Mound Builder is a general term referring to the Native North American peoples who constructed various styles of earthen mounds for burial, residential, and ceremonial purposes. These included Archaic, and Woodland period, and Mississippian period Pre-Columbian cultures dating from roughly 3000 BCE to the 1500s, and living in the Great Lakes region, the Ohio River region, and the Mississippi River region. Image File history File linksMetadata Miamisburg_jqj. ... An Adena pipe excavated from the Criel Mound The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from c. ... A Hupa man, 1923 The scope of this indigenous peoples of the Americas article encompasses the definitions of indigenous peoples and the Americas as established in their respective articles. ... Look up mound on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The name Archaic Period is given by archaeologists to the earliest periods of a culture. ... The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures lasted roughly from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. The term Woodland was coined in the 1930s and refers to prehistoric sites between the Archaic period and the Mississippian cultures. ... The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 900 to 1500 CE, varying regionally. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Great Lakes from space The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes in North America on or near the Canada-United States border. ... Cincinnati, Ohio is a well known city along the Ohio River, historically known for its riverboats. ... The Mississippi River, derived from the old Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning great river (gichi-ziibi big river at its headwaters), is the second-longest named river in North America, with a length of 2320 miles (3733 km) from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. ...

The term "Mound Builder" was also applied to an imaginary race believed to have constructed these earthworks, because Euroamericans from the 16th-19th centuries generally thought that Native Americans did not build the mounds.

The Mounds and Their Structure

The namesake cultural trait of the Mound Builders was the building of mounds and other earthworks. These burial and ceremonial structures were typically flat-topped pyramids or platform mounds, flat-topped or rounded cones, elongated ridges, and sometimes a variety of other forms. The best known flat-topped pyramidal structure, which is also the largest pre-Columbian earthwork north of Mexico at over 100 feet tall, is Monk's Mound at Cahokia. Some effigy mounds were made in unusual shapes, such as the outline of culturally significant animals. The most famous effigy mound, Serpent Mound in southern Ohio, is 5 feet tall, 20 wide, over 1330 feet long, and shaped as a serpent. Look up mound on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In civil engineering, earthworks are engineering works created through the moving of massive quantities of soil or unformed stone. ... A pyramid is any three-dimensional structure where the upper surfaces are triangular and converge on one point. ... A Platform Mound is any earthwork intended to support a structure or activity. ... Monks Mound is the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in North America north of Mesoamerica. ... Cahokia is the site of an ancient Native American city near Collinsville, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. ... An effigy mound is a raised pile of dirt in the shape of an animal. ... The Serpent Mound is a 1,330 feet long and three feet high effigy mound located on a plateau in the Brush Creek Valley of Adams County, Ohio. ... Serpent can be any of the following: The reptile commonly called snake. ...

The Mound Builders included many different tribal groups and chiefdoms, probably involving a bewildering array of beliefs and unique cultures, united only by the shared architectural practice of mound construction. This practice, believed to be associated with a cosmology that had a cross-cultural appeal, may indicate common cultural antecedents. The first mound building is an early marker of incipient political and social complexity among the cultures in the Eastern United States. http://www. ... A chiefdom is any community led by an individual known as a chief. ...

The most complete reference for these earthworks is Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, written by Ephraim G. Squier, Edwin H. Davis and Samuel Morton. It was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1848. Since many of the features they documented have since been destroyed or diminished by farming and development, their surveys, sketches and descriptions are still used by modern archaeologists. All of their sites located in Kentucky came from the manuscripts of the deceased C.S. Rafinesque. A smaller regional study in 1931 by author and archaeologist Fred Dustin charted and examined the mounds and Ogemaw Earthworks near Saginaw, Michigan. Archaeological survey and recording of mounds is an ongoing task. Library of Congress image used as the frontispiece for the 150th Anniversary re-issue of Squier and Davis Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (full title Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising the Results of Extensive Original Surveys and Explorations) by Americans Ephraim... Ephraim George Squier (June 17, 1821 – April 17, 1888) was an American archaeologist. ... The Smithsonian Institution Building or Castle on the National Mall serves as the Institutions headquarters. ... 1848 CE in archaeology // Explorations First scientific expedition visits Tikal Excavations Publications Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley by Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis Final volume of Lord Kingsboroughs 9 volume Antiquities of Mexico Finds Skull in Gibraltar later identified as Neanderthal Awards Miscellaneous Births Deaths See... Fred Dustin (October 12, 1866 – May 15, 1957) was a writer focusing on the American West, in particular George Armstrong Custer and The Battle of the Little Bighorn. ... Saginaw redirects here. ...

