Etowah Mounds, Georgia
Along Georgia’s Etowah River stands a 54-acre window into a forgotten American city. The Etowah Mounds rise six stories above the river valley, marking where thousands of Native Americans built one of the most powerful settlements in the Southeast between 1000-1550 CE.
Their descendants – the Muscogee Creek and Cherokee peoples – still honor these grounds today.
You can climb a mound as tall as a 6-story building
The biggest mound at Etowah is 63 feet high, making it the second-largest Indian mound in North America. When you climb to the top, you’re standing where chiefs once lived.
People moved over 4 million cubic feet of soil in baskets to build it between 1000-1250 CE. They used just stone and wooden tools. The chief’s house on top was about 3,000 square feet and gave a clear view of the entire 54-acre settlement.
Marble statues show who was important by their hand positions
You’ll see rare marble statues in the museum with hand positions that showed a person’s rank. These figures have hands on knees, across chests, or holding special objects.
Warren K. Moorehead found these statues in 1925 when digging in Mound C. The male statue is 2 feet tall and weighs 55 pounds, while the female is smaller at 18 inches. The marble came from just 9 miles away from the site.
People built a clever moat system to protect their homes
A smart defense system used the Etowah River to protect the settlement. When you look at the layout, you’ll notice the river naturally guarded three sides while people dug a ditch 10 feet deep and 30 feet wide on the fourth side.
This created a fortress with about 1,500 feet of protection all around. They could flood the moat from the river when enemies threatened, making it nearly impossible to attack.
Important people were buried facing the direction of the afterlife
Mound C has fancy burial sites arranged in specific directions. In the museum, you’ll learn how high-ranking people were buried with copper plates, pearl beads, and carved shells.
Bodies usually faced west—where they believed the afterlife was. Archaeologists found over 350 burials in Mound C alone. Some important people were buried with up to 25 pounds of copper items and thousands of freshwater pearls from the Etowah River.
Mounds line up with the sun on special days of the year
From certain spots, you can see how the mounds line up with sunrise on solstices and equinoxes. These alignments helped people know when to plant crops and hold ceremonies.
The line between Mound A and Mound B points directly at the winter solstice sunrise, off by less than 1 degree. The main plaza is exactly 300 feet square and faces north, south, east, and west.
Skilled metal workers made art from copper carried 750 miles
People at Etowah were amazing copper crafters. In the museum, you’ll see copper plates with detailed designs made by hammering from the back side. The copper came all the way from the Great Lakes, over 750 miles away.
Each ceremonial plate took about 30 hours of skilled work to make. Crafters heated the copper to 1,800°F before hammering it into thin sheets less than 1/16 inch thick, then created designs from the back.
Different colored dirt layers in the mounds had special meanings
People built the mounds with layers of yellow, red, and black soil that had spiritual significance. You can spot these layers in parts where the mounds are exposed.
Each 6-inch layer was carefully placed following religious beliefs. Mound A contains about 3 million basket loads of earth, around 175,000 tons of soil. Scientists found the colored soils came from up to 20 miles away from the site.
Someone planned this whole site with perfect geometry
Looking at the site from above, you’d notice the main plaza forms a perfect 300-foot square with major mounds in key spots. This shows careful town planning from around 1250 CE.
Underground radar reveals the site had at least 350 buildings arranged in circles around the plaza. The main road into the settlement was exactly 42 feet wide and lined up with where the sun set on the summer solstice.
A ball game played here decided political and religious matters
Near the central plaza, you can see a sunken ball court where ancient games were played. It’s 140 feet long by 62 feet wide. Teams used a 5-pound stone ball, moving it with hips and shoulders toward goals.
Winners got copper badges showing their status. The playing field had special yellow clay brought from 15 miles away that was replaced before big tournaments.
Shell necklaces tell stories about their religious beliefs
In the museum, you’ll see carved shell necklaces (gorgets) with detailed mythical creatures like the feathered serpent. These were made from lightning whelk shells from the Gulf of Mexico, carried over 300 miles to Etowah.
Artists used shark teeth as drills to make the detailed carvings. Over 75 different designs have been found, with each important family having their own special patterns.
People lived here three different times over 550 years
Etowah was lived in, left empty, and resettled multiple times between 1000-1550 CE. In the museum, you’ll learn about these three distinct periods, each with different pottery styles and building methods.
The first settlement lasted from 1000-1200 CE. The second and largest was from 1250-1375 CE. The final period from 1475-1550 CE ended soon after Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited in 1540 CE.
Building these mounds took thousands of people working together
Thousands of workers moved millions of baskets of earth over decades to build these mounds. Each person carried about 50 pounds per load, moving more than 175,000 tons of soil in total.
Scientists think 200 people working 10 hours every day would have needed at least 20 years to complete just Mound A. Workers ate around 500,000 bushels of corn during the construction process.
Hidden rooms inside the mounds were used for special ceremonies
Inside the mounds, people built secret rooms for special rituals. The museum shows how they constructed wooden chambers and then covered them with earth.
These rooms were typically 15 by 20 feet with 8-foot ceilings and held ceremonial fires, copper objects, and sometimes human remains. After using them, people filled the rooms with clean white sand and sealed them before adding more earth. Archaeologists have found at least 12 such chambers in Mound B.
Visiting Etowah Indian Mounds
- Location: 813 Indian Mounds Road, Cartersville, GA 30120
- Open daily 9am-5pm (mound area closes 4:30pm), closed major holidays
- Museum features artifacts and a 15-minute orientation film
- Nature trail runs along the Etowah River
- Guided tours available weekends at 10am and 2pm
- Best times to visit are spring or fall when temperatures are mild
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