For other uses, see Mound builder (disambiguation).
Monks Mound, built c. 950–1100 CE and located at the Cahokia Mounds UNESCO World Heritage Site near Collinsville, Illinois, is the largest pre-Columbian earthwork in America north of Mesoamerica.
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 (the construction of Watson Brake) to the 16th century CE, including the Archaic period (Horr's Island), Woodland period (Caloosahatchee, Adena and Hopewell cultures), 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.[1]
The first mound building was an early marker of political and social complexity among the cultures in the Eastern United States. Watson Brake in Louisiana, constructed about 3500 BCE during the Middle Archaic period, is the oldest known and dated mound complex in North America. It is one of 11 mound complexes from this period found in the Lower Mississippi Valley.[2]
These cultures generally had developed hierarchical societies that had an elite. These commanded hundreds or even thousands of workers to dig up tons of earth with the hand tools available, move the soil long distances, and finally, workers to create the shape with layers of soil as directed by the builders. However early mounds found in Louisiana preceded such cultures and were products of hunter-gatherer cultures.
From about 800 CE, the mound-building cultures were dominated by the Mississippian culture, a large archaeological horizon, whose youngest descendants, the Plaquemine culture and the Fort Ancient culture, were still active at the time of European contact in the 16th century. One tribe of the Fort Ancient culture has been identified as the Mosopelea, presumably of southeast Ohio, who spoke an Ohio Valley Siouan language. The bearers of the Plaquemine culture were presumably speakers of the Natchez language isolate.
The first written description of these cultures were made by members of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's expedition, between 1540 and 1542.
^Squier p. 1
^Robert W. Preucel, Stephen A. Mrozowski, Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: The New Pragmatism, John Wiley & Sons, 2010, p. 177
Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed "MoundBuilders", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific...
The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family...
spots such as Asia, Europe and the Americas. "Moundbuilders" have more commonly been associated with the mounds in the Americas. They all have different meanings...
by black Africans. The MoundBuilders were members of various indigenous North American cultures who constructed earthwork mounds from roughly 3500 BCE...
know their ancestors had built the mounds dotting the landscape. This contributed to the myth of the MoundBuilders as a people distinct from Native Americans...
Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. This study of the prehistoric MoundBuilders of North America was a landmark in American scientific research and...
Institution opposed the popular myth that an "ancient white race" were the MoundBuilders. The role of the Smithsonian Institution in debunking such claims led...
burial mound function. The builders of the effigy mounds are usually referred to as the MoundBuilders. Over 3200 animal-shaped effigy mounds have been...
tumulus (pl.: tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or (in Siberia and Central...
S2CID 133966204. "New insights into the curious disappearance of the Cahokia Moundsbuilders". St. Louis Public Radio. May 4, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2020....
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...
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...
that verified north American indigenous people constructed the mounds. The moundbuilders were a variety of pre-Columbian cultures who inhabited the areas...
Archaeology. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-1907-6. "Mounds and MoundBuilders". Archived from the original on 2008-06-23. Retrieved 2008-09-11...
eastern prairie peoples learned to raise crops and shape pottery from the moundbuilders to their east. 500 BC–700 AD: Old Bering Sea culture thrives in the...
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. It typically refers to a flat-topped mound, whose sides may be...
contemporary with moundbuilders. Stephen Dennison Peet, The MoundBuilders, pp. 38–44. Elephant effigy pipes, of the characteristic moundbuilder platform style...
The scrubfowl are the genus Megapodius of the mound-builders, stocky, medium-large chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae...
portal MoundBuilders Poverty Point Culture Marsden Mounds Toltec Mounds Archaeological State Park, in Arkansas Watson Brake LSU Campus Mounds National...
ceremonial and village earthwork mounds around Lake Okeechobee similar to those of the Mississippian culture and earlier moundbuilders. Fort Center is in the area...
as MoundBuilders. This particular tumulus or burial mound was built in successive stages over a period of a hundred years. The Grave Creek Mound was...
Monks Mound is the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the Americas and the largest pyramid north of Mesoamerica. The beginning of its construction dates...
Commons has media related to Criel Mound. Criel Mound The Kanawha Valley and its Prehistoric People Mounds & MoundBuilders The South Charleston Museum...
over the identity of the MoundBuilders, the term for the prehistoric people who had built complex, monumental earthwork mounds. Archaeologists, both amateur...
Effigy Mounds National Monument preserves more than 200 prehistoric mounds built by pre-Columbian MoundBuilder cultures, mostly in the first millennium...
Hamilton Council, forming the final boundaries of the MoundBuilders Area Council. MoundBuilders Area Council continued to serve Warren County and the...
these mound complexes were the work of sophisticated Native American civilizations," this fact has been "obscured by the Myth of the MoundBuilders". The...
1500 AD, but are representative of a variety of cultures known as the MoundBuilders. Each site has a historical marker and is accessible by road. Opened...
the argument that the people who built the Native American mounds, called the MoundBuilders were built by an ancient race of settlers. The Davenport Tablets...
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