Shiloh Indian Mounds Site
Encyclopedia
Shiloh Indian Mounds Site (40HR7) is a Mississippian culture
archaeological site
of the prehistoric indigenous peoples of eastern North America. It is located beside the Tennessee River
on the grounds of the Shiloh National Military Park
, in Hardin County
of southwestern Tennessee
.
culture indigenous peoples, and then later by those of an Early Mississippian culture, until it was abandoned in approximately 1450 CE.
, while the village itself consisted of more than 100 wattle and daub
houses, over three dozen individual house mounds, and eight mounds. Seven of the mounds were substructure platform mound
s and the seventh was a Woodland period conical burial mound. It was the largest site in the region and probably functioned as the center of a paramount chiefdom that occupied 20 miles (32.2 km) stretch of the Tennessee River Valley. The chiefdom held sway over six smaller villages, each with a mound or two, and many scattered farmsteads up and down the valley.
The people of Shiloh Mounds were intensely involved in maize
agriculture
, as well as other food crop
s originating in the Americas, such as squash, sunflower
s, goosefoot
, marshelder
, and maygrass
. They also gathered wild foodstuffs such as acorn
s and hickory
nuts. The hunting of whitetail deer
, squirrel
, rabbit
, turkey
, and raccoon
as well as fishing were also important.
site), and isolated farmsteads scattered on higher ground in the river valley. Downstream on the river’s eastern bank, at the present location of Savannah, Tennessee
, was another palisaded multiple mound settlement, although it is still unclear if the sites were occupied at the same time. Other neighbors had communities all along the Tennessee and Tombigbee River
s, with sites in Alabama
, Mississippi
, and western Tennessee. Archaeologists think the presence of prestige goods from the Cahokia
site in Illinois
means the people of Shiloh Mounds were more closely tied politically to that area than to chiefdoms in the Middle Tennessee
area.
in 1979, and declared a National Historic Landmark
in 1986.
in the shape of a kneeling man. It has since become the site’s most famous artifact and is on display in the Tennessee River Museum in Savannah
. The pipe is carved from a distinctive material, Missouri flint clay, and in the same style as other statuettes from the Cahokia site in Collinsville, Illinois
.
In the winter of 1933-34 survey work was undertaken at the site and many 10 feet (3 m) to 20 feet (6.1 m) diameter house mounds were discovered. Many contained the remains of wattle and daub
houses, which had been built with walls of vertical posts interlaced with branches and coated with a thick layer of clay. It was at this time that the encircling palisade was also discovered.
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
archaeological site
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...
of the prehistoric indigenous peoples of eastern North America. It is located beside the Tennessee River
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...
on the grounds of the Shiloh National Military Park
Shiloh National Military Park
Shiloh National Military Park preserves the American Civil War Shiloh and Corinth battlefields. The main section of the park is in the unincorporated town of Shiloh, about nine miles south of Savannah, Tennessee, with an additional area located in the city of Corinth, Mississippi, 23 miles ...
, in Hardin County
Hardin County, Tennessee
Hardin County is a county located in the U.S. State of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 26,026. The Hardin County seat is Savannah. The county was named posthumously for Col. Joseph Hardin, a Revolutionary War soldier and a legislative representative for the Province of North Carolina and...
of southwestern Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
.
History
The site was inhabited starting around 1000 CE by a Late WoodlandWoodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
culture indigenous peoples, and then later by those of an Early Mississippian culture, until it was abandoned in approximately 1450 CE.
Site
The Shiloh Indian Mounds Site is situated on a high bluff, between two ravines, overlooking the Tennessee River at the edge of the Shiloh Plateau. The village was encircled by a wooden palisadePalisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
, while the village itself consisted of more than 100 wattle and daub
Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw...
houses, over three dozen individual house mounds, and eight mounds. Seven of the mounds were substructure platform mound
Platform mound
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...
s and the seventh was a Woodland period conical burial mound. It was the largest site in the region and probably functioned as the center of a paramount chiefdom that occupied 20 miles (32.2 km) stretch of the Tennessee River Valley. The chiefdom held sway over six smaller villages, each with a mound or two, and many scattered farmsteads up and down the valley.
Agriculture and food
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, as well as other food crop
Crop
Crop may refer to:* Crop, a plant grown and harvested for agricultural use* Crop , part of the alimentary tract of some animals* Crop , a modified whip used in horseback riding or disciplining humans...
s originating in the Americas, such as squash, sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
s, goosefoot
Chenopodium
Chenopodium is a genus of about 150 species of perennial or annual herbaceous flowering plants known as the goosefoots, which occur almost anywhere in the world. It is placed in the family Amaranthaceae in the APG II system; older classifications separate it and its relatives as Chenopodiaceae, but...
