Mound Builders facts for kids
Many ancient cultures in North America are sometimes called "Mound Builders." This term isn't for one specific group. Instead, it describes many different indigenous peoples who built large earth mounds over more than 5,000 years. These cultures lived from about 3500 BCE (when Watson Brake was built) until the 16th century CE. They were found in areas like the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley, Florida, and the Mississippi River Valley.
Building mounds was an early sign of how organized and complex these societies were. Watson Brake in Louisiana, built around 3500 BCE, is the oldest known mound complex in North America. It shows that even hunter-gatherer groups could work together on big projects. Later, many mound-building cultures had organized societies with leaders. These leaders could gather many people to dig and move tons of earth using simple tools, carefully shaping the mounds.
Around 800 CE, the Mississippian culture became very important among mound builders. Its later groups, like the Plaquemine culture and Fort Ancient culture, were still active when Europeans first arrived in the 16th century. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's expedition, between 1540 and 1542, wrote the first descriptions of these cultures.
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What are Mounds?
The most famous thing about the Mound Builders was their amazing earthworks. These mounds were used for burials, ceremonies, and sometimes as foundations for important buildings. They often looked like flat-topped pyramids, rounded cones, or long ridges. Some were even shaped like animals! The earliest mounds in Louisiana, from around 3500 BCE, were built by hunter-gatherers. Later mounds were usually built by settled farming communities.
One of the most impressive flat-topped pyramid mounds is Monks Mound at Cahokia, near Collinsville, Illinois. Cahokia was a major center for the Mississippian culture. Monks Mound was likely a main ceremonial and living area for religious and political leaders. It stands over 30 meters (100 feet) tall and is the largest ancient earthwork north of Mexico. Cahokia was a large city with 20,000–30,000 people around 1150 CE.
Some mounds were built in the shapes of important animals. The most famous animal-shaped mound is Serpent Mound in southern Ohio. It's shaped like a winding snake, about 1 to 3 feet (0.3 to 1 meter) tall, 20 feet (6 meters) wide, and over 1,330 feet (400 meters) long.
Early Discoveries
Between 1540 and 1542, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto traveled through what is now the southeastern United States. He met many mound-building peoples, who were likely descendants of the great Mississippian culture. De Soto saw people living in towns with tall mounds and open plazas. He thought many mounds were bases for temples. Near Augusta, Georgia, he met a leader who said the mounds in her area were burial places for important people.
Later, in the 1560s, French artist Jacques le Moyne also saw Native American groups using and building mounds in Florida. He drew pictures of their lives. One drawing shows the burial of a chief, where a special cup was placed on a mound with arrows around it.
A Jesuit priest named Maturin Le Petit and a French explorer named Le Page du Pratz met the Natchez people in the 1700s in what is now Mississippi. The Natchez were sun worshippers. Their chief, called the Great Sun, lived on top of the highest mound. Every morning, he greeted the rising sun from his home.
How Archaeologists Study Mounds
A very important book about these earthworks is Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, published in 1848 by the Smithsonian Institution. It was written by Ephraim G. Squier and Edwin H. Davis. They drew and described many sites. Today, many of these sites have been changed or destroyed by farming and building. So, their old maps and descriptions are still very helpful for modern archaeologists.
A Timeline of Mound Builders
The Earliest Builders (Archaic Period)
The oldest mounds in North America were built during the Archaic period. One mound at the Monte Sano Site in Louisiana was built around 4500 BCE. This was surprising because people used to think that only farming societies could build such large structures.
Watson Brake, located in northern Louisiana, is another very old mound complex. It was built about 5,400 years ago (around 3500 BCE). It has 11 mounds, from 1 to 7.6 meters (3 to 25 feet) tall, connected by ridges in an oval shape. This was built long before the famous pyramids of Egypt! The people who built Watson Brake were hunter-gatherers who lived in the area seasonally. They worked together over 500 years to build these mounds.
Later, around 1500 BCE, the Poverty Point site was built in Louisiana. It's a huge complex with six crescent-shaped earth ridges arranged in circles, covering more than 2.5 square kilometers (1 square mile). Poverty Point shows that these early cultures had wide trading networks, bringing in goods from far away.
In Florida, the Tomoka Mound Complex includes a mound built between 2679 and 2050 BCE. Horr's Island in Southwest Florida has a burial mound from 3400 BCE, making it the oldest known burial mound in North America.
Woodland Period Cultures
The Woodland period began around 1000 BCE. Important cultures during this time include the Adena culture and the Hopewell culture. The Adena lived in Ohio, West Virginia, and nearby states. The Hopewell built impressive geometric earthworks from Illinois to Ohio. Many other mound-building cultures also existed across the Eastern United States during this period.
