In the previous article, we talked about the "capital" of the Mississippi culture Indians, the city of Cahokia, "built up" in the past with mounds-pedestals for … some buildings, or rather, adobe structures covered with maize straw. However, it turned out that this is just a special case in the history of North America. Because there were many cultures of the Indian mound builders there. In some ways they were similar, but in some ways they differed. Some were earlier, others later, so they even managed to meet with the Europeans. And for American scientists, the term "mound builders" is just a general term that they in the broadest sense apply to the Indians who lived in the United States until the very arrival of the Europeans, and who built earthen bulk mounds, which served both for the burial of the deceased, and for the construction of dwellings or temples. It unites into one whole the structures of both the archaic and the forest (Woodland) periods: in accordance with the North American chronology of the culture of Aden and Hopewell, and, of course, the Mississippi culture, which we have described in detail here, which from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. NS. and up to the XVI century. n. NS. existed in the Great Lakes region, as well as in the basins of rivers such as the Ohio and Mississippi.
Many carved shells have been found in Tennessee, including this chest piece. They are believed to belong to the ancient "mound builders".
Mounds in the southwestern United States - the cultures of the ancient Pueblo Indians, were also found, for example, the Gatlin Mound in Arizona, but were rarer compared to the lands of the northeastern and central states.
As always, when people encounter something that they cannot accurately explain, in some of them, which differ in the peculiarities of the psyche or developed imagination, faith in the miraculous awakens. And they start … to invent. Here in the United States, such people meet, as we do, and also met in the past. That is, they also have their own "Fomenkovites". Therefore, for example, it was argued there for a long time that the "mound builders" are an ancient and wise race, that is, anyone, but not Indians, since the Americans of the 16th-19th centuries. firmly believed that the Indians simply could not build such a thing.
It is interesting that in addition to, in general, ordinary mounds like the same Mound of Monks in Cahokia in North America, you can also find "figured mounds" in the form of animals. Such, for example, is the Serpent Mound in southern Ohio, which is only 1.5 m high and 6 m wide, but stretches for about 400 m in the form of a writhing snake. The distribution density of the mounds on the map of the USA is also not the same. Most of them are in the territory of the modern state of Wisconsin.
Americans began to describe their ancient earthworks as early as 1848, when the Smithsonian Institution published Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley by Ephraim Squire and Edwin H. Davis. The work proved to be incredibly valuable, as many of the mounds were subsequently plowed over.
A college student is involved in archaeological excavations in the United States.
However, Europeans, and not just any, but the Spaniards, associates of Cortes, learned about the mounds in North America before anyone else. Such was, for example, Hernando de Soto, the Spanish conquistador, who organized an expedition to the southeastern United States in 1540-1542, during which he met many peoples who clearly belonged to the Mississippi culture. De Soto met here with the Muscogee Indians and recorded that they lived in fortified settlements in which magnificent mounds were built, many of which serve as platforms for temples. He got almost to the modern city of Augusta, which is in the state of Georgia, and there he met a group of Indians "mound builders", whom, according to him, the "queen" rules, and so she told him that the mounds on her land serve for the burial of the Indian nobility.
French artist Jacques Le Moine visited northeastern Florida in the 1560s, after which he recorded that local Indians were using existing burial mounds and not only using, but also building new ones. He painted a series of watercolors in which he presented their lives, but, unfortunately, most of them were then lost. But on the other hand, in 1591, one Flemish company based on its originals created and then published engravings, one of which shows the burial of a local tribal leader. The inscription under the engraving is as follows: "Sometimes the deceased ruler of this province was buried with great honors, and his large goblet, from which he usually drank, was placed on a hill with many arrows stuck around."
Excavation is difficult. The soil is removed manually in layers. Most of the digging is also done by students and volunteers, and there are enough of the latter.
In 1619, the Jesuit priest Maturin Le Petit and Le Page du Pratz (1758), a French explorer, consistently studied the Natchez tribe living on the land of the present state of Mississippi. There were about 4 thousand of them in total, they lived in villages, worshiped the Sun, and their leader was called the Great Sun, and he possessed absolute power. They described the tall mounds built by these Indians so that their leader could communicate with the sun god. And his house was also built on the mound.
But just a few decades after these travelers, those Europeans who followed in their footsteps reported that the settlements were abandoned, no one was using the mounds, and all the people had disappeared somewhere. Since at that time there were no wars with the Europeans here - "no gold, no war", the most logical explanation is the hypothesis of a mass epidemic of smallpox or flu, which destroyed the civilization of "mound builders" "naturally."
The culture of the Mound Builder Indians can be divided into approximately three periods or stages of development:
Archaic era. Early burial mound (circa 2500 BC - 1000 BC) Turn Point in Louisiana. A number of earlier mounds are also known at Watson Break, although Power Point is perhaps the best example of this time.
