Mississippian culture

The Mississippian sites present in the Lower Red River Mouth area
cover two culture periods called Coles Creek and rlaquemine. From
approximately 850 to 1600 A.D., these cultures, economically based
on hoe agriculture, functioned on a statal level of socio-political
organization more complex than the cultures preceding them in the
Red River Mouth area. A presentation of settlement data on sites
representative of these cultures along with economic, burial,
ceramic and nonceramic details will show that cultural continuity
existed in this area and culture change occurred, during which the
change was from simple chiefdom to complex state.

Through a study of the specialized art forms of the Southeastern
Ceremonial Complex, and an investigation of the settlement patterns
in which this Complex occurred, hypothetical reconstructions of
certain Late Mississippian social and religious systems have been
presented. It seems highly probable that this ceremonial material
formed the ritual paraphernalia of the controlling dignitaries
within a Cult organization which functioned as a state religion in
widely separated cultural areas. Although dependent upon an agricultural
base and, consequently, related to fertility ceremonies,
the Complex was mainly oriented towards offensive warfare and
expansion through conquest.