Archaeology

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This article was originally found on Mental Floss.

Before Spanish colonizers arrived in the Mississippi River valley in the 16th century, Native peoples built huge cities, developed extensive river-based trade routes, and constructed extraordinary earthworks. These mounds take different forms—low and round, tall and conical, broad and flat-topped, even animal-shaped—and served as important ceremonial and burial sites for hundreds of years or more. Here are 11 ancient Native American earthworks that offer a glimpse into prehistory.

1. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site // Illinois

Monks Mound is the highest mound at Cahokia State Historic Site in Illinois. / Steven Greenwell, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0

Just outside modern-day St. Louis, Missouri, lie the remains of the largest pre-European contact city. The Mississippian people—a Native American culture defined by agriculture, complex social hierarchy, and mound building—constructed 120 large earthen mounds near the Mississippi River between 800 and 1400 CE. At its peak in the 12th century CE, Cahokia may have been home to 20,000 inhabitants, roughly the same population as London at the time. The cause of its demise is currently a matter of debate. In 1967, archaeologists discovered several mass graves containing 270 bodies within Mound 72. Today, more than 70 mounds are still visible, including 100-foot tall Monks Mound, the largest earthwork in North America.

2. Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center // Oklahoma

The original of this replica conch shell, engraved with pictures of armadillos and dating from 1200-1350 CE, was used in religious ceremonies at the Spiro Mounds site. / Kat Long

The Caddoan-speaking inhabitants of this Mississippian mound city along the Arkansas River built a thriving trade network from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf Coast between 850 and 1450 CE. The culture’s most valued objects, conch shells, were imported from the Caribbean—the community even had an agent stationed in southern Florida to direct the shipments. The Craig Mound, a burial mound 350 feet long, 11 feet wide, and 34 feet tall, once held the remains of more than 1000 leaders, covered in earth and grave goods. The abundance of stone, copper, shell, and textile artifacts—looted before Oklahoma protected the mounds by law—prompted the Kansas City Star to call the burial mound the “King Tut of the Arkansas Valley.”

3. Serpent Mound // Ohio

The Great Serpent Mound in Ohio is shaped like an undulating snake. / Corey B. Stevens/iStock via Getty Images

There are no burials in the impressive Serpent Mound, located about 70 miles east of Cincinnati, Ohio. The 1348-foot-long earthwork, built on an ancient asteroid impact crater, is an effigy mound (a mound in the shape of an animal), and contained no artifacts to indicate when and by whom it was created. Some archaeologists believed the Serpent Mound was made by people of the Adena Culture, sometime between 800 BCE and 100 CE, because two Adena burial mounds are nearby. In 1991, an excavation of the Serpent Mound turned up charcoal bits that dated to a period between 1025 and 1215 CE, suggesting it was built by the Fort Ancient Culture, which lived in present-day Ohio between 1000 and 1650 CE.

4. Kolomoki Mounds State Park // Georgia

Pottery found at Kolomoki Mounds is on display in the park’s museum. / Jud McCranie, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0

This mound complex in southwest Georgia is the region’s largest site built by people of the Woodland Period, an archaeological era lasting from 1000 BCE to 900 CE. At the height of its development, between 350 and 600 AD, the Kolomoki settlement was likely centered around eight earthen mounds, seven of which survive today and include a 57-foot-tall platform mound believed to have been used for ceremonies. Two of the mounds served as burial sites and contained large caches of animal-shaped pottery, while other excavations yielded shells and items that indicated a well-oiled trade network. In 1974, burglars broke into the site’s museum and stole 129 priceless ceramic artifacts—most of which are still missing—in the state’s most infamous art theft.

5. Effigy Mounds National Monument // Iowa

At Effigy Mounds National Monument, the Marching Bear Mounds are shaped like a parade of bears. / National Park Service // Public Domain

Between 600 and 1250 CE, in the Late Woodland Period, a culture known as the Effigy Moundbuilders constructed earthworks in the shapes of deer, bison, bear, and other wildlife in the upper Mississippi River valley. Effigy Mounds National Monument, along the Mississippi River south of the Iowa-Minnesota border, encompasses more than 200 effigy mounds, conical burial mounds, and rectangular platform mounds. Descendants of the builders, who belong to 20 culturally associated Native American tribes, suggest the mounds serve ceremonial and sacred purposes.

