Effigy+Mounds

In Northeast Iowa, just across the mighty Mississippi River from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin lays a series of earthen mounds arranged in patterns and shaped like animals and geometric shapes. From an aerial view one can see the shape of a bear, an eagle, linear mounds, and circular mounds. Mounds like those found at Effigy Mounds National Park can be found all over the upper Midwest and the Great Lakes region. Not much is known about the mound builders or what the mounds are used for. There are many theories about the mounds being used for religious purposes such as burials and ceremonies. Studies have excavated Indian remains and ancient artifacts that coincide with Indian burials. Other theories suggest that the mounds were built to mark celestial events and seasonal observations. Still others believe the mounds were used to mark territorial boundaries between tribes. Although there is not much that is known about the purpose of the mounds, they can tell us a significant amount of information about our natural world. The mounds offer a unique chance for soil scientists to study the formation of soil, a process that in most instances started thousands of years ago. Carbon dating has placed the age of some of the mounds between 1,000 and 2,500 years old. Since the age of the parent material is known, scientists can study how long soil formation processes take. Soil scientists can also help answer part of the mystery of the mounds. As a soil ages, processes form soil horizons, or layers. These horizons are critical to assess their age, origin, and other properties that are important for agriculture, engineering, and recreation. Since the soil has been forming over a relatively short period of time, scientists can look at horizons in a younger state than can be observed in other soils. This helps in defining how long it takes for formation to occur. Studying the mounds has also answered questions archaeologists could not. Questions like where did the soil for the mounds come from? Were the mounds originally bigger? Did the mound builders add to the mounds to make them bigger or were they the same size as the original construction? Soil scientists were able to provide these answers along with new knowledge of how fast soils form. Due to the texture of the soil in the mounds, scientists have concluded that the soil used to build the mounds originated from the deciduous forest that surrounds the mounds. It was thought that the soil may have come from the banks of the Mississippi River directly below the mounds. The texture in the mounds does not have the fine clay texture of the soils on the river banks disproving this theory. Archaeologist also wondered about the original size of the mounds. The surface horizon of the mounds is of an average thickness compared to other similar soils and good forest growth that holds soil in place is evidence that the mounds were not any bigger than present and were not eroded away. A uniform horizon development with no stratification of layers means these mounds were not added on after their original construction.

"Autumn 2002: Effigy Mounds Part I: Iowa's Hidden Mystery." //MYSTERIOUS WORLD//. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . This two part series features a history of the mounds and the people that built the mounds. Beck, Lane A. //Regional Approaches to Mortuary Analysis//. New York: Plenum, 1995. Print. This book discusses several burial grounds and regional burial rituals. Included is a discussion of the Effigy Mounds in Iowa. Benedetti, M., J. Daniels, and J. Ritchie. "Predicting Vertical Accretion Rates at an Archaeological Site on the Mississippi River Floodplain: Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa." //Catena// 69.2 (2007): 134-49. Print. A discussion of horizon development in the Effigy Mound site. Bettis, E. Arthur III. 1988. Pedogenesis in late prehistoric Indian mounds, upper Mississippi Valley. Physical Geography 9:263-279 Discussion of soil formation in archaeological sites. Bogen, Sara M., and Sara C. Hotchkiss. //PALEO-ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE AT EFFIGY MOUNDS NATIONAL MONUMENT//. //National Park Service Great Lakes Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Study Unit Cost Sharing Grant 144-ND24//. Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, 17 Sept. 2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. A study to determine the natural environment at the time the mounds were built. The study is important to determine soil forming factors and the environment the natives lived in. "Effigy Mounds National Monument - Effigy Moundbuilders (U.S. National Park Service)." //U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America//. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . A history of the mound builders given by the park service in charge of maintaining the mounds. "Effigy Mounds National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)." //U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America//. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . The official site of Effigy Mounds. // Erie Indian Moundbuilders Tribal Nation //. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . A history of mound builders in the upper Midwest. Lepper, Bradley T., and Tod A. Frolking. //Alligator Mound: Geoarchaeological and Iconographical Interpretations of a Late Prehistoric Effigy Mound in Central Ohio, USA//. Web. . Other mounds located throughout the upper Midwest compare to those found in Iowa. This is a discussion on some in Ohio. Mallam, R. Clark. //The Iowa Effigy Mound Manifestation: an Interpretive Model//. Iowa City: Office of the State Archaeologist, The University of Iowa, 1976. Print. This book discusses possible explanations for the mounds. "Mound Builders." Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . A history of the mound builders. Narumalani, Sunil, Deepak R. Mishra, and Robert G. Rothwell. "Change Detection and Landscape Metrics for Inferring Anthropogenic Processes in the Greater EFMO Area." //Remote Sensing of Environment// 91.3-4 (2004): 478-89. Print. Landscape sensing for studying effigy mounds. "NPS Archeology Program: Ancient Architects of the Mississippi." //U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America//. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . A history of mound builders by the National Park Service. Parsons, R. B., W.H. Scholtes, and F. F. Riecken. 1962 of Indian mounds in northeast Iowa as benchmarks for studies of soil science. Soil Science Society of America Proceedings 26: 491-496 Study of soil formation in Effigy Moounds. Photograph. Web. . Photograph. Web. . Sandor, J. 2011. Conclusions from study of soil development rates using archaeological sites (Effigy Mounds) in Northeast Iowa. Agronomy 463, Soil Morphology and Genesis Group discussion on findings of Parsons and Schultes. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . "YouTube - Indian Mound Builders." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.// Web. 14 Apr. 2011. .