Kanawha Valley Mound Builders

Kanawha Valley Mound Builders. . , Sometime between 500 B.C. and A.D. 150, an ancient culture built an extensive complex of burial mounds and earthworks throughout the Kanawha River Valley., Dubbed "Ancient Kanawha City" by Smithsonian archaeologist Cyrus Thomas, the Kanawha Valley Mounds were probably built in the Woodland period, after 500 B.C. The found artifacts suggest that they were used as burial sites for hundreds of years., The complex of mounds and earthen works extended from Charleston to Dunbar, and consisted of over 50 earthen mounds, extensive earthen enclosures, hollow stone heaps, and numerous "graded roadways" connecting the mounds. All were situated on upper terraces of the Kanawha River. The mounds ranged in size from 35 to 200 feet in diameter and 3 to 35 feet in height., Today, after years of land development, only a few mounds remain. None of the earthworks or stone heaps are known to exist., [Captions:] , The Kanawha Valley once boasted the largest concentration of Adena burial mounds in the entire Ohio River basin., In addition to burial mounds, the Adena constructed massive earthen enclosures. Numerous hollow stone heaps were built along cliffs overlooking the Kanawha River from Huntington to above Montgomery., A Million Baskets of Dirt! , Imagine building this mound without modern equipment. Natives hand-carried over a million individual baskets of dirt to build this South Charleston Mound. Over 50 mounds and many earth works were built in the immediate area!, This mound's master tomb burial ritual indicates a culture with a social hierarchy, who honored their dead. the upper tomb suggests that it could have been used for burials across hundreds of years.