6. Caddo Mounds State Historic Site // Texas

This entrance leads to Caddo Mounds State Historic Site in eastern Texas. / N. Saum, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0

A group of Mississippian Caddo people called the Hasinai settled this site, about 150 miles southeast of downtown Dallas, around 800 CE. The floodplain provided good soil for farming and the network of rivers allowed the Hasinai to obtain goods from far and wide, such as shells from present-day Florida and copper from the Great Lakes region. The site was largely abandoned in around 1300 CE, but three large mounds remain today at Caddo Mounds State Historic Site: the High Temple Mound, originally 35 feet high; the smaller Low Platform Mound; and the burial mound [PDF]. Excavation of the burial mound beginning in 1939 revealed about 90 bodies in 30 burial caches, along with sophisticated artifacts that hinted at the interred people’s high social status.

7. Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site // Georgia

Etowah Mounds State Historic Site features two large platform mounds built by people of the Mississippian Culture. / rodclementphotography/iStock via Getty Images

The most intact Mississippian Culture site in the Southeast, Etowah Mounds State Historic Site comprises six mounds, a village site, a central plaza, and other structures that demonstrate the complex society that lived there between 1000 and 1500 CE. Two impressive flat-topped mounds may have been the sites of the chiefs’ houses and temples. An excavated and reconstructed burial mound yielded remains of 350 people and archaeological clues about the culture’s customs and social hierarchy [PDF]. An onsite museum displays many of the grave goods, including two large marble effigies of a man and a woman that were likely used in ceremonies.

8. Hopewell Culture National Historical Park // Ohio

Conical burial mounds and geometrically shaped ceremonial mounds form the centerpieces of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ohio. / zrfphoto/iStock via Getty Images

This collection of six major mound complexes outside modern-day Chillicothe, Ohio, illustrates the engineering prowess of the Hopewell Culture, which lived in the region as early as 100 BCE. The huge, geometrically shaped earthworks include square or circular enclosures around conical or rectangular mounds, all of which were used for ceremonial or mortuary purposes rather than as village sites. The Hopewell Mound Group, one of the park’s six areas, contains 29 cremation and burial mounds, such as one originally measuring 500 feet long and 33 feet tall. Like the later Woodland and Mississippian cultures, Hopewell people carried on trade with far-flung communities as evidenced by their finely wrought pottery, effigy pipes, and ornaments in silver, pearl, quartz, mica, obsidian, and other materials.

9. Bynum and Pharr Mounds // Mississippi

The Pharr Mounds, along the Natchez Trace in Mississippi, were built in the 1st or 2nd century CE. / National Park Service // Public Domain

The Bynum Mounds, which originally numbered six, were built between 100 BCE and 100 CE by people of the Middle Woodland Period. They lie toward the southern end of the Natchez Trace, an ancient path stretching more than 400 miles from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. In the 1940s, archaeologists discovered the grave of a woman, who had been buried with copper objects, in one of the mounds; another mound held the remains of several people along with greenstone ax-heads, copper spools, and projectile points (both of these mounds have been rebuilt). The Bynum Mounds are not far from another Middle Woodland Period complex along the Natchez Trace: the Pharr Mounds, dating to the 1st or 2nd century CE, and consisting of eight burial mounds. Four were excavated in the 1960s and found to contain human remains on low clay platforms, surrounded by grave goods.

10. Moundville Archaeological Park // Alabama

Moundville Archaeological Park in Alabama was the site of a Mississippian Culture city almost as large as Cahokia. / toddmedia/iStock via Getty Images

Second in size only to Cahokia, the Moundville site in west-central Alabama spanned 300 acres on the Black Warrior River. Like other Mississippian Culture settlements, the residents of this city practiced agriculture, developed trading relationships with other river communities, and built mounds to serve as ceremonial spaces and mortuary sites. Moundville’s village, plaza, and 26 mounds were encircled by a wooden palisade. Historians aren’t sure why the settlement began to decline after 1350 CE, but almost all inhabitants had abandoned the city by 1500 CE. Moundville Archaeological Park is but one stop on the Alabama Indigenous Mound Trail, an itinerary of 13 sites across the state that preserve and interpret pre-contact culture.

