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Earthen
Mound Burial Culture
In
an area that includes both the Shenandoah Valley and the northern
Piedmont, there existed a culture from A.D. 950 to the time of
European contact whose defining characteristic was that it buried its dead in earthen mounds.
Visible monuments on the native landscape, some of these
mounds reached a height of at least 20 feet.
These mounds were distinct from the Mississippian mounds
in that they served as the final burial place for hundreds, and,
in some cases, thousands of people.
The
mounds were sacred places where ancestors were honored.
Sometime between 1760 and 1781, Thomas Jefferson examined one of these mounds
near Charlottesville in what many consider to be the earliest
scientific archaeological excavation in America.
He later wrote that he watched Indians in the mid-18th
century walk directly to the mound and stand before it for some
time with sorrowful expressions, before they left the mound and
pursued their journey.
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A one-hole
stone pendant typical of this time period
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