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This is a list of notable burial mounds in the United States built by Native Americans. Burial mounds were built by many different cultural groups over a span of many thousands of years, beginning in the Late Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period up to the time of European contact.
| Mound | Location | Date | Culture | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bynum Mound and Village Site | Chickasaw County, Mississippi | 100 BCE to 100 CE | Miller culture (part of the Hopewell tradition) | A Middle Woodland period archaeological site located near Houston, Mississippi. The complex of six conical shaped mounds was in use during the Miller 1 and Miller 2 phases of the Miller culture. [1] [2] and was built between 100 BCE and 100 CE. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 as part of the Natchez Trace Parkway at milepost 232.4. |
| Carl Potter Mound | Champaign County, Ohio | ? | ? | Also known as the "Hodge Mound II", it is located in southern Champaign County, Ohio, near Mechanicsburg, [3] it lies on a small ridge in a pasture field in southeastern Union Township. |
| Conus | Marietta Earthworks, Marietta, Ohio | 100 BCE to 500 CE | Adena culture | The conical Great Mound at Mound Cemetery is part of a mound complex known as the Marietta Earthworks, which includes the nearby Quadranaou and Capitolium platform mounds, the Sacra Via walled mounds (largely destroyed in 1882), and three enclosures. [4] |
| Criel Mound | South Charleston, West Virginia | 250 to 150 BCE | Adena culture | Located in South Charleston, West Virginia, the mound lies equidistant between two "sacred circles", earthwork enclosures each 556 feet (169 m) in diameter. It was originally 33 feet (10 m) high and 173 feet (53 m) in diameter at the base, making it the second-largest such burial mound in the state. |
| Crooks Mound | La Salle Parish, Louisiana | 100 BCE to 400 CE | Early Marksville culture | A large Marksville culture mound site in La Salle Parish in south central Louisiana. It is a large conical mound that was part of at least six episodes of burials. It measured about 16 ft high (4.9 m) and 85 ft wide (26 m). It contained roughly 1,150 remains that were placed however they were able to be fit into the structure of the mound. Sometimes body parts were removed in order to achieve that goal. Archaeologists think it was a holding house for the area that was emptied periodically in order to achieve this type of setup. [5] |
| Dunns Pond Mound | Logan County, Ohio | ca. 300 to 500 CE | Ohio Hopewell culture | Located in northwestern Ohio near Huntsville, [3] it lies along the southeastern corner of Indian Lake in Washington Township. In 1974, the mound was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a potential archeological site, with much of its significance deriving from its use as a burial site for as much as nine centuries. |
| Everett Knoll Complex | Summit County, Ohio | 200 to 500 CE | Ohio Hopewell Culture | Located in Northeast Ohio within Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Several artifacts were found within a small mound with an unusual limestone crypt. Signs of habitation were discovered nearby. [6] |
| Grave Creek Mound | Moundsville, West Virginia | 250 to 150 BCE | Adena culture | At 69 feet (21 m) high and 295 feet (90 m) in diameter, the Grave Creek Mound is the largest conical type burial mound in the United States. In 1838, much of the archaeological evidence in this mound was destroyed when several non-archaeologists tunneled into the mound. To gain entrance to the mound, two shafts, one vertical and one horizontal, were created. This led to the most significant discovery of two burial vaults. |
| Grand Gulf Mound | Claiborne County, Mississippi | 50 to 150 CE | Marksville culture | An Early Marksville culture site located near Port Gibson in Claiborne County, Mississippi, on a bluff 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the Mississippi River, 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the mouth of the Big Black River. [7] The site has an extant burial mound, and may have possibly had two others in the past. The site is believed to have been occupied from 50 to 200 CE. |
| Indian Mounds Regional Park | Saint Paul, Minnesota | 1 to 500 CE | Hopewell and Dakota cultures | Originally up to 37 mounds constructed, 6 still in existence |
| Miamisburg Mound | Miamisburg, Ohio | 800 BCE to 100 CE | Adena culture | The largest conical mound in the state of Ohio, constructed by the Adena culture on a 100-foot-high bluff, the mound measures 877 feet (267 m) in circumference and its height is 65 feet (20 m). |
