The Adena mounds
The first great burial mounds of the Ohio valley
See it on the timeline →In depth
A burial mound is a heap of earth raised over one or more graves, and in the Ohio valley they were built up in layers across generations. Adena precedes and grades into Hopewell, and the division between them is an archaeological convention rather than a break in population. In the nineteenth century the mounds were attributed to a lost "mound builder race" — Phoenicians, Vikings, Israelites — because Americans of the day would not believe the ancestors of the peoples they were displacing had built them. The Smithsonian survey of 1894 refuted this; the myth persisted for decades regardless.
For children
People in the Ohio valley began building round burial mounds of earth, some over twenty metres high. They were raised in layers across generations, a little at a time, each time someone of standing was buried.
Sources
This event has no source references yet. Do you know where it is well attested — a book, an article, a reference work? We would very much like to hear from you.
Help us with sourcesReport a correction
Found something that does not hold? Tell us — sources help, but are not required.
Report a correctionPart of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org ·