Visualizing the Sacred: Cosmic Visions, Regionalism, and the Art of the Mississippian World (Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies)

by George E. Lankford

Ceremonial centers postdating AD 1150 reveal evidence of residential debris, suggesting that dispersed populations were beginning to move into the mound precincts and transforming them into central places which then had to be protected through fortification. These fortified ritual villages continued to be surrounded by hamlets and farmsteads