"Community Life" By Michael Hampshire Courtesy of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site Collinsville, Illinois

Mississippian Chief

At a time when Europe was plunged into the Dark Ages and crusaders fought holy wars to gain Jerusalem for the Church, a Native American culture thrived in what is now the Midwest and Southeast United States.These Native Americans are known today as the Mississippian Moundbuilders.

The Mississippian Culture commenced around AD 900 and lasted until just after the coming of Hernando de Soto and his marauding Spanish fortune hunters in the mid-16^th century. For more than half a millenium, the Mississippian people successfully cultivated vast agricultural settlements based on corn, squash and beans. However, the Mississippians weremuch more than prosperous farmers. They also developed a complex and highly organized culture based on a ritualistic relationship between the people and the land. The most notable Mississippian civil centers were Spiro Mounds in what is now eastern Oklahoma, Moundville in Alabama, Etowah Mounds in northern Georgia, and the largest and most elaborate center at Cahokia Mounds in present-day Collinsville, Illinois.

Flint Adze. Kaolin Flint. L: 6.5" State of Kentucky

Massive earthen mounds of varying size and function dominated the great Mississippian landscape. At Cahokia, a 13^th century population of approximately 30,000 inhabitants built flat top mounds for buildings and other mounds for burials and boundary markers. The largest Cahokian mound, Monks Mound, has two terraces and a massive base measuring 739,224 square feet making it one quarter larger than the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Atop Monks Mound was the residence of the leading chief known as the Great Sun whose duty it was to keep the forces of nature in balance and thereby ensure continued prosperity for his people. Cahokia's population was greater than any contemporary European city of the day, and it wasn't until the late 18^th century that a North American City, Philadelphia, finally had population that eclipsed that of 13^th Century Cahokia.

These large cities were centers of governmental and religious life. Most Mississippian cities were built around a central plaza. Social events at these plazas were certainly varied but included the popular sport of chungke (or chunkey) where men rolled stone discoidals as part of day long competitions that usually included gambling between the players. A more thorough discussion of chungke and the use of discoidals is set out in the discoidal section of this site.

Life among the Mississippians was prosperous but not always peaceful. By Mississippian times, the bow and arrow had been perfected and was in common use. Burials have revealed arrow points positioned in such a way to suggest that they were a part of quivered arrows. These finely crafted flint points were beneficial in hunting local game and critical for use in battle. When de Soto traveled throughout the southeastern United States in search of treasure and adventure, the Spanish chroniclers recorded that the late Mississippian tribes used bows and arrows in battle against the Spanish.

Drilled Southern Spatulate H: 5.5" Tennessee greenstone. Hamilton Co., TN.

By reason of infectious Old World diseases brought by the Spanish, population migration due to the depletion of natural resources, or for other unknown reasons, the Mississippian Moundbuilders vanished before Marquette and Joliet traveled through the old Mississippian lands in the late 17^th century. However, we still have tangible reminders of this once powerful and highly developed culture. The Moundbuilders were highly accomplished potters, flint knappers and stone workers who also designed and created many status ornaments such as shell gorgets, ear ornaments and beads. This website displays some of the finest Mississippian, Quapaw and Caddo artifacts in private and public hands.

By definition, a prehistoric people, such as the Mississippian Moundbuilders, left behind no written record of their history. We do have their artifacts and great earthen mounds to help tell their stories and suggest their past. The artifacts displayed here are some of the finest ever recovered. Many reflect the high water mark of their makers' achievements. No other website exhibits the fantastic Moundbuilder artifacts to such a representative and comprehensive extent. Take your time and enjoy these great reminders of our distant native past. It is a story worth sharing.

Finally, I would like to share my thoughts and objectives about this website. It is my intention that this virtual exhibit serve as a celebration of Mississippian art and culture. This is and shall remain a non-commercial venture. I am not a professional archaeologist and I do not pretend to be one. However, I have made a very conscious effort to travel throughout the Country in search of the best Mississippian artifacts to display in this site. It is a reality of life that many interested professionals and students of Mississippian art and archaeology may never have an opportunity to personally examine the many fine artifacts that I have had the pleasure to examine, study and photograph. The remarkable qualities of web technology can now provide the viewer with the next best means of seeing these great artistic creations. I must further acknowledge that although I am solely responsible for the final content of this site, my work would not be complete without the selfless and friendly support of many experienced and seasoned students of Mississippian archaeology. I wish to specifically thank the following individuals for allowing me to visit them and their collections, talk with them about each artifact and allow me to exhibit the photographs contained in this site: Gordon Hart, Roy Hathcock, Mike Dominy, Kent Patterson, Floyd Ritter, Steve Puttera, Jr., Ron Smith, Dan Swan of the Gilcrease Museum, Tommy Bryden, David Perky, Dr. Kent Westbrook, Jim Frederick, Ray Fraser and the many others who have unselfishly contributed to this site but who wish to remain anonymous. A special thanks to my web designer, Doug Gundersen of Lenexa, Kansas, who has done a masterful job in helping me create this site. To all of you, I say, "thank you".

Anthony Stein Kansas City, Missouri 816/753-1500 © Anthony Stein March 1, 2000 Updated July 15, 2006