Town Creek Indian Mound Mt. Gilead, North Carolina

History Between A.D and 1400, Mississippian-influenced societies developed from the coast of Georgia to the mountains of North Carolina. Known archaeologically as Etowah, Wilbanks, Savannah, Pisgah, Irene, and Pee Dee, these cultures built mounds for their elite, participated in an elaborate ceremonialism, Town Creek was located on the Little River People referred to as "Pee Dee Indians“ There is no written records left behind

The Culture The Mound was built over an earth lodge – faced a large plaza or public area where public meetings and ceremonial activities took place – The “busk” was the most important ceremony House were cleaned, ceremonial center repaired, grievances settled, ceremonial ritual purifications took place as people prepared for new year The engaged in trade with other people Burial Huts owned by clans – 4 types of burial positions, based on gender, age or status – Children were normally buried in urns The mound, plaza, mortuary, and habitation areas were enclosed by a stockade made of closely set posts plastered with a mixture of clay and straw called daub.

The Tribe cultivated crops such as squash, corn, marsh elder, chenopodium (greens in the beet and spinach family), sumpweed, may grass, knotweed (oat grass) and sunflowers. The also hunted and fished palisade — a walled enclosure protecting the town — was made of vertical logs held together with a mixture of clay and straw. Played competitive games social and political hierarchies, with priests and chiefshierarchies religious symbolism artistically represented in jewelry and ritual items