Animal Effigies and Indian Mounds June 4, 2011Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Medieval, trackback
Beachcombing has long been attracted to the so called ‘animal effigy mounds’
Animal Effigies and Indian Mounds June 4, 2011Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Medieval, trackback
Beachcombing has long been attracted to the so called ‘animal effigy mounds’ of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Louisiana. Across these states local Indian populations built a series of giant mounds in the shape of animals. Dating is almost impossibly difficult in such cases, but many archaeologists have placed the creation of these mounds in the period 1500 BC to 1500 AD.
The mounds are unusual for several reasons. The most basic question is: why did the nomadic Amerindians find people to construct these great effigies out in the woods? The immediate reaction of archaeologists is to look for dead bodies interred within the mounds, but the mounds were apparently not used for burial. Presumably their use must be put down to that broadest of all markers ‘ritual’.
Then there is the problem of their scale and orientation. These mounds were enormous. Their makers often built them up to thirty or forty feet high and a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet in diameter. And this is not all: these huge objects were clearly placed in relation to each other. The example pictured above (thanks to Ruth for this image) is from McGregor Iowa and shows a possession of bears making their way through the countryside towards two great eagles.
Finally, and Beachcombing is loath to bring this up, there is the problem of how they could have been appreciated before powered flight in the early twentieth century. Like many prehistoric ritual constructions they ‘map’ the land and can only be properly enjoyed from the air: a privilege not available to the Indian populations of mid America in this period.
The only sensible solution to the problem of the effigies that links into the ethnology of North American Indian groups is that the animals portrayed were totem or clan animals. But that still doesn’t explain their positioning in the landscape, nor the ‘story’ they seem to be telling. Other explanations have tried to relate the effigies to food resources or even to subterranean geological freakery. Any other ideas? drbeachcombing AT yahoo dot com
Beachcombing does not have the tools to indulge in such speculation. He will end, however, with a tri