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<< Our Photo Pages >> Aztalan State Park - Ancient Village or Settlement in United States in Great Lakes Midwest

Submitted by bat400 on Sunday, 31 March 2013  Page Views: 6644

Multi-periodSite Name: Aztalan State Park
Country: United States
NOTE: This site is 19.081 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Lake Mills, WI
Latitude: 43.065555N  Longitude: 88.862777W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

bat400 visited on 1st Jul 2010 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 A Cahokia in miniature. Site interpretation is quite good considering that the park is not monitored for much of its opening times (basically dawn to dusk, daily.) At the parking area, a brief guide to the site is available at an honesty box. Placards around the site describe the ruins and reconstructions visible, as well as archaeological findings. When I visited (late in the day on a Sunday) the small museum was unmanned.

Ahdzib have visited here

Aztalan State Park
Aztalan State Park submitted by bat400 : The largest mound at Aztalan is a "stepped" pyramidal structure in the southwest corner of the stockade surround. This is a partial reconstruction of the site as found in the early 1800's. By the 1920's there had been substantial plowing of the site and significant damage by "pot hunters" and those simply "quarrying" the mounds for fill dirt and the remains of burnt wattle and daub from the... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Town in Jefferson County, Wisconsin.
Group of mounds of the Mississippian Culture, in Aztalan State Park, Wisconsin. The mounds were made between 11th and 13th century CE, although the site was originally occupied by an earlier culture, around 900CE.

The first occupation of the site was around 900 CE by Late Woodland Culture people who made their living by hunting and gathering with some corn production. They built oval based bent pole houses, covered with woven mats on the west side of the Crawfish River, but may also have been the builders of two small earthen enclosures on the east bank of the river. Effigy mounds on nearby hilltops and a cemetery approximately a mile away may have also been the work of these people.

After 100 years, the village was completely reconfigured with the building of three large platform mounds and the clearing of plaza areas. These structures and a surrounding stockade, finished in wattle and daub, date to approximately 1060 CE. Multiple artifacts point to a colonization of Aztalan by people from Cahokia. Artifact evidence, aside from the substantial public architecture, includes tools and pottery conforming to Cahokia styles, but made from local materials, and strontium analysis of human skeletal material found at Aztalan, but having the signature of someone who would have been born and raised at Cahokia, 500 km to the south. The house styles of this period also resemble those found at Cahokia, with a circular floor and a single center pole.

The site was abandoned shortly after 1200 CE. There is evidence of a substantial fire at multiple locations, but it is difficult to say whether this was due to conflict or whether it was a method of "closing down" a trading colony or missionary effort which had come to an end.

When the site was first described by European Americans in the 1830's, portions of the stockade could still be seen, and the remains of burned wattle and daub was described as "Aztalan brick" and excavated for use as a building material.

Sources:
Lapham, Increase Allen, 1811-1875. "ANCIENT WORKS AT AND IN THE VICINITY OF AZTALAN" The antiquities of Wisconsin. Washington : Smithsonian Institution, 1855.
Price TD, Burton JH, and Stoltman JB. 2007. Place of Origin of Prehistoric Inhabitants of Aztalan, Jefferson Co., Wisconsin. American Antiquity 72(3):524-538.
National Historic Landmark website listing.
Wisconsin's State Park website for Aztalan.
Freinds of Aztalan State Park website.

With thanks to DurhamNature for additional info.
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Aztalan State Park
Aztalan State Park submitted by bat400 : The north west corner of the towns main stockade. A flat topped mound is partially reconstructed here, as are the posts of a corner of the stockade, showing the bastions. The high ground (with modern farm buildings) beyond the mound is on the other side of Crawfish River. Photo by bat400, July 2010. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Aztalan State Park
Aztalan State Park submitted by bat400 : The conical "post" or "marker" mounds at Aztalan lie higher a ridge above and to the northwest of the main town site. These were assumed to be burial mounds, but when excavated (by "pot hunters," and later, archaeologists) the only artifacts found were single post holes at the center of each mound. Speculation is that a tall post, possibly with streamers or other decoration served as a marke... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Aztalan State Park
Aztalan State Park submitted by bat400 : The "Princess Mound." This burial mound lies northwest of the Aztalan town site, in the back of the small Aztalan museum. It is a partial reconstruction. When this mound was excavated in the 1920's it had nearly disappeared due to plowing. The excavation showed the mound to have had an original diameter of 50 ft and an estimated height of 6 feet. The intact burial was of a female in her earl... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Aztalan State Park
Aztalan State Park submitted by AKFisher : Photo credit Gregory L. Little, Ed.D. Archaeological reconstruction of the 172-acre Aztalan Mound Complex in Wisconsin from the mound encyclopedia. It was constructed around AD 1000 by a group migrating from Cahokia, Illinois. The fortress had 4 large platform mounds and 80 other mounds and a series of 4, 20-ft tall palisade walls protecting it. The site was attacked and burned in AD 1300, an ev... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Aztalan State Park
Aztalan State Park submitted by AKFisher : Photo credit Gregory L. Little, Ed.D. When it was initially "discovered," the large Aztalan, Wisconsin mound complex was overgrown and eroding. Then, farming on the 170-acre site contributed to its erosion. The site was constructed around AD 1050 by a Cahokia-aligned group and it is considered to be the northernmost outpost of the Mississippian cultures. It is today a park with portions of the l...

Aztalan State Park
Aztalan State Park submitted by durhamnature : Similar plan of the mounds, from "Prehistoric America" via archive.org

Aztalan State Park
Aztalan State Park submitted by durhamnature : Plan of the effigy mounds, from "Prehistoric America" via archive.org

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