, marshelder
Iva annua
Iva annua, sumpweed or marshelder, is an herbaceous annual plant native to much of North America.-Uses:Iva annua var. macrocarpa was formerly cultivated by Native Americans in the central eastern United States and specifically the indigenous peoples of the Kansas City Hopewell culture in present...
, and maygrass
Phalaris (grass)
Phalaris is a genus of grasses. Various species of Phalaris grow on every continent except Antarctica. They can be found in a broad range of habitats from below sea level to thousands of feet above sea level and from wet marshy areas to dry places. P. arundinacea and P...
. They also gathered wild foodstuffs such as acorn
Acorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...
s and hickory
Hickory
Trees in the genus Carya are commonly known as hickory, derived from the Powhatan language of Virginia. The genus includes 17–19 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and big nuts...
nuts. The hunting of whitetail deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, squirrel
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...
, rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
, turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and raccoon
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
as well as fishing were also important.
Contemporaries
In addition to the Shiloh site, the chiefdom included six smaller towns (each with one or two mounds such as the Swallow Bluff Island MoundsSwallow Bluff Island Mounds
The Swallow Bluff Island Mounds is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located near Saltillo on an island in the Tennessee River in Hardin County, Tennessee.-Site:...
site), and isolated farmsteads scattered on higher ground in the river valley. Downstream on the river’s eastern bank, at the present location of Savannah, Tennessee
Savannah, Tennessee
Savannah is a city in Hardin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 6,917 at the 2000 census and the 2007 population estimate was 7,262. It is the county seat of Hardin County. Savannah hosted the NAIA college football national championship game from 1996-2007. Savannah is home to...
, was another palisaded multiple mound settlement, although it is still unclear if the sites were occupied at the same time. Other neighbors had communities all along the Tennessee and Tombigbee River
Tombigbee River
The Tombigbee River is a tributary of the Mobile River, approximately 200 mi long, in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Alabama. It is one of two major rivers, along with the Alabama River, that unite to form the short Mobile River before it empties into Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico...
s, with sites in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, and western Tennessee. Archaeologists think the presence of prestige goods from the Cahokia
Cahokia
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is the area of an ancient indigenous city located in the American Bottom floodplain, between East Saint Louis and Collinsville in south-western Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The site included 120 human-built earthwork mounds...
site in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
means the people of Shiloh Mounds were more closely tied politically to that area than to chiefdoms in the Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....
area.
Archaeology
Because the site has been included within the Shiloh National Military Park boundaries for so long it has never been disturbed by modern farming techniques. The remains of the original structures of wattle and daub are still visible as low rings or mounds. It is one of the few places in the eastern U.S. where such remains are still visible. It was added to the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1979, and declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1986.
Excavations
Cornelius Cadle, chairman of the Shiloh Park Commission, undertook the first archaeological excavations Shiloh 1899. He had a trench dug into the conical burial mound, Mound C. Amongst the discoveries was a large stone effigy pipeMississippian stone statuary
The Mississippian stone statuary are artifacts of polished stone in the shape of human figurines made by members of the Mississippian culture and found in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast...
in the shape of a kneeling man. It has since become the site’s most famous artifact and is on display in the Tennessee River Museum in Savannah
Savannah, Tennessee
Savannah is a city in Hardin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 6,917 at the 2000 census and the 2007 population estimate was 7,262. It is the county seat of Hardin County. Savannah hosted the NAIA college football national championship game from 1996-2007. Savannah is home to...
. The pipe is carved from a distinctive material, Missouri flint clay, and in the same style as other statuettes from the Cahokia site in Collinsville, Illinois
Collinsville, Illinois
Collinsville is a city located mainly in Madison County, and partially in St. Clair County, both in Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 26,016. Collinsville is approximately 12 miles from St. Louis, Missouri and is considered part of that city's Metro-East area...
.
In the winter of 1933-34 survey work was undertaken at the site and many 10 feet (3 m) to 20 feet (6.1 m) diameter house mounds were discovered. Many contained the remains of wattle and daub
Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw...
houses, which had been built with walls of vertical posts interlaced with branches and coated with a thick layer of clay. It was at this time that the encircling palisade was also discovered.