The territory of Louisiana roughly 10,000 years ago; first traces of permanent settlement, ushering in the Archaic period, appear at about 5,500 years ago (Mound Builders). The area formed part of the Eastern Agricultural Complex. The Marksville culture emerges about 2,000 years ago out of the earlier Tchefuncte culture. It is considered ancestral to the Natchez and Taensa peoples. About 1,000 years ago, the Mississippian culture emerged from the Woodland period.The emergence of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex coincides with the adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization beginning in c. 1200 CE. The Mississippian culture mostly disappeared before the 16th century, with the exception of some Natchez communities that maintained Mississippian cultural pra