Angel Mounds

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Angel Mounds
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Angel Mound Site, Evansville, Indiana.
Angel Mound Site, Evansville, Indiana.
Nearest city: Evansville, IN
Designated as NHL: January 29, 1964[1]
Added to NRHP: October 15, 1966
NRHP Reference#: 66000124 [2]
Governing body: State

Angel Mounds State Historic Site is located on the Ohio River in Vanderburgh County, Indiana adjacent to Evansville and just upriver of the confluence of the Green and Ohio rivers. It is part of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Indiana State Museums and Historic Sites. It is one of 16 state museums and historic sites in Indiana and is also recognized by the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark. It is named after the Angel Family who settled in this location along the Ohio River in the early 1800s.

For more than one thousand years, southwestern Indiana was home to Native Americans. Today, Angel Mounds State Historic Site is nationally recognized as one of the best-preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the United States. From 1100 to 1450 A. D., a town on this site was inhabited by people of the Middle Mississippian culture, who engaged in hunting and farming on the rich bottom lands of the Ohio River. Several thousand people lived in this town, protected by a stockade made of wattle and daub. Because Angel Mounds was a chiefdom (the home of the chief), it was the regional center of a large community that extended for several miles around.

This settlement was the largest known town of its time in Indiana, but the Mississippian people eventually deserted it. No one today knows why. Preservation and archaeological efforts at Angel Mounds State Historic Site offer a glimpse into this highly developed culture of the distant past. For 60 years, this living museum has told the story of a major pre-contact Native American culture on the Ohio River.

Archaeological work at Angel Mounds is conducted by the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University. This institution is named after Glenn Albert Black, the archaeologist who conducted most of the excavations at Angel Mounds. He brought the site to the attention of the discipline and his two-volume work on the site remains the definitive work.

In May 2006, researchers discovered a probable pottery-making workshop at the Angel Mounds. This discovery revealed the artistic skills of the Indians who inhabited the area. Found during the 2006 excavation were pottery tools and masses of prepared, slightly fired clay awaiting shaping into bowls, jars or figures.

Contents

[edit] Setting

The Mississippian farmers found this fertile location by the Ohio River ideal for agricultural purposes, with annual spring floods replenishing the nutrients in the soil. The town itself was on the 3rd terrace, above the area flooded on a regular basis, yet close to the fields. A slough surrounds the town on three sides, creating an island. When the site was first settled, the slough was deeper and the people kept it clear of brush and trees.[3] The community sits atop a terrace looking south across a narrow channel towards Three Mile Island (Kentucky). The chute and island, which existed during the time Angel Mounds was inhabited, created a quiet backwater suitable for canoes, collecting water, and bathing. Until near the end of the 1800s, the Ohio River was clear and potable.[4]

Stockade

A section of reconstructed palisade at Angel Mounds.

The town was surrounded by a stockade, with the Ohio River acting as a barrier on the south side. A gateway was placed about a fourth of the way around from where the eastern flank of the stockade meets the river. A partial reproduction of the stockade was created in 1972. It stands 12’ high and is made of posts set four feet into a narrow trench. The posts are covered with wattle and daub, a loose weaving of sticks covered with a mud and grass plaster. Every 10 to 11 feet, a bastion projects 11 to 12 feet. The distance between bastions would have been the distance an arrow or lance could effectively travel, thus protecting the walls from a direct attack. A second barrier, a type of picket fence, was set 14 feet from the stockade. It was designed to slow the attackers as they came into range.[5]

[edit] Mounds

Central Mound
Mound A or the Central Mound is the highest in the complex. It contains two levels, with a conical mound in the southeast corner. The base mound is 644 feet long and 415 feet wide. Villagers carried 67,785 cubic yards of dirt in baskets from the chute along the south side of the village to create the the mound. The lower terrace is 100 feet by 100 feet and is located on the south side of the mound. A modern stairway ascends the mound to protect it from erosion. Archeological evidence suggests that there may have been a log stairway in prehistoric times. The upper terrace is 28 feet above the surrounding area and is larger than the lower terrace. Based on reports from early explorers in the southeastern United States, this mound would have been the site of the home of the hereditary chief of the town and the surrounding communities. There would have been associated settlements and hamlets within a 70 mile radius of the Angel Mounds community. [6]

[edit] Associated Sites

  1. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, East St. Louis, Illinois
  2. Chucalissa Indian Town and Museum, Memphis, Tennessee
  3. Wickliffe Mounds, Wickliffe, Kentucky

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Angel Mounds". National Historic Landmark summary. Retrieved on 2008-07-23.
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
  3. ^ The Inquiring Visitor’s Guide to Angel Mounds State Historic Site, Marjorie Melvin Jones, and Besse Freeman LaBudde; Mission Press; 2000, pg 2
  4. ^ Jones and LaBudde; pg 11
  5. ^ Jones and LaBudde; pg 4
  6. ^ Jones and LaBudde; pg 15

[edit] Bibliography

  • Black, Glenn Albert. Angel Site, An Archaeological, Historical and Ethnological Study (with James H. Kellar). Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1967, 2 volumes.


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