Coles Creek Culture
The Coles Creek culture (700–1200 CE) was in the Lower Mississippi Valley. During this time, populations grew, and societies became more complex. By 1000 CE, simple leadership structures began to form. Coles Creek sites are found in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Texas. This culture is seen as an ancestor to the Plaquemine culture.
Mississippian Cultures
From about 900–1450 CE, the Mississippian culture grew and spread across the Eastern United States, especially along river valleys. The largest and most important Mississippian center was Cahokia in Illinois. This culture had several regional variations, like the Middle Mississippian culture at Cahokia, the South Appalachian Mississippian variant at Moundville, and the Plaquemine Mississippian variant. Like earlier mound builders, these people built huge mounds for burials and ceremonies.
Fort Ancient Culture
The Fort Ancient culture existed from 1000 to 1650 CE. These people lived mainly along the Ohio River in parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
Plaquemine Culture
The Plaquemine culture continued from the Coles Creek culture in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Sites like Medora site and Emerald Mound site show their presence. Plaquemine people continued to use ceremonial centers without large villages, similar to their ancestors. However, they started to show influences from the Mississippian cultures to the north. Over time, the Plaquemine culture blended more with Mississippian influences. When Europeans arrived, they found groups like the Natchez people and Taensa who were direct descendants of the Plaquemine culture.
Why Did Mound Building Decline?
After the 1560s, the mound-building cultures seemed to disappear within the next century. Early European explorers like Hernando de Soto and Garcilaso de la Vega described thriving Native American societies building mounds. However, later explorers, just a few decades later, found many regions empty, with residents gone and mounds uncared for.
The Impact of New Diseases
Historians now believe that conflicts with Europeans were not the main reason for this decline. Instead, new infectious diseases brought from Europe, like smallpox and influenza, caused many Native Americans to become sick and pass away. They had no natural protection against these new illnesses.
The Fort Ancient culture also faced severe challenges from diseases in the 17th century. Evidence suggests that waves of illness greatly reduced their population.
Maps of Mound Builder Cultures
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Fort Ancient culture
Debunking the Myths
For a long time, many people had incorrect ideas about who built the mounds. These ideas often suggested that a mysterious, ancient people, not Native Americans, were the true builders. This "myth of a vanished race" was popular in the 19th century.
The "Lost Race" Idea
Some people, like Josiah Priest in his 1833 book American Antiquities, claimed that the mounds were built by a "lost race" that lived in America before Native Americans. These ideas were often based on unfair and incorrect views about Native Americans. People found it hard to believe that Native Americans could have built such complex structures. Priest even wondered if the builders were from places like Polynesia, Egypt, or the "Ten Lost Tribes of Israel." However, modern archaeology has clearly shown that Native Americans built all these mounds.
The Newark Holy Stones Hoax
In 1860, a surveyor named David Wyrick found a stone near the Newark Earthworks in Ohio. It had what looked like Hebrew letters on it. People thought it said things like "Law of the Lord" and "Holy of Holies." Later, another stone, called the "Decalogue Stone," was found with what seemed to be the Ten Commandments and a figure of Moses.
These "Newark Holy Stones" were thought to prove a connection between ancient Americans and biblical history. However, in 1870, a leading archaeologist named Charles Whittlesey declared them to be "Archaeological Frauds." They were fakes.
The Myth of Giants
Another popular myth in the 19th century was that the mounds were built by a race of giants. Newspaper articles sometimes reported finding giant human skeletons in mounds. For example, a New York Times article from 1897 described a 9-foot-long skeleton found in Wisconsin. Another article from 1886 claimed thigh bones of people 14 feet tall were found in Georgia. Even President Abraham Lincoln mentioned these "extinct giants" in a speech. However, these claims were not true. Scientists have shown that the mounds were built by regular-sized humans.
The Walam Olum Hoax
The "Walam Olum" was a text published in 1836 by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. He claimed it was written in pictures on wooden tablets by the Lenape Indians. The story said the Lenape came from Asia, crossed the Bering Strait, and then fought with people already living in America (who some thought were the Mound Builders). Later, it was proven that Rafinesque's "Walam Olum" was a hoax.
Today, we know for sure that the amazing earth mounds across North America were built by the ancestors of today's Native American peoples.
See also
In Spanish: Culturas de los constructores de montículos para niños
- List of burial mounds in the United States
- Prehistory of Ohio
- Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
- Tumulus, mounds (or barrows) of Europe and Asia