| Mound City | Chillicothe, Ohio | 200 BCE to 500 CE | Ohio Hopewell culture | Located on Ohio Highway 104 approximately four miles north of Chillicothe along the Scioto River, it is a group of 23 earthen mounds. Each mound within the Mound City Group covered the remains of a charnel house. After the Hopewell people cremated the dead, they burned the charnel house. They constructed a mound over the remains. They also placed artifacts, such as copper figures, mica, arrowheads, shells and pipes in the mounds. |
| Mount Vernon Site | Posey County, Indiana | 1 to 300 CE | Crab Orchard Culture | One of the largest known Hopewell mounds. Large quantities of artifacts, including intact cloth and leather ornaments, were found within it. Damaged and looted during discovery in 1988. [8] |
| Pinson Mounds Mounds 6, 12, and 31 | Madison County, Tennessee | 100 to 300 CE | Miller culture | A mound complex which includes mounds, a geometric enclosure and numerous habitation areas, it is the largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States. The complex covers approximately 400 acres (1.6 km2) and contains at least 30 mounds, 17 of which have been identified as being completely or partially constructed by prehistoric peoples. It includes at least 3 burial mounds, and a number of ceremonial platform mounds. |
| Reservoir Stone Mound | Licking County, Ohio | 85 to 135 CE | Probably Adena culture | Also known as the Jacksontown Stone Mound, the central, stone-covered structure was largely destroyed by the removal of stones to construct the Licking Reservoir and by a 19th-century treasure-hunter. Around the edge of the large stone mound were a number of earthen mounds, some of which contained burials. [9] |
| Mound | Location | Date | Culture | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cahokia Mound 72 | Mound 72, Cahokia Collinsville, Illinois | 650 to 1400 CE | Middle Mississippian culture | A ridge-top burial mound south of Monk's Mound; during excavations archaeologists found the remains of a man in his 40s who was probably an important Cahokian ruler. Archaeologists recovered more than 250 other skeletons from Mound 72. Scholars believe almost 62 percent of these were sacrificial victims, based on signs of ritual execution, method of burial, and other factors. [10] |
| Castalian Springs Mound 2 | Castalian Springs Mound Site in Sumner County, Tennessee | 1100 to 1450 CE | Middle Mississippian culture | Located on the eastern edge of a plaza, a 120 feet (37 m) in diameter 8 feet (2.4 m) tall mound was found to contain over a hundred burials when excavated by William E. Myer in the early 1890s. [11] |
| Craig Mound | Spiro Mounds, Le Flore County, Oklahoma | 800-1200 CE | Caddoan Mississippian culture | Also called the "Great Mortuary", it is the second-largest mound on the site and the only burial mound. A hollow chamber that began as a burial structure for Spiro's rulers became a cavity within the mound, about 10 feet (3.0 m) high and 15 feet (4.6 m) wide, and allowed for almost perfect preservation of fragile artifacts made of wood, conch shell, and copper. The conditions in this hollow space were so favorable that objects made of perishable materials such as basketry, woven fabric, lace, fur, and feathers were preserved inside it. Craig Mound has been called "an American King Tut's Tomb". |
| George C. Davis Mound C | Caddoan Mounds State Historic Site, Cherokee County, Texas | 800-1200 CE | Caddoan Mississippian culture | Mound C, the northernmost mound of the three at the site, it was used as a ceremonial burial mound, not for elite residences or temples like the other two. [12] The site was the southwesternmost ceremonial mound center of all the mound building cultures of North America. [12] |
| Etowah Mound C | Etowah Indian Mounds, Cartersville, Georgia | 1000-1550 CE | South Appalachian Mississippian | Cyrus Thomas and John P. Rogan tested the site for the Smithsonian Institution in 1883, where they discovered the "Rogan plates". But, the first well-documented archaeological inquiry at the site did not begin until the winter of 1925, conducted by Warren K. Moorehead. His excavations into Mound C at the site revealed a rich array of burial goods. These artifacts, along with the collections from Cahokia, Moundville, Lake Jackson, and Spiro Mounds, would comprise the majority of the materials which archeologists used to define the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. |
| Fatherland Site Mound C | Grand Village of the Natchez, Natchez, Mississippi | 1400-1732 CE | Plaquemine Mississippian culture | Mound C was used as the Sun Temple and charnel house for the Natchez elite. |