Eras

The Moundbuilding cultures can be divided into roughly three eras:

Archaic era

Poverty Point in what is now Louisiana is a prominent example of early archaic Mound Builder construction (c. 2500 BCE - 1000 BCE). While earlier Archaic mound centers existed (see Watson Brake), Poverty Point remains one of the best-known early examples. An aerial view reveals the circular pattern of ancient Indian earthworks at Poverty Point. ... Official language(s) de jure: none de facto: English & French Capital Baton Rouge Largest city New Orleans [1] Area  Ranked 31st  - Total 51,885 sq mi (134,382 km²)  - Width 130 miles (210 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 16  - Latitude 29°N to 33°N  - Longitude 89°W... Watson Brake is an archaeological site located in the floodplain of the Ouachita River near Monroe in northern Louisiana. ...

Woodland period

Throughout the United States, the Archaic period was followed by the Woodland period (c. 1000 BCE - 1000). Some well-understood examples would be the Adena culture of Ohio and nearby states, and the subsequent Hopewell culture known from Illinois to Ohio and renowned for their geometric earthworks. The Adena and Hopewell were not, however, the only mound building peoples during this time period. There were contemporaneous mound building cultures throughout the Eastern United States. The name Archaic Period is given by archaeologists to the earliest periods of a culture. ... The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures lasted roughly from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. The term Woodland was coined in the 1930s and refers to prehistoric sites between the Archaic period and the Mississippian cultures. ... An Adena pipe excavated from the Criel Mound The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from c. ... Official language(s) None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus Largest metro area Cleveland Area  Ranked 34th  - Total 44,825 sq mi (116,096 km²)  - Width 220 miles (355 km)  - Length 220 miles (355 km)  - % water 8. ... Hopewell mounds from the Mound City Group in Ohio Hopewell culture is the term used to describe common aspects of the Native American culture that flourished along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern United States from 200 BC to 400 A.D. At its greatest extent, Hopewell culture stretched from... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Largest metro area Chicago Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ...

Mississippian culture

Occupied between 1250 and 1600 C.E., Mississippi's Emerald Mound is the second-largest ceremonial earthwork in the United States.

Around 900-1000 AD the Mississippian culture developed and spread through the Eastern United States, primarily along the river valleys. The location where the Mississippian culture is first clearly developed is located in Illinois, and is referred to today as Cahokia. Image File history File links Emerald_Mound. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 900 to 1500 CE, varying regionally. ... Cahokia is the site of an ancient Native American city near Collinsville, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. ...

The Moundbuilder Myth

Through the mid-1800s, Native Americans were generally not believed to have built the mounds of the eastern U.S.

A key work in the widespread recognition of the true origins of the mounds was the lengthy 1894 report of Cyrus Thomas of the Bureau of American Ethnology, which concluded that the prehistoric earthworks of the eastern United States were the work of Native Americans. A small number of people had earlier reached similar conclusions: Thomas Jefferson, for example, excavated a mound and noted similarities between mound builder funeral practices, and the funeral practices of Native Americans in his time. Cyrus Thomas (July 27, 1825–1910) was a U.S. ethnologist and entomologist prominent in the late 19th century and noted for his studies of the natural history of the American West. ... The Bureau of American Ethnology was founded in 1879 and produced a series of annual reports on Ethnology and Linguistics. ... Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ...

Several alternate explanations were forwarded as to the origins of the mound builders:

