Mississippian World Tree Cosmos Model

Mississippian Native Americans had a cosmological concept similar to Norse mythology, complete with a great World Tree that linked different layers of the universe. Between about 1000 and 1500 CE in what is now the southeastern and midwestern United States, they envisioned an Upper World, a Middle World, and an Underworld, all connected by this vertical axis. Archaeologists see traces of this belief in mound layouts, ceremonial plazas, and engraved images of trees, birds, and serpents that mark the boundaries between realms.

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