11. Poverty Point World Heritage Site // Louisiana

Six large mounds and a mysterious amphitheater-like series of ridges create the landscape of Poverty Point, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwestern Louisiana. / Jennifer R. Trotter/iStock via Getty Images

Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, Poverty Point in the northeastern corner of Louisiana preserves an array of incredibly old earthworks. Between 1700 and 1100 BCE, workers built a complex of six enormous, concentric, C-shaped ridges about 5 feet tall, segmented by walkways, which may have been foundations for dwellings. Archaeologists estimate that workers had to carry about 53 million cubic feet of soil in hand-held baskets to construct the amphitheater-like ridges. Six large mounds and caches of beads, figurines, tools, and other objects made of stone from sources hundreds of miles away demonstrate the community’s sophistication. But it’s unclear who built the earthworks, or why they were made—to date, archaeologists have not uncovered any ancient burials at Poverty Point.

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Vikings are the focus of countless movies, TV shows, video games, sports teams, and comic books today—but that doesn’t mean we always get them right. From the myths surrounding their horned helmets to their not-so-fiery burial customs, here are some common misconceptions about Vikings, adapted from an episode of Misconceptions on YouTube.

1. Misconception: Vikings Wore Horned Helmets.

In 1876, German theatergoers were abuzz about a hot new ticket in town. Titled Der Ring des Nibelungen, or The Ring of the Nibelung, Richard Wagner’s musical drama played out over an astounding 15 hours and portrayed Norse and German legends all vying for a magical ring that could grant them untold power. To make his characters look especially formidable, costume designer Carl Emil Doepler made sure they were wearing horned helmets.

Though the image of Vikings plundering and pillaging while wearing horned helmets has permeated popular fiction ever since, the historical record doesn’t quite line up with it. Viking helmets were typically made of iron or leather, and it’s possible some Vikings went without one altogether, since helmets were an expensive item at the time. In fact, archaeologists have uncovered only one authentic Viking helmet, and it was made of iron and sans horns, which some historians and battle experts believe would have had absolutely no combat benefit whatsoever.

So where did Doepler get the idea for horned helmets from? There were earlier illustrations of Vikings in helmets that were occasionally horned (but more often winged). There were also Norse and Germanic priests who wore horned helmets for ceremonial purposes. This was centuries before Vikings turned up, though. Some historians argue that there is some evidence of ritualistic horned helmets in the Viking Age, but if they existed, they would have been decorative horns that priests wore—not something intended for combat.

Composer Richard Wagner apparently wasn’t pleased with the wardrobe choices; he didn’t want his opera to be mired in cheap tropes or grandiose costumes. Wagner’s wife, Cosima, was also irritated, saying that Doepler’s wardrobe smacked of “provincial tastelessness.”

The look wound up taking hold when Der Ring des Nibelungen went on tour through Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Other artists were then inspired by the direction of the musical and began using horned Viking helmets in their own depictions, including in children’s books. Pretty soon, it was standard Viking dress code.

2. Misconception: All Vikings Had Scary Nicknames.

Leif Erikson. Not as scary of a nickname. / Hulton Archive/Getty Images

When tales of Viking action spread throughout Europe, they were sometimes accompanied by ferocious-sounding nicknames like Ásgeirr the Terror of the Norwegians and Hlif the Castrator of Horses. This may have been a handy way to refer to Vikings with reputations for being hardcore at a time when actual surnames were in short supply. If you wanted to separate yourself from others with the same name, you needed a nickname. But plenty of them also had less intimidating labels.

Take, for instance, Ǫlver the Friend of Children. Sweet, right? Actually, Ǫlver got his name because he refused to murder children. Then there was Hálfdan the Generous and the Stingy with Food, who was said to pay his men very generously, but apparently didn’t feed them, leading to this contradictory nickname. Ragnarr Hairy Breeches was said to have donned furry pants when he fought a dragon.

Other unfortunate-but-real Viking names include Ulf the Squint-Eyed, Eirik Ale-Lover, Eystein Foul-Fart, Skagi the Ruler of Shit, and Kolbeinn Butter Penis. While the historical record is vague on how these names came to be, the truth is never going to be as good as whatever it is you’re thinking right now.

