Leake Mounds ( 9BR2) is an important

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

in Bartow County, Georgia built and used by peoples of the Swift Creek Culture. The site is west of the well-known Etowah Mounds on the

Etowah River The Etowah River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 waterway that rises northwest of Dahlonega, Georgia, north of Atlanta. On Matthew Carey's 179 ...

. It predates that site by hundreds of years. Excavation of nearly on the site showed that Leake Mounds was one of the most important

Middle Woodland period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeologi ...

site in this area from around 300 BCE to 650 CE. It was a center with ties throughout the Southeast and Midwest. It was abandoned about 650 CE. It was not occupied again for nearly nine hundred years, until about 1500, by different peoples near the end of the

Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building large, eart ...

period. The site includes at least three major platform

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 highe ...

s and a large semi-circular moat/ditch. While much of the mounds were razed to be used as road fill for the expansion of the Georgia State Route 113 and Georgia State Route 61 in the 1940s, significant portions of the site remain. Several sites on nearby Ladds Mountain were integrally associated with Leake, including Shaw Mound, a stone burial mound; Indian Fort, a stone wall enclosure; and Ladds Cave, a large cave. Examples of a type of pottery decoration consisting of a diamond-shaped checks found at Leake Mounds are also known from Hopewell sites in Ohio (such as Seip, Rockhold, Harness, and Turner), the

Mann site The Mann site ( 12 Po 2) is a Crab Orchard culture site located off Indian Mound Road in Mount Vernon, Posey County, Indiana. It was placed on the National Historic Register on October 1, 1974. Exotic ceramics and other artifacts found at the ...

in southern

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

. This style has also been found on pottery at other sites in the South, such as the Miner's Creek site, 9HY98, and

Mandeville site The Mandeville site ( 9CY1) is an archaeological site in Clay County in southwest Georgia in the United States. The site now lies under the Walter F. George Reservoir, which is a part of the Chattahoochee River basin. History The first occupation ...

in Georgia, and the

Yearwood site Yearwood is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Barrington Yearwood (born 1986), Barbadian cricketer * Gilberto Yearwood (born 1956), retired Honduran football player *Kathleen Yearwood (born 1958), Canadian experimental singer-son ...

in southern

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

References

External links

Excavation and Archaeological Investigation at Bartow County's Leake Site

The Woodland Period Cultural Landscape of the Leake Site Complex: Encompassing the Diversity of Human Action

THE MANN SITE AND THE LEAKE SITE : LINKING THE MIDWEST AND THE SOUTHEAST DURING THE MIDDLE WOODLAND PERIOD
{{Pre-Columbian North America Swift Creek culture South Appalachian Mississippian culture Archaeological sites in Georgia (U.S. state) Geography of Bartow County, Georgia Mounds in Georgia (U.S. state)

See also

References

External links