Objects and features indicative of the importance of farming for most Mississippian commoners include metates and manos, chert hoes and hoe fragments highly polished through use, and large storage and garbage pits containing maize kernels and cob fragments.

Metate from the Turner site.

Metates and manos, commonly called grinding stones, are used to grind seeds. Their ubiquity at Mississippian farmsteads demonstrates the importance of maize food preparation. Ground maize can be used to make gruel and corncakes. Grinding maize, Cahokia Mounds Museum.

Mill Creek chert hoes, Illinois State Museum.

The spent chert hoes and hoe fragments that litter elevated land where agricultural fields were located tell us that Mississippian farmers did not neglect their crops; they actively hoed, weeded, and otherwise tended their fields. Furthermore, it is important to realize that used tools were not discarded haphazardly. They were resharpened, maintained, and converted to different purposes until they could be used no more. Broken pots, for example, were often converted into platters by grinding down broken edges of large pieces. Broken hoes were often notched and re-hafted for continued use. Woman tending field and chert hoe maintenance, Illinois State Museum.

To a large degree, these reconstructions of Mississippian household and hamlet activities hold true for households in larger settlements as well.

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