| Gahagan Mound B | Gahagan Mounds Site, Red River Parish, Louisiana | 1100-1450 CE | Caddoan Mississippian culture | The burial mound at the site was excavated twice, in 1912 by Clarence Bloomfield Moore and then in 1939 by Clarence H. Webb. Between the two excavations, three burial shafts with a total of fourteen burials and more than five hundred grave goods were discovered. The first shaft, found by Moore, was 11 feet in depth and 13 by 8 feet in width and height. The other two, found in the 1939 excavations, were 19 feet (5.8 m) by 15 feet (4.6 m) and 12 feet (3.7 m) by 11 feet (3.4 m) feet in dimensions. [13] Grave goods found included flaked flint knives known as Gahagan blades, a matched pair of long-nosed god maskette earrings of copper, [14] Missouri flint clay statues, [15] greenstone celts and spuds, and caches of beads and arrow heads. Many of the grave goods were exotic imports from distant places from across the continent. [16] |
| High Cliff State Park Effigy Mounds | Calumet County, Wisconsin | 1000 to 1500 CE | Dakota cultures | Effigy mounds built by nomadic woodland tribes somewhere between 1000 CE and 1500 CE. These dates have been determined by carbon dating charcoal remnants from the fires of the effigy mound builders. The woodland tribes that built these mounds are thought to be Siouan origin which was later replaced by Dakota, Winnebago, Menominee, Salk, Fox and other tribes. Out of the original 30 effigy mounds in High Cliff, only nine remain. [17] |
| Mangum Mound | Mangum Mound Site, Claiborne County, Mississippi | 1350 to 1500 CE | Plaquemine Mississippian culture | Located at milepost 45.7 on the Natchez Trace Parkway. [18] Various pottery fragments belonging to the Plaquemine culture, chunkey stones and several Mississippian copper plates, one with an avian design similar to other plates found at Etowah in Georgia and Lake Jackson mounds in Florida. These portray the Birdman motif important to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). [19] |
| Nacoochee Mound | Nacoochee Mound, White County, Georgia | 1350-1600 CE | South Appalachian Mississippian culture | Nacoochee Mound, on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in White County, in the northeast part of the U.S. state of Georgia. Today Georgia Georgia State Route 17 and Georgia State Route 75 intersect near here. First occupied as early as 100–500 CE, the site was later developed and occupied more intensively from 1350 to 1600 CE by peoples of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture (a regional variation of the Mississippian culture). [20] One of their characteristic platform mounds is located at the site. A professional archeological excavation revealed a total of 75 human burials, with artifacts that support dating of the site. |
| Nodena site Mound C | Nodena site, Mississippi County, Arkansas | 1400–1650 CE | Middle Mississippian culture | A circular mound, designated as "Mound C", was located at the other end of the chunkey field. It was roughly 93 feet (28 m) in diameter and 3 feet (0.91 m) high. Numerous graves of males, 314 of 316 total, were found buried under it. |
| Pocahontas Mounds | Pocahontas Mounds, Pocahontas | Coles Creek and Plaquemine Mississippian cultures | ||
| Pope County Mound 2 | Kincaid site, Pope County, Illinois | 1050-1400 CE | Middle Mississippian culture | Adjacent to the Ohio River, the site straddles the modern-day counties of Massac and Pope in deep southern Illinois, an area colloquially known as Little Egypt. On the eastern edge of the site is a low circular mound which was used as a burial mound. All other mounds at the site were substructure platform mounds. The mound contained a number of stone box graves and log-lined tombs similar to those frequently found to the south in the Middle Cumberland Valley of Tennessee. [21] |
| Shiloh Mound C | Shiloh Indian Mounds, Hardin County, Tennessee | 1000-1450 CE | Middle Mississippian culture | Adjacent to the Tennessee River, the site has 6 or 7 substructure platform mounds and one burial mound, Mound C. This mound was excavated in 1899 by Cornelius Cadle, chairman of the Shiloh Park Commission. Among the discoveries was a large stone effigy pipe in the shape of a kneeling man. It has since become the site's most famous artifact and is on display in the Tennessee River Museum in Savannah. The pipe is from a distinctive red stone in the same style as several statuettes from the major Cahokia site in Collinsville, Illinois. [22] |
The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from 100 BCE to 500 CE, in the Middle Woodland period. The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society but a widely dispersed set of populations connected by a common network of trade routes.
