Building Mounds

Building Mounds. . This platform mound was created over the years 1350 to 1600 CE. Hundreds of people carried over 380,000 baskets full of dirt 1/4 of a mile to construct this mound. , How do we know that?, The science of archaeology gives us the tools to discover clues that we use to answer questions about how old things are, what they are made of, how they are made and how people used them. Stratigraphy refers to the layers of dirt that build up to create the ground you are walking on. Sometimes these layers are created by the debris people leave on the ground. Archaeologists can identify these different layers by their different colors, textures and contents. When we find things in the same layer of the stratigraphy, we assume they were dropped on the ground near the same time. , What will archaeologists learn from the things we leave behind?, (aside:), Mound Chronology, This drawing illustrated the stratigraphy of the west slope of the mound. By studying the soils and objects removed during excavations into the mound, archaeologists determine that this mound was built in three major stages. The destruction episodes that precede each building stage suggest that the house on top of the mound was burned, perhaps upon the death of the (unreadable).