Expansion of the Mississippian culture

Timeline

1. 900–960Cahokia · IllinoisCahokia's pottery styles, mound-building techniques, and religious symbols spread up- and downstream. Migration, trade, and imitation together drove the diffusion of Mississippian traits, as settlements everywhere began adopting platform mounds and plaza layouts.
2. 950–1000Mississippi · United StatesMound centers such as Etowah and Moundville emerged in the southeastern United States; chiefs consolidated authority by building mounds and holding ceremonies. Maize agriculture and the trade of luxury goods like shell beads and copper supported chiefdom societies with ranked hierarchies, forming regional power nodes corresponding to Cahokia.
3. 920–1000Lower Mississippi River · United StatesMississippian chiefdoms exchanged shells, copper, obsidian, and salt by river and overland routes, sharing religious imagery such as the spear-thrower and forked-eye personage. Extensive material and cultural ties made the Mississippian world the most integrated prehistoric civilization network in eastern North America.