Most Europeans at the time did not enjoy such a beneficial diet and thus most European explorers were greatly impressed by the height, strength, and general health of the Native Americans they encountered.
Over time, the Europeans and Africans who came to populate the Southeast adopted many aspects of this diet as well. A vegetable-rich diet had been common among Native Americans for centuries. Even the Paleoindians , despite their reputation as big-game hunters, probably received most of their daily nutrition from gathering. This predominantly vegetable diet was particularly characteristic of the Archaic period , during which Indian groups made yearly rounds of hunting and gathering sites for seasonal foods.
Late in Archaic times there was a slow move to rudimentary horticulture of local food plants such as lambsquarters, sunflowers, and perhaps squash. Horticulture intensified in the Woodland period , and most Native American populations began living in villages near their fields. Pumpkins Squashes and pumpkins, which probably spread from Mexico, were the first plants that southeastern Indians domesticated.
Native Americans developed many varieties of squashes, but common yellow squash, winter squashes, and pumpkins—especially valued for their sweetness and flavor—were the most popular. Pumpkins and winter squashes, which provided important vitamins, could be stored for long periods in cold weather and also could be dried for later consumption. Several varieties of gourds, hard-shelled members of the squash family, were cultivated and dried to use as containers and utensils.
Beans were an excellent protein source and added additional nutrients to the diet. In addition to green beans, consumed in their tender husks, speckled, kidney, and white beans were the most common varieties. When dried, beans were stripped from their husks and stored in baskets, gourds, and ceramic pots. Fresh green beans were snapped and strung with a needle and thread. Dried in the rafters of the house, these strings of beans were called "leather-britches" by Europeans.
They were put into water and reconstituted by lengthy cooking with a bit of fat or meat added for flavor—perhaps the origin of the southern custom of overcooked green beans.
Beans were cooked, dried, mixed with cornmeal, or even ground to make bean meal or flour. Creek Re-enactors and Village Corn, however, was the primary food of Native Americans throughout much of North America and supplied most of the calories in their diet. There are more than 20 different types, including popcorn, as well as many colors. White corn was preferred in the Southeast. The large multicolored corn seen for sale in the fall as "Indian corn" is a modern variety.
Their clear association with elites shows the important role elites must have played in ritual, and it also indicates how important the supernatural world was to Mississippian elites. The Early Mississippian subperiod A. During the Middle Mississippian subperiod A. By far the largest and most impressive chiefdom capital at this time was the Etowah site , located in northwestern Georgia near Cartersville.
By the Late Mississippian subperiod A. Near the end of this period, from to , Hernando de Soto and his army of Spaniards traveled through the Southeast in search of riches. Historical and archaeological studies have identified these as paramount chiefdoms. Paramount chiefdoms were loosely united confederacies of individual chiefdoms spread over large areas. The paramount chiefdom of Coosa, described by one de Soto chronicler, had as many as seven smaller chiefdoms, all under the influence of a powerful chief living at the town also known as Coosa.
The Mississippian Period in Georgia was brought to an end by the increasing European presence in the Southeast. European diseases introduced by early explorers and colonists devastated native populations in some areas, and the desire for European goods and the trade in enslaved natives and, later, deerskins caused whole social groups to relocate closer to or farther from European settlements. The result was the collapse of native chiefdoms as their populations were reduced, their authority structures were destroyed by European trade , and their people scattered across the region.
Many remnant populations came together to form historically known native groups such as the Creeks , Cherokees , and Seminoles. King, Adam. King, A. Mississippian Period. In New Georgia Encyclopedia. Photograph of ceremonial earthlodge which has been reconstructed and is today part of the Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia. View on source site.
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Archaeological excavation, carried out intermittently at the Etowah mound site for more than years, has unearthed artifacts such as these figures, which have provided much information about life in the Mississippian Period. Hernando de Soto was a Spanish-born explorer and conqueror who landed in present-day Tampa Bay, Florida, in and came to the Georgia area in Chroniclers of the expedition described the Coosa River valley in glowing terms.
Such mounds were usually square, rectangular, or occasionally circular. Structures domestic houses, temples, burial buildings, or other were usually constructed atop such mounds. Maize-based agriculture. The most important form of technology is the canoe. They used them to navigate the Mississippi River and to fish. They made them by hollowing out a tree trunk. Another type of technology was the hoes, made of freshwater mussel shells, stones, or shoulder blade of a white tailed deer.
Mississippian peoples lived in fortified towns or small homesteads, grew corn, built large earthen mounds, maintained trade networks, had powerful leaders, and shared similar symbols and rituals. Consensus building. Which of the following was a feature of Paleo-Indian society? They dwelled in bands of about fifteen to fifty people; they moved constantly, within informally defined boundaries; they used fluted points on their spears.
It is dedicated to the Holy Family. A typical Mississippian house was rectangular, about 12 feet long and 10 feet wide. The walls of a house were built by placing wooden poles upright in a trench in the ground.
The poles were then covered with a woven cane matting. The cane matting was then covered with plaster made from mud. Platform Mounds.
Mississippian cultures often built structures on top of their mounds such as homes and burial buildings. Mississippian cultures, like many before them, built mounds. Though other cultures may have used mounds for different purposes, Mississippian cultures typically built structures on top of them.
The type of structures constructed ran the gamut: temples, houses, and burial buildings. Mississippian artists produced unique art works. They engraved shell pendants with animal and human figures, and carved ceremonial objects out of flint. They sculpted human figures and other objects in stone.
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