Benjamin Smith Barton proposed the theory that the mound builders were Vikings who came to America and eventually disappeared. Other people believed that they were Greeks, Africans, Chinese or assorted Europeans. The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were often given credit for the mounds by Euroamericans who embraced an Anglo-philic worldview, in the guise of a Biblical worldview. The Book of Mormon (first published in 1830) claimed that Israelite groups (called the Nephites, Lamanites and Jaredites) settled in the Americas and built magnificent cities (including large burial mounds), only to be later decimated by warfare. Reverend Landon West claimed that Serpent Mound in Ohio was built by God. He believed that God built the mound himself and placed it in Eden, which apparently was in Ohio. Some people went as far as to attribute the mounds to mythical cultures: Lafcadio Hearn suggested that the mounds were built by people from the lost continent of Atlantis. Benjamin Smith Barton Benjamin Smith Barton (February 10, 1766 - December 19, 1815) was an American botanist. ... The term Viking commonly denotes the ship-borne warriors and traders of Norsemen (literally, men from the north) who originated in Scandinavia and raided the coasts of the British Isles and mainland Europe as far east as the Volga River in Russia from the late 8th–11th century. ... World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second_largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ... This article is about the continent. ... It has been suggested that Israelite Diaspora be merged into this article or section. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Queen Queen Elizabeth II  -  Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification  -  by Athelstan 967  Area... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ... The Book of Mormon[1] is one of the sacred texts of the Latter Day Saint movement, named after the prophet/historian Mormon who, according to the text, compiled most of the book. ... In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites are a people descended from or associated with Nephi, a prophet who, according to the text, left Jerusalem at the urging of God in 600 BC[1] and traveled with his family to the Western Hemisphere, arriving in the Americas circa 589 BC... According to the The Book of Mormon, a Lamanite is a member of one of four main groups described in the book. ... The Jaredites are a people written of in the Book of Mormon, principally in the Book of Ether. ... The Serpent Mound is a 1,330 feet long and three feet high effigy mound located on a plateau in the Brush Creek Valley of Adams County, Ohio. ... Lafcadio Hearn, aka Koizumi Yakumo. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

The removal of most Indians from the mound builder regions by the 1830s, by means of the Trail of Tears, was partly justified by theory that the Indians destroyed the mound builders. Because people thought that the mound builders were sometimes believed to be ancient Europeans, the removal of the Indians was justified in order to reclaim their land. This monument at the New Echota Historic Site honors Cherokees who died on the Trail of Tears. ...

The mound builder myth was not just a simple hoax, but a misinterpretation of real data from valid sources. The myth was widely accepted by scholars and laymen. Reference to this alleged race appears in the poem "The Prairies" (1832) by William Cullen Bryant ^[1] The widespread acceptance of the myth was based on a number of factors. William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 - June 12, 1878) an American Romantic poet, journalist, political adviser, and homeopath, was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, the second son of Peter Bryant, a doctor and later a state legislator, and Sarah Snell; the William Cullen Bryant Homestead, his boyhood home...

One was the belief the American Indians were simple beings that could not have constructed such magnificent earthworks and artifacts. The stone, metal, and clay artifacts were thought to be too complex for the primitive Indians to make. However, in the American Southeast, Northeast, and Midwest, there were numerous Indian cultures that were sedentary and participated in agriculture. Numerous Indian towns even had walls surrounding them for defense. If they were capable of this type of construction, building mounds should have been no more difficult. People who believed that the Indians were not responsible for the earthworks also used the argument that they could have not built them because they were nomadic peoples who followed their food. In this view, they could not have devoted the time and effort to construct mounds and other time-consuming projects. Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ...

When Europeans first arrived in America they never witnessed the American Indians building mounds; and when asked about the mounds, most of the Indians did not know anything about them. Yet there were numerous written accounts about the Indians' construction of the mounds by Europeans. One detailed account was by Garcilaso de la Vega, who wrote about how they built the mounds and the temples that were placed on top of the mounds. There were even French expeditions that stayed with Indian societies who built mounds. For the Peruvian writer, Garcilaso de la Vega, see Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Garcilaso de la Vega (ca. ...

People also claimed that the Indians were not the mound builders because the mounds and related artifacts were older than the Indian culture itself. Caleb Atwater's misunderstanding of stratigraphy led him to believe that the mound builders were a much older civilization than the Indians. In his book, Antiquities Discovered in the Western States (1820), Atwater claims that Indian remains are always found right beneath the surface of the earth. Since the artifacts associated with the mound builders are found fairly deep in the ground, Atwater argued that they must be from a different group of people. The discovery of metal artifacts further convinced people that the mound builders were not Native Americans because the Indians were not known to engage in metallurgy. This was another ignorant perception that was based on the assumption that all Indian cultures are similar. Some artifacts that were found in relation to the mounds were inscribed with symbols. The Europeans did not know of any Indian cultures that had a writing system, so they assumed it was another group who created them. The postmaster in Circleville, Ohio in the 1800s, Caleb Atwater explored mounds found near his home town. ... Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering (stratification). ...

