Effigy Mounds National Monument
Iowa Effigy Mounds · Marching Bear Group
Late Woodland 500–1200 CE, effigies c.700–1100 CE·Late Woodland (Ancestral Ioway/Ho-Chunk?)·🇺🇸 Iowa, United States
About
About Effigy Mounds National Monument
206 mound cluster on Mississippi bluff forest containing 31 effigy mound animal-shapes vs typical eastern mounds – bears and birds among largest: Great Bear Mound 42 m long, Marching Bear Group 10 bears peninsula, Little Bear 15 m. Woodland Late 500–1200 CE Oneota; linked to Siouan ancestors; ceremonial/ burial mounds not settlement.
Why it mattersConcentration of eastern N. America effigy mound tradition; greatest animal earth figure count north of Mexico
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Clan to mound correlation bear clan vs avian?
- 02Why effigies only driftless bluff zone 700–1200 CE
Theories
- 01Quadrilateral equinox alignment thesis
- 02Seasonal aggregation ceremonial not habitation
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- 700–1100 CE effigy-phase
- Period
- Late Woodland 500–1200 CE, effigies c.700–1100 CE
- Culture
- Late Woodland (Ancestral Ioway/Ho-Chunk?)
- Purpose
- Burial and ceremonial clan effigy landscape
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
700 CE
First conical groups
800 CE
Bear effigies begun
1949
NPS monument established
On the ground
Structures & features
43.0883° N · 91.1864° W · 200 m · 3 mapped features
Great Bear Mound
effigy mound42 m bear figure piled loess, head west
43.0892° N · 91.1880° WMarching Bear Group
effigy cluster10 bear effigies in line along bluff edge peninsula
43.0865° N · 91.1852° WLittle Bear / Bird Group
effigy moundEagle 33 m wingspan effigy above Mississippi vista
43.0858° N · 91.1860° W
Gallery