Hayes Mounds
Hayes Site (40DY6) · Hayes Mound Group
Late Mississippian (Dyer phase)·Mississippian (Reelfoot)·🇺🇸 Tennessee, Dyer County, United States
About
About Hayes Mounds
Late Mississippian palisaded hamlet-mound center (c.1250–1500 CE) on Forked Deer River terrace in northwest Tennessee, with single 3 m platform mound and 40-house palisaded village 1 ha, borrow pits and cemetery 80 burials. Excavated by weekend surveys 1970s–80s; produced Dyer ceramics (Mound Place Incised), Nodena points, shell gorgets. Satellite hamlet of the Obion–Reelfoot chiefdom cluster, abandoned ~1500 with Vacant Quarter hypothesis 1450–1550 depopulation.
Why it mattersMicro-scale test of Vacant Quarter depopulation and Mississippian hamlet hierarchy surrounding paramount Obion.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why hamlet-level mounding at 3 m vs true platform — status signaling
Theories
- 01Hayes as satellite farmstead of Obion polity, vacated during 1450–1500 Western Tennessee abandonment
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1250–1500 CE
- Period
- Late Mississippian (Dyer phase)
- Culture
- Mississippian (Reelfoot)
- Builders
- Mississippian (Dyer phase)
- Purpose
- Hamlet mound center and palisaded hamlet for valley maize ward
- Abandoned
- c.1500 CE (Vacant Quarter)
- Rediscovered
- 1970s avocational survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
On the ground
Structures & features
36.0350° N · 89.4120° W · 88 m · 2 mapped features
Platform mound
mound3 m high 40 m base platform on terrace edge above Forked Deer
36.0353° N · 89.4117° WPalisaded hamlet midden
earthwork1 ha palisaded household cluster with borrow pits south of mound
36.0347° N · 89.4123° W