Mississippian Mound Culture

Timeline

1. 1050–1200Cahokia · CahokiaIn the 11th–12th centuries Cahokia built giant structures such as Monks Mound, with an estimated population of ten to twenty thousand; maize agriculture, shell bead trade, and astronomically aligned ceremonies made it the exemplary model of the Mississippian culture.
2. 1200–1240Mississippi River Valley · Mississippi River ValleyIn the early 13th century Cahokia's population plummeted and large-scale construction ceased, possibly due to climate change, resource depletion, and political turmoil; the Mississippian cultural model began to spread and shift toward the southeastern tributary regions.
3. 1241–1250Southeastern North America · SoutheastBy the 1240s Cahokia was largely abandoned, but southeastern mound centers such as Etowah and Moundville still maintained Mississippian ritual traditions, sustaining copper, shell, and pottery trade networks and forming a multi-centered regional pattern.
4. 1250–1450Eastern North America · United StatesFrom the 13th to the 15th centuries the Mississippian mound culture continued in the Southeast on a reduced scale, and by the mid-15th century all centers were generally abandoned; its agricultural, ritual, and mound-building traditions were inherited as a cultural substratum by later contact-era peoples such as the Cherokee and Creek.