Hoaxes

Several hoaxes enforced the Moundbuilder Myth, leading people to believe in the myth even more.

In 1860, David Wyrick discovered the “Keystone tablet”, containing Hebrew language inscriptions written on it in Newark, Ohio. Soon after, he found the “Decologue” tablet nearby, also claimed to contain Hebrew. It was later discovered that a Reverend John W. McCarty created the stones and put them in a place where Wyrick would find them. “Hebrew” redirects here. ...

Another hoax related to the mound builder myth was the discovery of the Davenport tablets by Reverend Jacob Gass. These were also tablets with inscriptions on them that later were found to be fake.

The Walam Olum hoax had considerable influence in the mound builder myth. Constantine Samuel Rafinesque published in 1836 his translation of a text he claimed had been written in pictographs on wooden tablets. This text explained the origin of the Lenape Indians in Asia, told of their passage over the Bering Strait, and narrated their subsequent migration across the North American continent. This “Walam Olum” tells of battles with native peoples already in America before the Lenape arrived. It was assumed by others that these original people were the mound builders, and that the Lenape Indians overthrew them and destroyed their culture. David Oestreicher later branded Rafinesque's story a hoax, arguing that the Walam Olum glyphs derive from Chinese, Egyptian, and Mayan alphabets. Meanwhile, the belief that the Native Americans destroyed the mound builder culture had earned widespread acceptance. The Walam Olum, usually translated as Red Record or Red Score, is said to be a Lenape or Delaware Indian account (although some consider it a spurious account) of their history and migrations across the globe from the Old Word into the New. ... C. S. Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (October 22, 1783-September 18, 1840) was a nineteenth-century polymath who led a chaotic life. ... Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico The Maya script, commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered script of the Mesoamerican writing systems. ...

The Kinderhook Plates ("discovered" in 1843) were another hoax planted in Native American mounds. The Kinderhook Plates were a set of 6 small, bell-shaped pieces of brass with strange engravings discovered in 1843 in an Indian mound near Kinderhook, Illinois. ...

Other groups that have developed myths about the moundbuilders are certain sects affiliated with the Black nationalist Moorish Science philosophy. They argue that the moundbuilders were an ancient advanced Black civilization that developed the legendary continents of Atlantis and Mu as well as ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica.

Like other moundbuilder myths, they posit that the American Indians were too uncivilized and unable to develop cities and the technology necessary for building these mounds.

See also

• Tumulus, Mounds (or barrows) of Europe and Asia
• Southwestern College (Kansas) School mascot: The "Moundbuilders"
• Grave Creek Mound
• Criel Mound

A tumulus (plural tumuli or tumuluses, from the Latin word for mound or small hill) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. ... Southwestern College is a four-year college in Winfield, Kansas affiliated with the United Methodist Church. ... At 62 feet high and 240 feet in diameter, the Grave Creek Mound is the largest conical type burial mound in the United States of America. ... The Criel Mound The Criel Mound is a Native American burial mound located in South Charleston, West Virginia, USA. The mound was built by the Adena culture, probably around 250-150 BC, and lay equidistant between two “sacred circles”, each 556 feet in diameter. ...

Placemarks

• Ancient Monuments Placemarks KMZ file links.

References

• 1. ^ http://www.4literature.net/William_Cullen_Bryant/Prairies/ Bryant, William Cullen, “The Praries” (1832)
• Thomas, Cyrus. Report on the mound explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology. Pp. 3-730. Twelfth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1890-91, by J. W. Powell, Director. XLVIII+742 pp., 42 pls., 344 figs. 1894.
• Feder, Kenneth L.. ‘’Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology’’. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006.

Cyrus Thomas (July 27, 1825–1910) was a U.S. ethnologist and entomologist prominent in the late 19th century and noted for his studies of the natural history of the American West. ...

External links

• Lost Race Myth
• LostWorlds.org | An Interactive Museum of the American Indian
• LenaweeHistory.com | Mound Builders section, The Western Historical Society 1909, reprint.
• Artist Hideout, Art of the Ancients
• The Mound Builders, available at Project Gutenberg.