Mississippian Mound Builders

1
Mississippian Mound Builders

• 900 1500 AD
• Cahokia 1200 AD
• 30,000 inhabitants
• Miss. River Valley, IL

• No written record left behind artifacts and
  mounds

2
Practices

• Advanced agricultural techniques
• Linear government (rulers belonging to the same
  family)
• Religion
• Trade networks all over US (Chert, Flourite,
  marine shell, Mica, Galena, Copper)
• Highly accomplished potters, flint makers (arrow
  pts), and stone workers
• Jewelry and smoking

• No metallurgy
• No writing system
• No stone architecture

3
Mounds

• Flat-top and Ridge-top earth mounds
• Large cities (larger than any EUR city) built
  around a central plaza
• Buildings
• Burials
• Residential
• Boundary markers
• Monks Mound (largest) residence of the chief,
  the Great Sun

4
Cahokia
5
The Great Sun

• Monks Mound (largest) 2 terraces, 110 ft. high,
  16 acres 300 yrs work, carrying baskets of soil
• Considered a living god
• Keep the forces of nature in balance and ensure
  continued prosperity for his people
• Upon the chiefs death, his temple would be
  destroyed and another layer of earth would be
  added for his successor

6
Religion

• Based on relationship between people and the land
• 3-part Cosmology (worldview) Overworld,
  Present/Middle world, Underworld
• Overworld spirits and deities (sun, wind)
• Underworld deities of serpent-bodied monsters
  and other creatures
• Overworld vs. Underworld order vs. chaos
• Middle world people, animals, plants order and
  chaos competed for dominance
• Chief priest (the Great Sun)

7
Agriculture

• Maize (corn)
• Squash
• Beans

8
Agricultural Tools

• Flint hoes
• (flint)
• Spades
• (flint)

9
Weaponry

• Bow and Arrow hunting, war (flint)
• Blades and Knives (flint)

10
Stone Tools

• Flint and stone materials used for cutting and
  shaping wood for building
• Celt w/ wooden handle (most recognized)
  ungrooved axe head
• Diorite, Greenstone (Epidote, Chlorite, Quartz,
  Plagioclase Feldspar)
• Varied shapes

11
Stone Tools

• Ceremonial Celts Spatulate, Rattail Spud,
  Monolithic Axe
• Ceremonial use as symbols of power and authority
• Dont tend to show actual use
• Choice materials Greenstone (Feldspar, Epidote,
  Chlorite, Quartz), Slate
• Found in burials

12
Ceramics

• Very durable (fire the ceramics to a certain
  strength)
• Highly artistic
• Women potters (archeologist suggest)
• Texture Crushed mussel shells, dry clay, bone
  and sand
• Paints from natural materials (red, tan, black,
  white)
• Effigies (human and animal forms) head pot
• Surface engraving

13
More CeramicsHuman Effigies
14
More CeramicsAnimals Effigies
Deer effigy teapot
Double-headed dog teapot
15
Pipes

• Tobacco other natural substances
• Private or tribal settings
• Clay Stone materials
• Catlinite, Steatite, Limestone, Bauxite
• Most common clay elbow pipe
• Some w/ simple carving designs
• Sometimes in the form of effigies or other
  important objects of society

16
Europeans observations on how the Mississippians
made their stone pipes

• The Indians shape out the bowls of these pipes
  from the solid stone, which is not quite as hard
  as marble, with nothing but a knife. The stone is
  of a cherry red, admits of a beautiful polish,
  and the Indian makes the hole in the bowl of the
  pipe, by drilling into it a hard stick, shaped to
  the desired size, with a quantity of sharp sand
  and water kept constantly in the hole, subjecting
  him therefore to a great labour and the necessity
  of much patience.
• George Catlin, 1832-39

17
JewelryEar Ornaments

• Most common types ear spools and ear plugs
• 2 inches to over 3.5 in diameter (spools)
• 3/8 to 5/8 diameter, ½ to over 5 length
  (plugs)
• Clay, stone, shell, copper covered wood
• Engraved w/ geometric or effigy figures

Feldspar earplug
18
(No Transcript)
19
JewelryShell Ornaments

• Outer body of the conch shell
• Inner side engraved
• Two holes for leather thong
• Styles basic, cutouts, four-pointed star or
  cross, engraved (geometric effigies)

20
JewelryBeads

• Shell (most common), pearl (most valued), copper,
  stone
• Fresh and saltwater shelled animals
• Wore around necks, waists, legs, in hair
• Evidence burial site, male wearing cape covered
  in shell beads

21
The End

• Infectious diseases
• Depletion of natural resources
• Violent encounters
• Vanished 500 yrs ago
• Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
  Collinsville, IL

22
References

• http//www.mississippian-artifacts.com/
• http//ngeorgia.com/parks/etowah.html
• http//www.watertown.k12.ma.us/cunniff/americanhis
  torycentral/01firstamericans/The_Moundbuild.html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Builders
• http//www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/misc/gl
  ossaryDtoI.html
• www.southernmostillinoishistory.net/ kincaid2.htm
  
• http//members.tripod.com/IS335/cahokia5.gif
• riverweb.cet.uiuc.edu/.../ economy/health.html
• http//www5.semo.edu/museum/education/Explorer20N
  at20Am/Mississippian2.htm
• www.meredith.edu/nativeam/ first_encounters.htm
• http//web54.sd54.k12.il.us/schools/hoover/cdrew/i
  llinois/images/Mnkmound.jpg