<< Our Photo Pages >> Toltec Mounds - Misc. Earthwork in United States in The South
Submitted by bat400 on Saturday, 21 April 2007 Page Views: 5671
Multi-periodSite Name: Toltec MoundsCountry: United States Region: The South Type: Misc. Earthwork
Nearest Town: Little Rock Nearest Village: Scott
Latitude: 34.647000N Longitude: 92.063W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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The structures of Toltec Mounds were built between 600 and 900 AD and include an earthen pyramid, a variety of structural mounds, a burial mound, all grouped around two large oval plazas. Toltec lies on the edge on the remnant of an oxbow of the Arkansas River and was surrounded on the other sides by an earthen embankment and ditch.
Although the culture that built the mounds (now known as Plum Bayou) appears to be entirely indigenous to what is now the southern continental United States, the owner of the land in mid 1800's named the site after the Toltec of Mesoamerica.
The Plum Bayou people lived in small sedentary farmsteads, raising a variety of non-intensive crops and hunting and gathering wild foods. The mound group appears to have been a ceremonial or political focus. Very few burials and practically no evidence of living quarters have been found within the embankment. In this way the site has more in common with the large Hopewell-type ceremonial sites of the Ohio Valley (around 200 BC - 500 AD) as opposed to Mississippian villages of the central and southeastern United States (1000 to 1500 AD.)
The site is a large semicircle on the edge of Mound Pond, originally enclosed by an earthen wall about 6 feet high and an outer ditch as much as 12 feet deep. There was no palisade fence, and multiple entrances, so the embankment is considered to be a boundary for this scared or political space, and not defensive. There were once as many as 18 mounds of various sizes. For the most part only the larger mounds remain.
This has been an Arkansas state park since the 1970's, and is also designated a National Historic Landmark. The site is well known and the subject of a variety of digs in the nineteenth century. When the property was first acquired by the state several years of modern excavation followed. Recently emphasis has turned to study of habitation sites outside this ceremonial center.
A visitor's center and museum provides educational displays and guides. There is a easy mowed trail through the park and a shorter paved path that allows access to the larger mounds to all visitors. Guided tours by tram are offered during part of the year. There is a small fee and the site is open Tuesday through Sunday throughout the year. See the website for details.
The location given is general for the site.
[Information from park displays and the park guides, "Knapp Trail Guide" and "Plum Bayou Trail." Additional information from "Emerging Patterns of Plum Bayou Culture" Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series 18, edited by Martha Ann Rolingson, published in 1996. This bibliography applies to the site listings for the individual features of the Toltec Mounds complex.]
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218m WSW 246° Toltec Mounds - Mound B* Pyramid / Mastaba
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