From c. 500 B.C. to c. 1650 A.D., the Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient Native American cultures built mounds and enclosures in the Ohio River Valley for burial, religious, and, occasionally, defensive purposes . They often built their mounds on high cliffs or bluffs for dramatic effect, or in fertile river valleys.
What was the purpose of the mounds?
Rectangular, flat-topped mounds were primarily built as a platform for a building such as a temple or residence for a chief. Many later mounds were used to bury important people . Mounds are often believed to have been used to escape flooding.
Why did mound builders build mounds?
The Middle Woodland period (100 B.C. to 200 A.D.) was the first era of widespread mound construction in Mississippi. Middle Woodland peoples were primarily hunters and gatherers who occupied semipermanent or permanent settlements. Some mounds of this period were built to bury important members of local tribal groups .
For what purposes did the Mound Builder cultures use earthen mounds?
For what purpose did the Mound Builder cultures use earthen mounds? In Mount Builder cultures, the Adena peoples built the earthen mounds to bury their dead . The mounds for bodies of tribal leaders also contained gifts such as copper and stone objects.
Why did the Mound Builders settle around the Mississippi River?
Many diverse Indian groups, drawn by the bountiful wildlife, warm climate, and fertile soil, made their homes in what is now Mississippi for thousands of years before the first Europeans and Africans arrived. Mounds built of earth are the most prominent remains left on the landscape by these native peoples.
What happened to the Mound Builders?
Another possibility is that the Mound Builders died from a highly infectious disease . ... Although it appears that for the most part, the Mound Builders had left Ohio before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, there were still a few Native Americans using burial practices similar to what the Mound Builders used.
What are the three types of mounds?
North American archaeology
Native Americans built a variety of mounds, including flat-topped pyramids or cones known as platform mounds, rounded cones, and ridge or loaf-shaped mounds . Some mounds took on unusual shapes, such as the outline of cosmologically significant animals.
What tribe were the Mound Builders?
The Mississippians , who settled in the Mississippi valley and in what is today the southern United States, were the only Mound Builders to have contact with the Europeans. Their culture emerged about a.d. 700 and lasted into the 1700s. The Mississippians were farmers and raised livestock.
Who was the leader of the Mound Builders?
(Archaeologists are scientists who study the remains of ancient people.) These Indians came to be called the “Mound Builders.” The leading Mound Builders were the Adena, Hopewell, and Mississippians .
Who was the most important mound building civilization?
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.
What language did the Mound Builders speak?
So far as anyone knows, the Mound Builders had no written language ; they speak now only through what may be studied from the artifacts they left behind.
What was the location of the largest mound building culture?
LaDonna Brown, Tribal Anthropologist for the Chickasaw Nation Department of History & Culture, describes Cahokia Mounds, which is located on the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis .
What were two purposes of the mounds built by the Mound Builders?
The various cultures collectively termed Mound Builders were inhabitants of North America who, during a 5,000-year period, constructed various styles of earthen mounds for religious, ceremonial, burial, and elite residential purposes .
Why did Indians build Indian mounds?
Beginning around 1600 BC and continuing though to around 1000 AD, native peoples living in the interior of the eastern United States constructed dome shaped mounds from either earth or fresh water mussel shells at locations where they congregated seasonally to fish, harvest shellfish or hunt .
What did Mound Builders eat?
They also hunted both small animals like rabbits and squirrels and larger game animals like bison and various types of deer. In some lake regions, they ate wild rice, and also ate fish either from the ocean or from freshwater lakes and rivers.
What is Native American religion called?
Native American Church, also called Peyotism, or Peyote Religion , most widespread indigenous religious movement among North American Indians and one of the most influential forms of Pan-Indianism.
