Earthworks (archaeology): Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|General term to describe artificial changes in land level in history and pre-history}}

[[File:Serpent Mound (aerial view).jpg|thumb|left|100px|[[Great Serpent Mound]] in Ohio]] Earthworks in North America include [[mound]]s built by Native Americans known as the [[Mound builder (people)|Mound Builders]]. Ancient people who lived in the American [[US Midwest|Midwest]] commonly built [[effigy mound]]s, which are mounds shaped like animals (real or imaginary) or people. Possibly the most famous of these effigy mounds is [[Serpent Mound]]. Located in the [[Ohio]], this 411-meterlong earthen work is thought to memorialize alignments of the planets and stars that were of special significance to the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] that constructed it.<ref>Feder,344</ref> Cone-shaped or [[conical mound]]s are also numerous, with thousands of them scattered across the American Midwest, some over 80 feet tall. These conical mounds appear to be marking the graves of one person or even dozens of people.<ref>Feder, 54<name="Feder_54"/ref> An example of a conical mound is the [[Miamisburg Mound]] in central Ohio, which has been estimated to have been built by people of the [[Adena culture]] in the time range of 800 B.C. to 100 AD.<ref>{{cite web|last=Crystal|first=Ellie|title=Mounds of North America|url=http://www.crystalinks.com/pyrnorthamerica.html|access-date=12 April 2012}}</ref> The American Plains also hold temple mounds, or [[platform mound]]s, which are giant pyramid-shaped mounds with flat tops that once held temples made of wood. Examples of temple mounds include [[Monks Mound]] located at the [[Cahokia]] site in Collinsville, Illinois,<ref name="Feder_54">Feder, 54</ref> and Mound H at the [[Crystal River Archaeological State Park|Crystal River site]] in [[Citrus County]], [[Florida]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weisman|first1=Brent|title=Crystal River: A Ceremonial Mound Center on the Florida Gulf Coast|journal=Florida Archaeology|date=1995|volume=8|pages=i-86}}</ref> The earthworks at [[Poverty Point]] occupy one of the largest-area sites in North America, as they cover some 920 acres (320 ha) of land in Louisiana.<ref>{{Citation|author-link=Tristram Randolph Kidder|last=Kidder|first=Tristram R.|last2=Ortmann|first2=Anthony L.|last3=Arco|first3=Lee J.|title=Poverty Point and the Archaeology of Singularity | journal = Society for American Archaeology Archaeological Record|volume=8|issue = 5|pages = 9–12|date = November 2008}}</ref>

*{{CommonscatinlineCommons category-inline|Archaeological earthworks}}