Angel Mounds

Infobox_nrhp | name =Angel Mounds
nrhp_type = nhl


caption = Angel Mound Site, Evansville, Indiana.
nearest_city= Evansville, IN
area =
architect=
architecture=
designated= January 29, 1964cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=52&ResourceType=Site
title=Angel Mounds|accessdate=2008-07-23|work=National Historic Landmark summary ]
added = October 15, 1966
governing_body = State
refnum=66000124 cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Angel Mounds State Historic Site is located on the Ohio River in Vanderburgh County, Indiana adjacent to Evansville and just upriver of the confluence of the Green and Ohio rivers. It is part of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Indiana State Museums and Historic Sites. It is one of 16 state museums and historic sites in Indiana and is also recognized by the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark. It is named after the Angel Family who settled in this location along the Ohio River in the early 1800s.

For more than one thousand years, southwestern Indiana was home to Native Americans. Today, Angel Mounds State Historic Site is nationally recognized as one of the best-preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the United States. From 1100 to 1450 A. D., a town on this site was inhabited by people of the Middle Mississippian culture, who engaged in hunting and farming on the rich bottom lands of the Ohio River. Several thousand people lived in this town, protected by a stockade made of wattle and daub. Because Angel Mounds was a chiefdom (the home of the chief), it was the regional center of a large community that extended for several miles around. This settlement was the largest known town of its time in Indiana, but the Mississippian people eventually deserted it. No one today knows why. Preservation and archaeological efforts at Angel Mounds State Historic Site offer a glimpse into this highly developed culture of the distant past. For 60 years, this living museum has told the story of a major pre-contact Native American culture on the Ohio River.

Archaeological work at Angel Mounds is conducted by the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University. This institution is named after Glenn Albert Black, the archaeologist who conducted most of the excavations at Angel Mounds. He brought the site to the attention of the discipline and his two-volume work on the site remains the definitive work.

In May 2006, researchers discovered a probable pottery-making workshop at the Angel Mounds. This discovery revealed the artistic skills of the Indians who inhabited the area. Found during the 2006 excavation were pottery tools and masses of prepared, slightly fired clay awaiting shaping into bowls, jars or figures.

ee also

* Angel Phase
* Caborn-Welborn culture
* Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site
* Mississippian culture
* platform mound
* Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
* Cahokia
* Monk's Mound
* Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site
* Joara A settlement in Burke County, North Carolina
* Moundville Archaeological Site
* Etowah Indian Mounds
* Spiro Mounds

External links

* [http://www.in.gov/ism/StateHistoricSites/AngelMounds/index.aspx Angel Mounds website]
* [http://www.kincaidmounds.com/ Kincaid Mounds Website]
* [http://southernindianatrails.awardspace.com/angelmounds.htm Angel Mounds Hiking and Biking trail info]

References

*aut|Black, Glenn Albert. "Angel Site, An Archaeological, Historical and Ethnological Study" (with James H. Kellar). Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1967, 2 volumes.
* [http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4961676&nav=0Ra7 WISH-TV]