Along Mississippi's scenic Natchez Trace Parkway, there is an immense flat-topped platform 35 feet
high, spanning eight acres. Emerald Mound, the second largest ceremonial earthwork in the United
States, stands as a monument to the Native architects who built it over two centuries before Columbus
waded ashore in the Caribbean. The Mississippians, as they are known, erected dozens--perhaps
thousands--of earthworks across the Delta and the southeast when Europeans were living through the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance.As the Mississippians flourished, the mounds evolved into urban centers with the problems of overcrowding and waste disposal often found in cities. Sometimes one large flat-topped mound dominated a village or ceremonial center. More often, as at Emerald, several mounds were arranged around a rectangular plaza, with the village at its edges. Structures atop the plaza--temples or official residences--sat on large four-sided flat-topped mounds. A palisade of saplings surrounded the entire complex.
Periodically, the Mississippians would raze one of their wood-and-mud structures, inter the remains of a recently deceased leader in a fresh layer of earth, and erect a new building on top. More often the well-to-do were laid to rest in specially built burial mounds, which were conical or round.
Crews of workers labored over generations, sometimes a century or more, before an earthwork
reached its final dimensions. Maybe a mound began as a slight rise with an important building on it.
After a time, perhaps its grass roof caught fire or the people burned it down as part of a cleansing
ceremony. Whatever the cause, the builders brought basketful after basketful of dirt to start a new
foundation. When it was ready, another building went up. Many Mississippians, each hauling 60-pound
baskets of soil, worked to complete each stage.
Some archeologists say that the moundbuilders' survival depended on a steady flow of immigrants to compensate for the high urban death rates; when the flow ceased, they say, the cities collapsed.
Today, the legacy of the moundbuilders is at risk. Most earthworks, lacking Emerald's visibility, are worn down to unassuming shapes in the overgrowth along remote fields and tributaries. Many have been looted or damaged by farming and building construction; of almost 1,100 known sites in Arkansas, for example, only 2 remain relatively untouched.
Earthworks at Toltec, Parkin, Chucalissa, and Pinson--all state sites open to the public--testify to the greatness of the Delta's ancient architects.
Related web sites created in partnership with the National Park Service: Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, Anthropology Department at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas Archeological Survey.