The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-feet-long (411 m), three-feet-high prehistoric effigy mound located in Peebles, Ohio. It was built on what is known as the Serpent Mound crater plateau, running along the Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. The mound is the largest serpent effigy known in the world.
The Fort Ancient culture is a Native American archaeological culture that dates back to c. 1000–1750 CE. Members of the culture lived along the Ohio River valley, in an area running from modern-day Ohio and western West Virginia through to northern Kentucky and parts of southeastern Indiana. A contemporary of the neighboring Mississippian culture, Fort Ancient is considered to be a separate "sister culture". Mitochondrial DNA evidence collected from the area suggests that the Fort Ancient culture did not directly descend from the older Hopewell Culture.
The Mississippian culture were collections of Native American societies that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 to 1600, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earthen platform mounds, and often other shaped mounds as well. It was composed of a series of urban settlements and satellite villages linked together by loose trading networks. The largest city was Cahokia, believed to be a major religious center, located in what is present-day southern Illinois.
Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed "Mound Builders", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific people or archaeological culture but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks that indigenous peoples erected for an extended period of more than 5,000 years. The "Mound Builder" cultures span the period of roughly 3500 BCE to the 16th century CE, including the Archaic period, Woodland period, and Mississippian period. Geographically, the cultures were present in the region of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley, Florida, and the Mississippi River Valley and its tributary waters. Outlying mounds exist in South Carolina at Santee and in North Carolina at Town Creek.
In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeologists distinguishing the Mississippian period, from 1000 CE to European contact as a separate period. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic term for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the agriculturalist Mississippian cultures. The Eastern Woodlands cultural region covers what is now eastern Canada south of the Subarctic region, the Eastern United States, along to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Kincaid Mounds Historic Site c. 1050–1400 CE, is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located at the southern tip of present-day U.S. state of Illinois, along the Ohio River. Kincaid Mounds has been notable for both its significant role in native North American prehistory and for the central role the site has played in the development of modern archaeological techniques. The site had at least 11 substructure platform mounds, and 8 other monuments.
The archaeology of Iowa is the study of the buried remains of human culture within the U.S. state of Iowa from the earliest prehistoric through the late historic periods. When the American Indians first arrived in what is now Iowa more than 13,000 years ago, they were hunters and gatherers living in a Pleistocene glacial landscape. By the time European explorers visited Iowa, American Indians were largely settled farmers with complex economic, social, and political systems. This transformation happened gradually. During the Archaic period American Indians adapted to local environments and ecosystems, slowly becoming more sedentary as populations increased. More than 3,000 years ago, during the Late Archaic period, American Indians in Iowa began utilizing domesticated plants. The subsequent Woodland period saw an increase on the reliance on agriculture and social complexity, with increased use of mounds, ceramics, and specialized subsistence. During the Late Prehistoric period increased use of maize and social changes led to social flourishing and nucleated settlements. The arrival of European trade goods and diseases in the Protohistoric period led to dramatic population shifts and economic and social upheaval, with the arrival of new tribes and early European explorers and traders. During the Historical period European traders and American Indians in Iowa gave way to American settlers and Iowa was transformed into an agricultural state.
