Emerald Mound site | |
 Secondary mound at west end of Emerald Mound | |
   | |
| Nearest city | Stanton, Mississippi |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 31°38′9.98″N 91°14′50.02″W / 31.6361056°N 91.2472278°W |
| NRHP reference No. | 88002618 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 18, 1988[1] |
| Designated NHL | December 29, 1989[2] |
The Emerald Mound site (22 AD 504), also known as the Selsertown site,[3] is a Plaquemine culture Mississippian period archaeological site located on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton, Mississippi, United States. The site dates from the period between 1200 and 1730 CE. It is the type site for the Emerald Phase (1500 to 1680 CE) of the Natchez Bluffs Plaquemine culture chronology[4] and was still in use by the later historic Natchez people for their main ceremonial center. The platform mound is the second-largest Mississippian period earthwork in the country, after Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois.[5]
The mound covers eight acres, measuring 770 feet (230 m) by 435 feet (133 m) at the base and is 35 feet (11 m) in height.[6] Emerald Mound has a flat top with two smaller secondary mounds at each end. It was constructed around a natural hill. Travelers in the early 19th century noted a number of adjoining mounds and an encircling ditch that are no longer present. This site once had six other secondary mounds which were lost due to the plowing of the surface of the mound.[7] Emerald Mound was stabilized by the National Park Service in 1955.[1] It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.[2] The mound is now managed by the Park Service's Natchez Trace Parkway unit, and is open to the public.
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ a b "Emerald Mound Site". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
- ^ Squier, E.G. (1848). Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 60.
- ^ Steponaitis, Vincas P. (1974). The Late Prehistory of the Natchez Region : Excavations at the Emerald and Foster Sites, Adams County, Mississippi (PDF) (Bachelor's thesis). Cambridge: Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.
- ^ "Marvel at the Size of Emerald Mound". nps.gov. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ "Emerald Mound Site – National Register of Historic Places Indian Mounds of Mississippi". Retrieved February 2, 2009.
- ^ Cox, Dale. "Emerald Mound – Natchez Trace Parkway, Mississippi". www.exploresouthernhistory.com. Retrieved January 25, 2018.