Winterville Site

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Winterville Site
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
A photo of the main mound at the Winterville Site in Greenville, Mississippi
A photo of the main mound at the Winterville Site in Greenville, Mississippi
Nearest city: Greenville, Mississippi
Designated as NHL: September 14, 1993[1]
Added to NRHP: August 17, 1973[2]
NRHP Reference#: 73001031
Governing body: State

Winterville Site is an archaeological site of Indian mounds that is the type site for the Winterville phase of the Mississippian culture.

Contents

[edit] Winterville Mounds

Winterville Mounds, named for a nearby community, is the site of a prehistoric ceremonial center built by a Native American civilization that thrived from about A.D. 1000 to 1450. The mounds, part of the Winterville society's religious system, were the site of sacred structures and ceremonies. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Winterville people lived away from the mound center on family farms in scattered settlement districts throughout the Yazoo-Mississippi River Delta basin. Only a few of the highest-ranking tribal officials lived at the mound center.

The Winterville ceremonial center originally contained at least twenty-three mounds. Some of the mounds located outside the park boundaries have been leveled by highway construction and farming. Twelve of the site's largest mounds, including the 55-foot-high Temple Mound, are currently the focus of a long-range preservation plan being developed by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the University of Mississippi's Center for Archaeological Research.

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Indians who used the Winterville Mounds may have had a civilization similar to that of the Natchez Indians, a Mississippi tribe documented by French explorers and settlers in the early 1700s. The Natchez Indians' society was divided into upper and lower ranks, with a person's social rank determined by heredity through the female line. The chief and other tribal officials inherited their positions as members of the royal family. The elaborate leadership network made mound building by a civilian labor force possible.

A great fire during the late 1300s consumed the original building on the Temple Mound at Winterville. According to archaeological evidence, the cause of the fire remains a mystery. The site continued to be used afterwards, but no more mounds were built or maintained. Even though the site continued to be occupied after the fire, the general population declined at Winterville while increasing at settlements and mound sites 50 miles to the south, in the lower Yazoo River basin. By 1450 A.D. the Winterville Mound site appears to have been abandoned completely.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Winterville Site. National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved on 2007-10-23.
  2. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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