The Portsmouth Earthworks are a large prehistoric mound complex constructed by the Native American Adena and Ohio Hopewell cultures of eastern North America. The site was one of the largest earthwork ceremonial centers constructed by the Hopewell and is located at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio Rivers, in present-day Ohio.
Prehistory of Ohio provides an overview of the activities that occurred prior to Ohio's recorded history. The ancient hunters, Paleo-Indians, descended from humans that crossed the Bering Strait. There is evidence of Paleo-Indians in Ohio, who were hunter-gatherers that ranged widely over land to hunt large game. For instance, mastodon bones were found at the Burning Tree Mastodon site that showed that it had been butchered. Clovis points have been found that indicate interaction with other groups and hunted large game. The Paleo Crossing site and Nobles Pond site provide evidence that groups interacted with one another. The Paleo-Indian's diet included fish, small game, and nuts and berries that gathered. They lived in simple shelters made of wood and bark or hides. Canoes were created by digging out trees with granite axes.
The Marksville culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Lower Mississippi valley, Yazoo valley, and Tensas valley areas of present-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and extended eastward along the Gulf Coast to the Mobile Bay area, from 100 BCE to 400 CE. This culture takes its name from the Marksville Prehistoric Indian Site in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. Marksville Culture was contemporaneous with the Hopewell cultures within present-day Ohio and Illinois. It evolved from the earlier Tchefuncte culture and into the Baytown and Troyville cultures, and later the Coles Creek and Plum Bayou cultures. It is considered ancestral to the historic Natchez and Taensa peoples.
The Battle Mound Site (3LA1) is an archaeological site in Lafayette County, Arkansas in the Great Bend region of the Red River basin. The majority of the mound was built from 1200 to 1400 CE. The site has the largest mound of the Caddoan Mississippian culture. It measures approximately 670 feet (200 m) in length, 320 feet (98 m) wide, and 34 feet (10 m) in height.
The Caddoan Mississippian culture was a prehistoric Native American culture considered by archaeologists as a variant of the Mississippian culture. The Caddoan Mississippians covered a large territory, including what is now Eastern Oklahoma, Western Arkansas, Northeast Texas, Southwest Missouri and Northwest Louisiana of the United States.
The Fourche Maline culture was a Woodland Period Native American culture that existed from 300 BCE to 800 CE, in what are now defined as southeastern Oklahoma, southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, and northeastern Texas. They are considered to be one of the main ancestral groups of the Caddoan Mississippian culture, along with the contemporaneous Mill Creek culture of eastern Texas. This culture was named for the Fourche Maline Creek, a tributary of the Poteau River. Their modern descendants are the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
Mangum Mound Site is an archaeological site of the Plaquemine culture in Claiborne County, Mississippi. It is located at milepost 45.7 on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Two very rare Mississippian culture repoussé copper plates have been discovered during excavations of the site. The site was used as a burial mound during the Foster Phase of the culture and is believed to have been abandoned before the 1540 expedition of Hernando de Soto.
The Marietta Earthworks is an archaeological site located at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers in Washington County, Ohio, United States. Most of this Hopewellian complex of earthworks is now covered by the modern city of Marietta. Archaeologists have dated the ceremonial site's construction to approximately 100 BCE to 500 CE.
The Stubbs Earthworks was a massive Ohio Hopewell culture archaeological site located in Morrow in Warren County, Ohio.
