Last updated: October 16, 2024
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Mississippian Period - 500 to 1,000 Years Ago
Growing Communities
During its peak, the Mississippian period was considered to be the highest cultural achievement in the prehistoric Southeast, often characterized as a collection of different societies sharing similar ways of living and traditions. They built more permanent communities, developed new farming techniques and tools, and maintained vast trade networks while continuing their ancestral tradition of hunting and gathering.
NPS Photo
NPS Photo
NPS Photo
The explorations of European explorers marked the end of the Mississippian peoples' history. Armies of Spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León and Hernando de Soto devastated the native populations from the 1500s to the 1540s, which was already in decline due to newly introduced European diseases from previous encounters as well as prolonged drought, crop failures, and internal warfare. Most of the larger Mississippian sites were abandoned or in decline by the mid-1400s.