

A central ceremonial plaza provided the nucleus of a Mississippian town, and each settlement had one or more pyramidal or oval earth mounds, surmounted by a temple or chief’s residence, grouped around the plaza. This settlement pattern was typical of most of Middle America (central and southern Mexico and Guatemala) since as early as 850 BC, but it had not diffused into North America until the advent of the Mississippian culture. The scale of public works in the Mississippian culture can be estimated from the largest of the earthworks, Monks Mound, in the Cahokia Mounds near Collinsville, Ill., which is approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) long, 700 feet (200 m) wide, and 100 feet (30 m) high. The magnitude of such public works and the distribution of temples suggest a dominant religious cult and a cadre of priest-rulers who could command the services of a large, stable, and docile population, as well as several artist-craftsman guilds.


The Mississippian culture had begun to decline by the time European explorers first penetrated the Southeast and described the customs of the aboriginals. The last remnant seems to have been the Natchez, whose decline and dispersal were caused, and described, by the French between 1698 and 1731people living there. The Natchez are the best-known of the Mississippian cultures to have survived French and Spanish colonization; they numbered about 500 members in the early 21st century.