Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park

Infobox_nrhp | name =Toltec Mounds Site
nrhp_type = nhl


caption =
nearest_city= Scott, Arkansas
locmapin = Arkansas
lat_degrees = 34
lat_minutes = 38
lat_seconds = 49
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 92
long_minutes = 3
long_seconds = 55
long_direction = W
area =
architect=
architecture=
designated= June 2, 1978cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1322&ResourceType=Site
title=Toltec Mounds Site|date=2007-09-26|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added = January 12, 1973cite 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]
governing_body = State
refnum=73000382

Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park, also known as Knapp Mounds, Toltec Mounds Site or Toltec Mounds, is an archaeological site in Arkansas that protects the tallest surviving prehistoric American Indian mounds in Arkansas. The site is on the banks of Mound Lake, an oxbow lake of the Arkansas River.

Named For The Wrong Tribe

Identification of the site with the Toltec Indians is a mistake. Mrs. Gilbert Knapp, owner of the land from 1857 to 1900, thought the Toltec Indians of Mexico had built the mounds. Investigation by archaeologists in 1883 proved the ancestors of Native Americans from within the present-day United States had built these mounds, like other mound sites around the nation.

A Distinct Culture

The people who built the mounds at the Toltec site had a distinct culture from other contemporary Native American groups in the Mississippi Valley. The culture is named Plum Bayou after a local waterway. The people lived in permanent villages and hamlets throughout the countryside. They built sturdy houses, farmed, gathered wild plants, fished, and hunted.

Mound groups, such as this one, were religious and social centers for people living in the surrounding countryside. The Toltec Mounds site had a small population, made up primarily of political and religious leaders of the community and their families. This center was occupied from about 600 to 1050 A.D.

Located on the banks of an oxbow lake, the archaeological site once had an 8 - 10 foot-high and 5,298 foot-long earthen embankment and ditch on three sides. Eighteen mounds were built inside the embankment and two of them were 38 and 49 feet high. Mounds were placed along the edges of two open areas (plazas) which were used for political, religious, and social activities attended by people from the vicinity. Mound locations seem to have been planned using principles based on the alignment with important solar positions and standardized units of measurement. Most of the mounds were flat-topped platform mounds with buildings on them. Other Native Americans lived on the site in the 1400s, but they did not build the mounds.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978.,cite web|url=PDFlink| [http://www.nps.gov/nhl/designations/samples/ar/ToltecMoundsSite.pdf "Toltec Mounds Site", February 8, 1978, by Francine Weiss-Bromberg] |1.33 MiB |title=National Historic Landmark Nomination|date=1978-02-08|publisher=National Park Service]

Culture, phase and chronological table for the Toltec Mound Site

Table taken from "Emerging Patterns of Plum Bayou Culture:Preliminary Investigations of the Toltec Mounds Research Project", by Martha Ann Rolingson, 1982. [cite book |last= Rolingson|first= Martha Ann|title= Emerging Patterns of Plum Bayou Culture:Preliminary Investigations of the Toltec Mounds Research Project| year= 1982 |publisher= Arkansas Archaeological Survey|isbn= 1-56349-042-0|pages= P. 66Culture| year= 1982 |publisher= Arkansas Archaeological Survey|isbn= 1-56349-042-0|pages= P. 66]

References

External links

* [http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/toltecmounds/ Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park, at Arkansas State Parks]