Big Mound City (
8PB48) is a prehistoric site near
Canal Point,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, United States. It is located 10 miles east of Canal Point, off
U.S. Route 98. On May 24, 1973, it was added to the
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. It is located inside the
J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area is a protected area of 60,348 acres of land in Florida. It is located east of Lake Okeechobee, 25 miles northwest of West Palm Beach. It includes Big Mound City and is connected to DuPuis Management Area.
It i ...
.
History
Big Mound City is the site of one of four recognized monumental
Native American earthworks built in the
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee (), also known as Florida's Inland Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the tenth largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest natural freshwat ...
Basin area of southeastern Florida.
Dating from the Glade III
Glade Period (circa 1000 AD), it is a combination of at least nine
mound
A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...
structures and a ridge complex, including radiating causeways and crescent-shaped man-made ponds.
Some of the mounds have been identified as
burial mounds
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a ...
.
Except for a brief study by M.W. Stirling, who studied the complex in the 1930s while excavating the burial mound and midden at the Belle Glade site, Big Mound City has never been excavated. It was not until 2017 that the first dating of the complex was completed and published.
Despite there being no data, such as ceramics, recovered from the site, the site has appeared repeatedly in compilations referencing the archaeology of south Florida.
Researchers of mound-building cultures in Florida such as Jerald Milanich believe that the same Indians who built Big Mound City also built
Tony's Mound,
Fort Center
Fort Center is an archaeological site in Glades County, Florida, United States, a few miles northwest of Lake Okeechobee. It was occupied for more than 2,000 years, from 450 BCE until about 1700 CE. The inhabitants of Fort Center may have been cul ...
and the
Ortona Prehistoric Village
The Ortona Prehistoric Village is an archaeological site adjacent to the community of Ortona in northeastern Glades County, Florida, north of the Caloosahatchee River and west of Lake Okeechobee, consisting of mounds, canals and other features. Par ...
, all in the Lake Okeechobee Basin area.
See also
*
List of burial mounds in the United States
This is a list of notable burial mounds in the United States built by Native Americans. Burial mounds were built by many different cultural groups over a span of many thousands of years, beginning in the Late Archaic period and continuing through ...
*
List of Mississippian sites
This is a list of Mississippian sites. The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, inland-Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, ...
References
External links
Palm Beach County listingsa
National Register of Historic PlacesPalm Beach County listingsa
Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical ProgramsEntry for site (8)PB00048 (Big Mound City) on Open Context
{{Palm Beach County, Florida
Mounds in Florida
Archaeological sites in Florida
National Register of Historic Places in Palm Beach County, Florida
Pre-historic cities in the United States