Is a mound a debris pile from an emcampment or burial plot?

I can't believe that nobody here knows what a mound is? I thought for sure I'd have a answer the first day??

well you ask what is a mound ..since im new to this and i hope i can give you the correct answer.

from my understanding there are burned rock middens which is where cooking was done and where artifacts are also buried points ect. they contain bones and plant material with other misc items.

Also their are burial mounds which contain the dead and other artifacts they enjoyed in life you can find pottery ,beads , and artifacts of many kinds.back in the days of old where a warrior died others indians that passed by would leave gifts as honor to the warrior such as shields ,arrows,bows,beads ect.


I hope this helped you as to you wondering why nobody replied some dont visit everyday and also some found out like i did through talking to friends reading a book and researching on the internet.

i just went to google and other search engines and typed in mounds and middens in the browser and found out a lot their is a world of info out there.

When i first came to this site and finally met alot of the diggers during a field trip i was invited too .
i was more than impressed by there knowledge about artifacts and i hope to get to go again they are a great bunch of people wish i had more time that day to get to know them better.

Again i hope this helped take care

Lee

ALSO about the burial mounds !!! i would never dig in such a area and would never recoomend doing so!!! always respect the dead....

Some people would due to greed and as for me i decline to do so.

There are a few types of "mounds" in Texas but most are just middens, shell, burned rock, trash, etc. The only true "mounds" in Texas are in East Texas and associated with Caddo sites. In my experience most mounds you come into contact with are associated with camps or habitation areas, not burials. Burned rock is the primary type in Central Texas. Some burned rock middens will have artifacts in them, some will not. But, bottom line is a midden is a good sign and definitely where I would begin looking.

Good luck.

THANKS!

A mound can be either a man-made earthwork or a naturally forming earthwork. We have areas here in Ohio that are known for both kinds.
A mound does not have to be for burial purposes. In fact there have been mounds excavated and no burial goods were found. This leads experts to believe that the mounds were possibly for stockade barriers or protection from neighboring tribes. Some opinions even suggest that some could have been used for hunting reasons. sorta like a blind (thats just an opinion). We have mounds that are actual glacial deposits here in Northern Ohio. A famous mound around here called the Botzom mound. Experts claim that Northern Ohio was cut by gacaciers. Glaciers were said to have pushed down from Canada cutting out such areas like the Great Lakes. Then pushing south to just north of the Columbus areas and then receeding leaving large mounds of deposits. There are many of these seen throughout our Cuyahoga Valley area. These mounds are very easy to dig into so the people could easily use these for burial purposes if that was their intention. In fact when the Erie Canal and the RR were constructed through this area back in the early 1800s, Indian burial mounds were cut into and destroyed as a result. Sad! Well that is my 2 cents on mounds. I have an opinion that is why artifacts are not as abundant here because Man has been only up here for 10000 years. Most nomatic tribes stayed south due the extreme cold and ice up here whereas down south man is tracked back to the Incas and Mayans.