Etowah Indian Mounds
Etowah Mound Site · Great Temple Mound Etowah
Mississippian, Etowah phase 1000–1550 CE·Mississippian (Muscogean ancestors)·🇺🇸 Georgia, United States
About
About Etowah Indian Mounds
Mississippian mound center (1000–1550 CE) with six plateau mounds along Etowah River: Mound A 19 m high (largest east of Mississippi south), Mound B 10 m for priests, Mound C burial with Rogan copper plates and marble statues showing Southeastern Ceremonial Complex ('Southern Cult'). 21 ha palisaded; diet of maize-beans.
Why it mattersGreatest Mississippian mound interior to Appalachians with richest copper plate corpus
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Link to Mesoamerica via copper imagery feathered serpent similarity
- 021550 collapse before de Soto – disease or social?
Theories
- 01Mississippian co-existence south of Appalachians hierarchical chiefdoms
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1000 CE founding; 1325–1375 CE peak mound accretion
- Period
- Mississippian, Etowah phase 1000–1550 CE
- Culture
- Mississippian (Muscogean ancestors)
- Purpose
- Chiefdom ceremonial/administrative center ( paramount mound town) and necropolis
- Abandoned
- c.1550 abandonment pre-contact
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1000 CE
Village established
1325 CE
Mound A raised to 19 m
1580
Abandonment (?) internal collapse
On the ground
Structures & features
34.1267° N · 84.8069° W · 210 m · 3 mapped features
Mound A Temple Platform
platform mound19 m flat-topped chief's platform mound with summit structures
34.1270° N · 84.8072° WMound C Burial Mound
burial moundMortuary mound with Rogan plates, stone-box graves
34.1265° N · 84.8062° WPlaza and palisade line
plazaRectangular plaza borrow pits surrounding
34.1268° N · 84.8070° W
Gallery