The Woodland period (forest period). The Forest (Woodland) period (circa 1000 BC) followed the archaic: the Aden culture in Ohio and the Hopewell culture, which spread from Illinois to Ohio at a later time. Ancient hopewells poured earthen structures in regular geometric shapes. Other kurgan cultures of this period are also known. That is, it has become … "fashionable" to sprinkle mounds.
Mississippi culture. In the state of Mississippi, this culture existed in the period 1250-1600 AD. NS. In 900-1450 A. D. NS. this culture spread to the entire eastern part of the North American continent, and spread along the river valleys. The most famous ancient monument is the city of Cahokia.
We emphasize once again: faced with the ancient mysterious culture of "mound builders", the majority of Americans until the end of the 19th century did not believe that the mounds in the eastern states were the work of the Indians.
This came to be believed after the publication of a comprehensive report by Cyrus Thomas of the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1894. The famous Thomas Jefferson also dug a mound and found that the funerary practice of the "mound builders" is very similar to that of the Indians of his day.
Nevertheless, throughout the 19th century, various alternative theories were repeatedly expressed regarding these ancient burial mounds and their builders:
The first assumption regarding the "mound builders", contrary to all evidence, was this: they were poured by the Vikings, who sailed to America and then disappeared into some unknown place. But it was known that the Vikings did not fill the mounds …
Then the ancient Greeks, who sailed on triremes, the Africans on pies, the Chinese on junks, and even the European peoples living far from the sea, alternately became candidates for the "filling". There were also those who interpreted the Bible literally and therefore believed that the ten lost tribes of Israel, as in prehistoric America, were lost, and when lost, they started building mounds.
It is much more interesting to sort the already found artifacts and describe them.
Moreover, in the 19th century, the opinion among Americans is that the Jews - and in particular, these ten lost tribes - were the ancestors of the Indians and it was they who were the “mound builders”. Moreover, the famous Book of Mormon (first published in 1830) even described two waves of migrants from Mesopotamia: the Jaredites (c. 3000-2000 BC) and the Israelites (c. 590 BC), named in this book by the "Nephites", "Lamanites" and "Mulekians". According to the Book of Mormon, it was they who were involved in the creation of great civilizations in America, but they all perished as a result of what happened around AD 385. NS. "Big war".
It is clear that there were people who declared the Indians simply incapable of pouring such mounds, because under the Europeans they did not fill them. And if so, then … they were poured by blacks from Africa. But, of course, too, then they disappeared into no one knows where.
Finally, the priest Landon West was found, who declared that the Serpent Mound in Ohio (that is, the Serpent Hill) was the creation of the Lord God himself in memory of the wickedness of the serpent, and that the Garden of Eden was located in Ohio. Just like that, and nothing else. Simple and tasteful!
And, of course, among all these "hypotheses" there was a place for Plato's Atlantis: they were poured by the Atlanteans, and then they drowned along with their mainland. And who did not drown - run wild!
But the practical conclusions of the practical Yankees from some of these "hypotheses" were made very quickly. So, the forced resettlement of Indians in the 30s along the "Road of Tears" was declared quite justified, since since the mounds were built by settlers from Europe, it is clear where they all disappeared - they were destroyed by the Indians! Therefore, the eviction of the "wild" Indians is nothing more than the return of the lands lost by the pioneer Europeans.
And yes, indeed, modern evidence suggests that the Muscoge Indians really had a hand in the destruction of the Mississippi culture, but … the latter was by no means European. That is, it was an internal affair of the Indians themselves.
The most interesting thing was that in the east of the United States, literally next to the Europeans, there were Indian cultures that were engaged in agriculture and led a sedentary lifestyle. Many of their townships were surrounded by defensive wooden walls. And if they could create such structures, then why were they unable to fill the mound? But, as they say, people, when they do not want to notice anything, do not see it point-blank!
Moreover, it was argued that the Indians are nomads, and the nomads do not fill the mounds. Well, many Americans did not know history, did not know. Have not heard of the Scythians, Sarmatians, and in addition, the nomads in the United States were Apaches, Comanches, but many tribes - the same Seminoles in Florida, led a sedentary lifestyle.
Sandy and loess-like soil is always sifted … What if you come across a small bead ?!
And, yes, indeed, when the colonists began to populate North America, the Indians no longer poured mounds, and they could not answer the questions of the white settlers about who did it. But, there were also written reports from both the conquistadors and early European travelers that the mounds were built by the Indians. For example, Garcilaso de la Vega described both the construction of the mounds and the sanctuaries on their tops. But … it happens very often. Information is in one place, and the mass of its potential consumers in another, and very often it is simply not possible to connect them (even today in the age of computers and the Internet). Well, many people do not want to part with hard-won prejudices.
Well, what about the study of American antiquities today? Today, all this is described in detail in the relevant literature and textbooks. In any case, young Americans are told about the "mound builders" in American schools, not to mention universities. Excavations are underway and museums are being created. And this is good, because before it was not or almost never happened. And the ancient land of America, like this, gradually reveals its secrets …
