Audio
“One Mound Among Many,” Emerald Mound, Milepost 10, Panel D
Transcript
Emerald Mound, this exhibit, and a zig-zag rail fence are in front of you.
This exhibit, titled “One Mound Among Many,” contains a map of what is now the eastern part of the United States. The map shows 11 sites that date to the Mississippian Period, between 850 and 1700 CE (common era). There are modern photos of three of the sites.
[Text]
Trade, art, and ideas linked Emerald Mound, both physically and spiritually, with mound sites throughout the eastern half of North America. Mound building, as a practice, was widespread. Over thousands of years, the native peoples who built mounds in North America also maintained networks of trade along trails like the Natchez Trace. Trade in raw materials and particularly in fine ceremonial objects was brisk. Artists bartered for items made from shell, copper, feathers, and clay. The symbolic images worn by the elite—winged serpents, panthers, and birds, for example—showed up at sites hundreds of miles apart.
The 11 sites on the map are: Aztalan in Wisconsin; Monks Mound in Illinois; Angel Site in Indiana; Town Creek in North Carolina; Shiloh and Parkin in Tennessee; Spiro in Oklahoma; Etowah and Ocmulgee in Georgia; Moundville in Alabama, and Emerald Mound here.
A photo of Monks Mound shows an aerial view of a high, flat-top mound that is the largest earthwork in the US built before Europeans arrived. It is part of the Cahokia complex of 120 mounds on 3,800 acres. A second photo shows Etowah from ground level. Etowah is the most intact, flat-top Mississippian Period cultural site in the southeastern US. The third photo is an aerial view of Moundville. With 29 mounds covering 185 acres, Moundville was one of the most important American Indian sites in the southeastern US. The mound in the photo has steps to a flat plaza and pitched roof structure. Another exhibit is immediately to your left. Two more exhibits are 50 feet to your left. Parking is behind you. A trail to the upper level of the mound is to your left. All four of the exhibit panels here at Emerald Mound have a black band across the top. The band contains the National Park Service arrowhead on the right and the words National Park Service and U.S. Department of the Interior. On the left, the band contains the words Natchez Trace Parkway.
Description
This exhibit, titled “One Mound Among Many,” contains a map of what is now the eastern part of the United States. The map shows 11 sites that date to the Mississippian Period, between 850 and 1700 CE (common era). There are modern photos of three of the sites.
Duration
2 minutes, 57 seconds
Credit
NPS
Copyright and Usage Info