Southern Ceremonial Complex

The SCC began about 500 AD at the end of the relatively peaceful millenia of the Early, Middle, and Late Woodland cultures centered on the Mississippi River. The SCC has also been called the southern Death Cult and Chiefly Warfare Cult. The early SCC included a wide ranging exchange network as did the Woodland cultural periods.

The SCC, or SECC as Waring and Holder called it was identified by them with a cultural rise beginning about 900 AD, a flourishing from about 1250 to 1350 AD with a decline into about 1550 AD. Trade networks about 1350 AD. Waring and Holder identified the SCC period with markers such as: long-nosed god, shell and copper masks, bi-lobed arrow heads, and chunkey players.

An earlier example of cultural change may be seen in the disruption of the Mississippian Woodland Culture evidenced by the marked increased reliance on corn agriculture and increased use of a bow and arrow in hunting and less on the atlatl and dart. This earlier change may have begun as early as 500 BC with more evidence available for a change after 400 BC. The evidence for change is clear to most in the field  for a time after 400 AD.

The change from Woodland cultures such as the Hopewell culture to the Southern Ceremonial Complex culture was a ver great change in the peoples of the area. The Woodland cultures had their ups and downs from before 400 BC, but the change to SCC culture was a very great change indeed.

The adoption of the SCC culture was largely by the "Civilized Tribes" of the southeast of the US rather than by the Algonquian speaking peoples farther north.

One of the big changes before the SCC cultural adoption occurred about 3200 BC with the appearance of pottery and the cultivation of squash.

Please help us fill in some details of the narration above.