Mississippian civilization

The term Mississippian civilization refers to an urban civilization that flourished in eastern North America between the years c. 900 and 1400. Cities have been found in the Mississippi and Ohio river basin. The cities generally consist of large earth mounds. Cahokia, in modern-day Illinois near the Mississippi River, was the largest of these cities. Serpent Mound in Ohio is another well-known site. This is a very long earth mound that, when viewed from the air, depicts a snake eating an egg. The civilization engaged in trade with surrounding peoples as far away as the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic coast. In the early 1400s, before the arrival of Europeans, the civilization mysteriously vanished. The cities were abandoned, and the people returned to a tribal way of life.

The Mississippian culture was the only pre-Columbian civilized society to develop in North America.

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