The earliest Mississippian settlement at Moundville began about AD 1050, as a fairly dispersed settlement of hamlets and farmsteads, based on mixed agriculture and hunting and gathering. Two mounds were constructed on the Moundville terrace by 1200; but a dramatic change occurred between 1200 and 1250, when Moundville became a planned and highly structured town. All major mounds were built during this period, and public and domestic architecture was arranged around a large central plaza. The immense bastioned palisade enclosing the settlement at this time, and an estimated 1,000 people lived within its walls.
During the rise of Moundville's political power and complexity, maize became the predominant source of food, and burials at this time included a high frequency of typical Mississippian ritual artifacts such as embossed copper plates and engraved shell.
Between 1250 and 1300, most of the family-level households left the compound, and established small dispersed farmsteads and hamlets outside of the palisade walls. A slew of smaller communities with single platform mounds, none of which measures more than 1 ha (2.5 ac), grew up in the region. Within the palisade walls, Moundville became a necropolis, the regional center for mortuary rituals; only a handful of elite personages actually lived there.
