Interesting that burial mounds were so prolific throughout the Mid-west and South. Even more so because it was practices by several different cultures. Early anthropological theory would say this is probably because of diffusion, one group came up with it and others thought it was a neat idea. I am not a big diffusionist though, at least not without actual proof. I figure the mounds are a product of independent invention. Some cultures (Hopewell, Mississippians, etc) came up with the idea and, because their cultures were so extensive and far-reaching, mounds popped up around the better part of the Mid-west and South.
Conus Mound in Marietta, Ohio. Built by the Adena Indians, later a revolutionary war and early settler cemetery was built around it.
Image grabbed from James Jacobs archaeoblog: http://www.jqjacobs.net/blog/marietta.html
4 comments:
Hopewell, so fascinating. Is Serpant Mound Hopewell?
Yup, I thought that's what was in Marietta, but Conus and a couple of other mounds are there. Serpent is down in southern Ohio and is Hopewell.
Although, like the Marietta mounds and some of the ones you have told me about here in NC, some mounds pre-date the big mound-building cultures like Hopewell and Mississippian.
Which makes you think...were these groups ancestral to the big mound-building cultures? or did the later groups copy what they found? or does everyone just love mounds?
Who were the pre-cherokee people, App? I need to read those books you mentioned.
I think everyone loves Mounds.
From what I've read the "pre Cherokee" people could be about anybody. Who has a tradition that they once lived in the Mountains? The Creeks held allot of ground that the Cherokee took over, on into Historical Times. But who was the Archaic?
From my understanding, the Cherokee came down from the Ohio Valley in a series of Migrations.
I think we just solved the BIG question for the 100 or so mound-studying archaeologists, lol...no need for them to go digging around anymore we know why people built mounds. They thought they were cool.
Early people in the mountains include my South Appalachian Mississippians...some people have thought they moved up from South Carolina and then across the mountains. But that is disputed and their settlement region is pretty small...Mt. Gilead (Town Creek) is the biggest I think. The state archaeologist (Dr. Billy Oliver) has been doing most of the work on the South Apps. and says they have about 96 sites around Mt. Gilead and west of it.
Have you ever gone out digging? I know there were some sites being excavated out your way - Garden Creek in Haywood. And I think they are still digging out at Bragg if you ever make it out that way. They found a site where a lot of ceramics were made, kind of like a pre-historic ceramic factory.
But the really early people...the archaics? Who knows...that's the big question...although I am sure there has been some info on them somewhere.
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