Southeastern Indian cultural timeframe for the Tennessee River Valley and the upper Alabama region:

Paleo Indian. Migratory hunter-gatherers, hunted with spears. Pleistocene.

Archaic (beginnings of modern climate conditions). Spear throwers, known as atlatls, were often used. Roughly 8000 to 1000 BCE, with regional variations in termination time.

Some excellent sites for perusing Southeast Indian Archaic period appear to be Russell Cave, located northeast Alabama, and the Stanfield-Worley bluff shelter, located northwest Alabama.

Woodland. Mounds began to be built by these cultures. Ceramics often had fabric-impressions for design. Cultivation of squash and corn began. Moundville has signs of late Woodland activity (the West Jefferson timeframe). Bow and arrow introduced. Woodland culture seemed to have diffused down to the Moundville general region from the Midwest. The stage ended ca 800 - 1000 CE, depending on location, and may have occurred by some mixture of cultural diffusion and population displacement.

Mississipian. Seemed to have some Mesoamerican influences (mound structure, art influences), heavier cultivation practices. Cultural height from 1200 - 1400 CE. There tended to be communities centered around central plazas, and temples were often situated on top of mounds. These would be built of wood, mud and thatch. Mounds might be rebuilt, or added to, over the course of time. A fire-sun deity was an important figure. It probably began in the central Mississippi valley starting around 700 CE, and spread. Cultural signs existed until about 1700 CE.

Main centers of known Mississipian culture: Spiro OK, Cahokia IL, Hiwassee Island TN, Etowah GA, Macon GA, and of course, Moundville AL.

Timeframe of materials found at Moundville itself:

West Jefferson (900-1050 CE) Woodland.

Moundville I (1050 - 1250) Mississippian.

Moundville II (1250 - 1400) Mississippian.

Moundville III (1400 - 1550) Mississippian.

Moundville IV (1550 - 1650) Mississippian, very small population.

Moundville seemed to go into decline starting ca 1450, dates indefinite however. It is also very difficult to know how many people lived within the district of Moundville at any given time. It is thought that the Moundville chiefdom during its heyday may have directly controlled an area possibly 25 kilometers in each direction along the river.

(Same books as previous post)