An Archaeoastronomic Assessment of Angel Mounds, Indiana, with Commentary on Moundville, Alabama, and Cahokia, Illinois

Bibliographic Data

ID11636242
AuthorsWilliam F Romain (0000-0003-1177-248X, Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, corresponding author), Edward W Herrmann (0000-0003-3121-1639, Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Bloomington, Indiana, USA)
Year2022
Volume47
Issue1
Pages25-46
Publication date2022-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMidcontinental Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0146-1109 • E-ISSN: 2327-4271
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.5406/23274271.47.1.02
OpenAlexW4312524594
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited15

The Angel Mounds site was a large, fortified Mississippian village located in southwestern Indiana. The site flourished from circa AD 1100 to AD 1450 and represents one of the largest recorded Mississippian settlements in the Ohio River valley. In this article, we use astronomic data, lidar imagery, ethnohistoric data, and computer planetarium simulations to identify solar, stellar, and lunar alignments at the site. Of special interest are new findings showing how mound axes are oriented to the Milky Way on the night of the summer solstice. In traditional Eastern Woodlands belief, the Milky Way was the path that souls of the dead traveled on their journey to the Land of the Dead. Supportive of the findings for Angel are similar Milky Way alignments at Moundville, Alabama, and Cahokia, Illinois

Archaeology · Colluvium · Geography · Human settlement · Milky Way · Planetarium · Solstice · Woodland · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Historical and Architectural Studies · Paleontology