3. Misconception: Vikings Had Viking Funerals.

When someone like Kolbeinn Butter Penis died, it would only be fitting that they were laid to rest with dignity. And if you know anything about Vikings from pop culture, you know that meant setting them on fire and pushing them out to sea.

But as cool as that visual may be, it’s not exactly accurate. Vikings had funerals similar to pretty much everyone else. When one of them died, they were often buried in the ground. Archaeologists in Norway uncovered one such burial site in 2019, where at least 20 burial mounds were discovered.

The lead archaeologist on the site, Raymond Sauvage of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, told Atlas Obscura that:

“We have no evidence for waterborne Viking funeral pyres in Scandinavia. I honestly do not know where this conception derives from, and it should be regarded as a modern myth. Normal burial practice was that people were buried on land, in burial mounds.”

The flaming ship myth may have come from a combination of two real Viking death practices. Vikings did sometimes entomb their dead in their ships, although the vessels remained on land where they were buried. And they did sometimes have funeral pyres. At some point in the historical record, someone may have combined these two scenarios and imagined that Vikings set ships ablaze before sending them out to sea with their dead still on board.

4. Misconception: Vikings Were Experienced and Trained Combat Soldiers.

Spears and arrows were most cost-effective than swords. / Spencer Arnold Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

While it’s true Vikings were violent, they weren’t necessarily the most experienced or talented warriors of their day. In fact, they were mostly normal people who decided plundering would be a great side hustle in the gig economy of Europe.

Historians believe Vikings were made up mostly of farmers, fishermen, and even peasants, rather than burly Conan the Barbarian types. Considering that the coastal villages they attacked probably didn’t put up much resistance, one could be a Viking and not even have to fight all that much. This leads to another common misconception—that Vikings were always swinging swords around. Like helmets, swords were expensive. A day of fighting was more likely to include spears, axes, long knives, or a bow and arrow.

You can blame this fierce warrior rep on the one squad of Vikings that actually fit the bill. Known as berserkers, these particular Vikings worshipped Odin, the god of war and death, and took Odin’s interests to heart. Some berserkers were said to have fought so fiercely that it was as though they had entered a kind of trance. If they were waiting around too long for a fight to start, it was said they might start killing each other.

5. Misconception: Vikings Were Dirty, Smelly, and Gross.

Most depictions of Vikings would have you believe that they were constantly caked in mud, blood, and other miscellaneous funk. Don’t fall for it. Archaeologists have unearthed a significant amount of personal grooming products over the years that belonged to Vikings, including tweezers, combs, toothpicks, and ear cleaners.

Vikings were also known to have bathed at least once a week, which was a staggeringly hygienic schedule for 11th-century Europe. In fact, Vikings put so much attention on bathing that Saturday was devoted to it. They called it Laugardagur, or bathing day. They even had soap made from animal fat.

Hygiene was only one aspect of their routine. Vikings put time and effort into styling their hair and sometimes even dyed it using lye. Their beards were neatly trimmed, and they were also known to wear eyeliner. All of this preening was said to make Vikings a rather attractive prospect to women in villages they raided, as other men of the era were somewhat reluctant to bathe.

6. Misconception: There Were No Viking Women.

An illustration of Lathgertha, legendary Danish Viking shieldmaiden. / Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Considering the times, Vikings actually had a fairly progressive approach to gender roles. Women could own property, challenge any kind of marriage arrangement, and even request a divorce if things weren’t working out at home. To do so, at least as one story tells it, they’d have to ask witnesses to come over, stand near her bed, and watch as she declared a separation.

In addition to having a relatively high degree of independence, Viking women were also known to pick up a weapon and bash some heads on occasion. The historical record of a battle in 971 CE says that women had fought and died alongside the men. A woman who donned armor was known as a “shieldmaiden.” According to legend, over 300 shieldmaidens fought in the Battle of Brávellir in the 8th century and successfully kept their enemies at bay.

According to History, one of the most notable shieldmaidens was a warrior named Lathgertha who so impressed a famous Viking named Ragnar Lothbrok—he of the Hairy Breeches—that he became smitten and asked for her hand in marriage.