Rowan Mounds
Rowan Effigy Mounds · Dunbar Mounds
Mississippian (Wolf Lake–Douglas)·Mississippian (Southern Illinois)·🇺🇸 Illinois, Alexander County, United States
About
About Rowan Mounds
Mississippian mound hamlet (c.1000–1300 CE) on Cache River terrace in extreme southern Illinois, with two low platform mounds (1.5 m high) and plaza, wall-trench houses and shell midden. Recorded by University of Illinois Cache River survey 1970s; produced Wolf Lake–Douglas phase ceramics, Cahokia-like Ramey Incised minority. Southern Illinois bottomland example of Mississippian–Cairo Lowland interaction at Cache–Ohio confluence, plowed but mound footprints extant.
Why it mattersMarginal Mississippian hamlet illustrating Cahokia influence at its southern Illinois bottomland limit.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Degree of Cahokia ceramic influence vs local Wolf Lake tradition
Theories
- 01Rowan as seasonal extraction hamlet of greater Obion–Cairo Lowlands polity
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.1000–1300 CE
- Period
- Mississippian (Wolf Lake–Douglas)
- Culture
- Mississippian (Southern Illinois)
- Builders
- Mississippian (Cache River)
- Purpose
- Bottomland hamlet mound and maize field administrative node
- Abandoned
- c.1300 CE
- Rediscovered
- 1970s Cache River survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
On the ground
Structures & features
37.0430° N · 89.2340° W · 98 m · 2 mapped features
Mound 1 (north platform)
mound1.5 m high 35 m base low platform north of plaza
37.0433° N · 89.2337° WPlaza and shell midden
earthwork150 m plaza with dense shell-tempered midden south of mounds
37.0427° N · 89.2343° W