Omussee Creek Mound, near the Chattahoochee River, was the southernmost platform mound along the river and was occupied approximately 1300 to 1550 A.D. as part of an important Native American settlement. Southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia once held one of the densest concentrations of mound centers in North America and served as a key population and cultural center during the Mississippian era, circa 1000 to approximately 1600 A.D. Unlike the less centrally organized societies before and after it, this period featured large, complex societies arranged into chiefdoms that practiced intensive agriculture and took their name from the Mississippi River Valley, where the culture is believed to have originated. Mississippian peoples commonly built mound centers such as Omussee as regional political capitals, and archaeologists have identified over a dozen major mound complexes along the lower Chattahoochee from this era, each once home to large communities. At the height of its activity, Omussee Mound is believed to have been the only such center in use along the southern reaches of the Chattahoochee and is therefore presumed to have held influence over a wide area. Mounds such as Omussee are often the only surviving parts of once-thriving towns that frequently included palisade walls around a large central plaza, with scattered family homes and small farms spread across the surrounding area. Elite members of Mississippian societies usually lived atop the mounds, while some mounds also served as burial places or other ceremonial sites.