Green Mound is one of the largest

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

shell mounds, or shell middens, in the

United States 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 ...

. Located in

Ponce Inlet, Florida Ponce Inlet is a town in Volusia County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,032 at the 2010 census. The town of Ponce Inlet is located on the southern tip of a barrier island, south of Daytona Beach and Daytona Beach Shores. Severa ...

, the peak of the mound is the highest elevation in the small city. While it once stood at forty feet above sea level, a combination of public works projects on the nearby roads and natural erosion have reduced the height of the mound by about 10 feet. The mound was built by Native Americans of the late St. Johns II cultural period, as indicated by the finding of pre-Columbian "chalky ware" ceramics dating to later than 800 AD. These overlie earlier relics of the St. Johns I cultural period, the cultural period following the Archaic period. The St. Johns period was characterized by the introduction of mound-building and a more

sedentary Sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle type, in which one is physically inactive and does little or no physical movement and or exercise. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like soci ...

, rather than

nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

, lifestyle. The natives who once lived at this location were closely tied to both the nearby

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and the resource-rich

saltwater Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). On the United States Geological Survey (USGS) salinity scale, saline water is saltier than brackish water, ...

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

of the

Halifax River The Halifax River is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, located in northeast Volusia County, Florida. The waterway was originally known as the North Mosquito River, but was renamed after George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (for who ...

immediately west of the mound. The mound formed from a combination of discarded

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

shells,

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

shells, and other debris. Whether or not the shell heaps scattered in coastal and riparian locations throughout Florida were natural deposits or of human origin remained a matter of debate in the mid-19th century, although Daniel Brinton had come to the conclusion by 1859 that the shell mounds on the east coast of Florida were the waste heaps of aboriginal groups that had accumulated over centuries. Initial studies of the Green Mound area were conducted in the early to mid-1940s by

archeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

Dr. John Griffin, who found that the mound was in fact inhabited by its builders and their subsequent generations. Later excavation revealed multiple layers of clay floors, remnants of structural components such as

posthole In archaeology a posthole or post-hole is a cut feature used to hold a surface timber or stone. They are usually much deeper than they are wide; however, truncation may not make this apparent. Although the remains of the timber may survive, most ...

s, and evidence of ash, fire pits and hearths at the site. It is thought that the dwellings that sat upon the mound were constructed of materials such as palmetto limbs and other local forms of timber such as

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

. It is also inferred that due to the social structure that existed at the time, the inhabitation of the mound's top was reserved for the highest-ranking members (

elites In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. ...

) of the community. The most likely inhabitants of these prime locations on top of the mound would have been tribal chiefs and religious leaders. Depending on their social status, other members of the community would have lived in areas closer to ground level. The mound was listed on the

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 ...

in 2020.

Gallery

Image:GreenMound_sm1971.jpg Image:GreenMound_sm1648.jpg Image:GreenMound_sm1987.jpg

References

External links

Green Mound
{{authority control Shell middens in Florida Archaeological sites in Florida Geography of Volusia County, Florida Former populated places in Florida Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Former populated places in Volusia County, Florida Mounds in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Volusia County, Florida