settlements and populations. ... Soil depletion and a decreased labor force have been cited as possible causes for the drop in dietary maize associated with the Mississippian decline at the Moundville Ceremonial center in Alabama.
Why did the Mississippians disappear?
After reaching its population height in about 1100, the population shrinks and then vanishes by 1350. Perhaps they had exhausted the land's resources, as some scholars theorise, or were the victims of political and social unrest , climate change, or extended droughts.
