🇺🇸 United States · Mound
Beasley Mounds
Mississippian (Moundville–Thruston) · Mississippian (Middle Cumberland)
Fortified Cumberland River town (1000–1400 CE) with 5 mounds and richest Mississippian stone statuary in Middle TN.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Turner Earthworks
Middle Woodland (Hopewell) · Hopewell (Ohio Hopewell)
Hopewell earthworks (200 BCE–400 CE) on Little Miami — 300-m Great Enclosure and pipestone pipes at Cincinnati.
🇺🇸 United States · Mound
Hiwassee Island Mound
Mississippian (Hiwassee Island / Dallas) · Mississippian (Tennessee Valley)
Type site Hiwassee Island phase (900–1400 CE) — 5 mounds at Tennessee-Hiwassee confluence.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Crystal River Mounds
Middle Woodland (Deptford–Weeden Island, 200 BCE–750 CE) · Deptford–Weeden Island (Florida Woodland)
Woodland plaza center (200 BCE–750 CE) with 6 mounds and Hopewell exotics on Crystal River estuary, Florida.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Mound Bottom–Pack Site Complex
Mississippian Middle Cumberland (1000–1350 CE) · Mississippian (Mound Bottom phase)
Major Mississippian town (1000–1350 CE) on Harpeth River meander: 14 platform and burial mounds including 13-m-high Monks-Mound-scale Mound A (90×70 m base) within 10 ha palisaded plaza, plus Pack…
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Snaketown (Snaketown Hohokam Village)
Hohokam Pioneer to Classic (300 BCE–1450 CE) · Hohokam (Sonoran Desert farmers)
Type-site and capital of Hohokam Culture (c.300 BCE–1450 CE, Pioneer to Classic) — 2 km² canal-irrigated village with 2 ballcourts, platform mounds, and 100 km of canals off Gila River irrigating…
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Stallings Island Mound
Late Archaic (Stallings phase, 3410–2730 BCE) · Stallings culture (Late Archaic, Southeastern US)
Type site of Stallings fiber pottery (3410–2730 BCE) — earliest ceramics in North America on Savannah River island.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Cactus Hill
Pre-Clovis to Clovis · Pre-Clovis (Cactus Hill)
Sandy terrace pre-Clovis site (16,000 BCE) with blades beneath Clovis on Nottoway River, Virginia.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Moorehead Circle at Fort Ancient
Middle Woodland Hopewell (c.100 BCE–250 CE) with Fort Ancient reuse · Hopewell → Fort Ancient
Outer-embankment timber circle 60 m diameter discovered 2007 by magnetometry inside Fort Ancient Hilltop Enclosure (Hopewell 100 BCE–500 CE, later Fort Ancient reuse).
🇺🇸 United States · Mound
Jonathan Creek Mound
Mississippian (Jonathan Creek phase) · Mississippian (Western Kentucky)
Western KY Mississippian village (1200–1450 CE) — 7 platform mounds on Tennessee River near Aurora.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Watson Brake
Middle–Late Archaic (3500–2800 BCE) · Middle Archaic Watson Brake culture
Oldest North American mound complex: 11 mounds 5400 BP enclosing oval plaza, hunter-gatherer monument without agriculture.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Pueblo Pintado (Red House)
Chaco Bonito to Post-Chaco (Late Pueblo II–III) · Chaco (ancestral Pueblo) → post-Chaco San Juan
Southeasternmost Chaco great house outlier (c.1050–1120 CE, Bonito II–III) on Pintado Mesa overlooking Rio Chaco headwater — eastern gate of Chaco world.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Classic Hohokam 1150–1450 CE (Sedentary to Classic transition) · Hohokam (Ancestral Sonoran Desert, ancestors of O’odham)
Ancestral Sonoran Desert four-story Great House (18 m × 13 m, 4 storeys, 11 rooms, caliche clay walls 1 m thick, internal loopholes) – largest known Hohokam structure, preserved under 1932 modern…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Grand Village of the Natchez
Plaquemine to Historic Natchez (1200–1730 CE) · Plaquemine / Natchez (Muskogean)
Natchez historic capital (1200–1730 CE) — 3 Plaquemine mounds and plaza where French witnessed 1725 sacrifice.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Bandelier National Monument
Ancestral Pueblo III–IV 1150–1550 CE (Pajarito Plateau settlement after Mesa Verde diaspora) · Ancestral Puebloan / Keresan and Tewa (ancestors of Cochiti, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara)
13,355 ha of Frijoles Canyon with tuff cliff dwellings (cavates), mesa-top Tyuonyi Pueblo (400 rooms, 1–3 storeys) and Long House cliff village (800 m long) in soft Bandelier Tuff (1.1 Ma Jemez…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Monks Mound
Mississippian 900–1200 CE (peak 1050–1200) · Mississippian (Cahokia)
Largest earthen structure in the Americas north of Mexico and centerpiece of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Key Marco Archaeological Site
Glades IIIb–Calusa 500–1500 CE · Glades Calusa
Calusa Court of the Pile Dwellers: waterlogged painted wood Cat statuette, masks and netting 500–1500 CE.
🇺🇸 United States · Mound
Obion Mounds
Mississippian (Early–Middle, Dallas) · Mississippian (Western Tennessee)
Largest western TN Mississippian: 7 mounds, 10-m platform and plaza on Obion River (1000–1300 CE).
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient village
Kin Ya‘a (Chaco Outlier Great House)
Pueblo II-III; Bonito outlier peak · Chacoan outlier (McElmo transitional)
South Road great house outlier (100 rooms, 1080–1100 CE) 35 km south of Chaco — tower kiva, 8 m wide Chaco road berm to canyon, defining regional system maximum.
🇺🇸 United States · Rock art
Paisley Caves
Pre-Clovis (Western Stemmed) · Paisley (Western Stemmed) / Pre-Clovis
14,500-year coprolite caves — oldest human DNA in Americas (14,300 BP) with Western Stemmed points, Oregon.
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Basketmaker II–Pueblo III 1500 BCE–1300 CE (peak 1000–1300) · Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi, Basketmaker to Pueblo III)
Largest archaeological landscape in US implying 30,000 people: 176,000-acre (71,200 ha) monument with 6,355 recorded sites – villages, cliff dwellings, kivas, towers and shrines from Basketmaker to…
🇺🇸 United States · Mound
Rowan Mounds
Mississippian (Wolf Lake–Douglas) · Mississippian (Southern Illinois)
Southern IL Mississippian hamlet (1000–1300 CE) on Cache River — two platforms at Cairo Lowlands margin.
🇺🇸 United States · Mound
Hayes Mounds
Late Mississippian (Dyer phase) · Mississippian (Reelfoot)
Late Mississippian hamlet mound (1250–1500 CE) on Forked Deer River — palisaded 1-ha village at Dyer County.
🇺🇸 United States · Ancient city
Blood Run Site
Late Prehistoric Oneota (Blood Run phase 1500–1700 CE) · Oneota (ancestors Dakota-Ioway)
Largest Oneota town 1500–1700: 76 mounds and boulder enclosure, 6,000 residents on Big Sioux.