Etowah Indian Mounds are a 54-acre archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia south of Cartersville, Georgia. Built and occupied in three phases, from 1000–1550 CE, the prehistoric site is located on the north shore of the Etowah River. It is the most intact Mississippian culture site in the Southeastern United States.
Mound A
Late 20th-century studies showed the mounds were built and
occupied by prehistoric indigenous peoples of the South
Appalachian Mississippian culture (a regional variation of the
Mississippian culture) of eastern North America. They were ancestors of the
historic Muskogean language-speaking Muscogee (Creek) people who
later emerged in the area. Etowah is a Muskogee word derived
from italwa meaning "town".
The federally recognized Muscogee (Creek)
Nation and Poarch Band of Creek Indians consider Etalwa to be their most important ancestral
town. From 1000–1550 CE, Etowah was
occupied by a series of cycling chiefdoms over the course of five and a half
centuries.
View from Mound A
Tykeon Wilkes used changes in ceramic styles across multiple
sites in the Etowah River Valley to determine timelines for the region. The ceramics found at Etowah and other
regional sites have been reconstructed and allow Etowah to be placed into the
following sequences. The town was occupied in three
distinct archaeological phases: ca. 1000–1200 CE, ca. 1250–1375 CE, and
ca. 1375–1550 CE. It was at its peak roughly from 1325–1375 CE.
Etowah has three main platform mounds and three
lesser mounds. The Temple Mound, Mound
A, is 63 feet high, taller than a
six-story building, and covers 3 acres at its base. In 2005-2008 ground mapping with
magnetometers revealed new information and data, showing that the site was much
more complex than had previously been believed. The study team has identified a
total of 140 buildings on the site. In
addition, Mound A was found to have had four major structures and a courtyard
at the height of the community's power. Mound B is 25 feet high; Mound C,
which rises 10 feet, is the only one to have been completely excavated.
Magnetometers enabled archaeologists to determine the location of temples
of log and thatch, which were originally built on top of the mounds. Adjacent to the mounds is a raised ceremonial
plaza, which was used for
ceremonies, stickball and chunkey games, and as a bazaar
for trade goods.
Mound B as seen from Mound A
Etowah River as seen from Mound B
Older pottery found on the site suggest that there
was an earlier village (ca. 200 BCE–600 CE) associated with the Swift
Creek culture. This earlier
Middle Woodland period occupation at Etowah may have been related to
the major Swift Creek center of Leake Mounds, approximately two miles
downstream (west) of Etowah.
Moat
War was commonplace; many archaeologists believe the people
of Etowah battled for hegemony over the Alabama river basin with
those of Moundville, a Mississippian site in
present-day Alabama. The town was
protected by a sophisticated semicircular fortification system. An outer band formed by nut tree orchards
prevented enemy armies from shooting masses of flaming arrows into the
town. A 9 feet to 10 feet
deep moat blocked direct contact by the enemy with
the palisaded walls. It also functioned
as a drainage system during major floods, common for centuries, from
this period and into the 20th century.
Workers formed the palisade by setting upright 12 feet high logs into a
ditch approximately 12 inches on center and then back-filling around the
timbers to form a levee. Guard towers
for archers were spaced approximately 80 feet apart.
Mound C as viewed from Mound A
The artifacts discovered in burials within the
Etowah site indicate that its residents developed an artistically and
technically advanced culture. Numerous
copper tools, weapons and ornamental copper plates accompanied
the burials of members of Etowah's elite class.
Where proximity to copper protected the fibers from degeneration,
archaeologists also found brightly colored cloth with ornate patterns. These were the remnants of the clothing of
social elites. Numerous clay
figurines and ten Mississippian stone statues have been found through
the years in the vicinity of Etowah.
Many are paired statues, which portray a man sitting cross-legged and a
woman kneeling. The female figures wear
wrap-around skirts and males are usually portrayed without visible clothing,
although both usually have elaborate hairstyles. The pair are thought to represent lineage
ancestors. The birdman, hand in
eye, solar cross, and other symbols associated with the Southeastern
Ceremonial Complex appear in many artifacts found at Etowah.
We have seen the rock weirbefore, but the river was up last week due to rain.
The Etowah River is a tributary of
the Coosa and Alabama rivers, and forms the border between
the southern edge of the Ridge and Valley Appalachians and
the Piedmont Plateau. Trade and
tribute brought whelk shells from the Gulf of Mexico; copper, mica and flint from
the Cumberland Plateau; and "galena, graphite, and an array
of ochers to provide pigment for painting buildings, bodies, and
works of art; greenstone and marble to furnish raw material
for tools, weapons and ritual objects" from the Piedmont.
The loamy riverbed soil could be easily tilled with digging
sticks and stone and shell hoes. Its
fertility was annually renewed by the river's floods. Free of frost most of the year, the land
yielded rich harvests of corn, beans, and squash.
There are walnut and hickory nut trees along the river.
Chestnut, walnut, hickory,
and persimmon trees that grew in upland forests provided nuts and
fruit for both the people of Etowah and the white-tailed deer, wild
turkey, and smaller game they hunted.
Other plants that were gathered include stinging nettle, paper
mulberry, and a native holly whose leaves and stems were brewed into
the Black drink imbibed in ritual purification ceremonies.
River cane grew in dense thickets and was made into arrow shafts,
thatching for roofs, splits for baskets, benches, and mats for walls and
floors.
River shoals abounded in freshwater mussels and
turtles. The Mississippians built
v-shaped rock weirs to pen and
channel catfish, drum and gar, which they caught
in rivercane baskets.
Researchers have found remains of more than 100 rock weirs along the
Etowah River. One has been restored within the grounds of the historic site.
Archaeological research on the subject is not
conclusive, but the Etowah site may be the same as a village of a similar name
visited by Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1540. The
chroniclers of the de Soto Expedition made no mention of any large mounds in
their record of visiting a town named Itaba. Itaba means
"boundary" or trail crossing in the Alabama language. The origin
of the English name for the mounds, Etowah, is an archaic Muscogee place
name, Etalwa. Etalwa probably referred to the solar
cross symbol originally. In the modern Muskogee language it means
"town." Until studies of the
late 20th century were publicized, most Georgians believed Etowah to have been
built by the well-known historic Cherokee.
But, the Cherokee did not arrive in this part of Georgia until the late
18th century, two to seven centuries after the mounds' construction. Scholars
have evaluated sufficient evidence to determine the mound complex was
unquestionably built and occupied by peoples more closely related to the
Muskogean-speaking Creeks.
All the materials found in the displays are from Mound C. The mound was excavated and all the items were remove. The current mound is a recreation.
Copy from Wikipedia. Photos by Jan Riser.
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