The Mississippian period lasted from 800-1600 A.D. They were horticulturists, which means they mostly farmed for food, but they also hunted for game. They were not nomadic, they stayed in one place and built "cities" with fences and moats. The cities usually had centers called plazas. People would gather at the plaza for social reasons. Their houses were rectangular in shape and only used for storage, sleeping in the winter months, and for bad weather. The societies were chiefdoms. A chiefdom is a society ruled by a chief. The end of the Mississippian period was brought by the increasing presence of Europeans.