Shields & Mount Royal Mounds |
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Other mound locations, such as the Shields and Mount Royal Mounds in the Jacksonville and Walaka area of Florida are notable for their oddity. These particular mound sites, the Shields and Mount Royal, are noted for a single mound that is connected to an artificial reservoir (Mainfort). It has been adequately described by early settlers in the 1800s while still in relatively pristine condition:
...a noble Indian highway, which led from the great mount, on a straight line, three quarters of a mile...it was terminated by palms and laurel magnolias, on the verge of an oblong artificial lake, which was on the edge of an extensive green level savanna. The grand highway was about fifty yards wide, such a little below the common level, and the earth thrown up on each side, making a bank about two feet high. (Mainfort)
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Because of the current condition of these sites combined with this detailed description, archeologists have a strong conception of the Shields and Mount Royal Mounds and how the inhabitants conducted their daily lives. It is apparent that not only were chiefs and the elite buried magnificently but usually with some sort of sacrificial victims (Mainfort). The Shields and Mount Royal sites indicate that pre-Columbian societies were capable of extensive construction projects beyond simple mounds.
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Resources & Further Reading:
Milanich, Jerald T. Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1994.
Morgan, William N. Pre-Columbian Architecture in Eastern North America. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1999.
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