Rock Eagle

Rock Eagle Site
Rock Eagle Effigy Mound, viewed from adjacent observation tower, August 26, 2007
Rock Eagle is located in Georgia
Rock Eagle
Rock Eagle is located in the United States
Rock Eagle
Nearest cityEatonton, Georgia
NRHP reference No.78001001[1]

Rock Eagle Effigy Mound is an archaeological site in Putnam County, Georgia, U.S. estimated to have been constructed c. 1000 BC to AD 1000 (1,000 to 3,000 years ago). The earthwork was built up of thousands of pieces of quartzite laid in the mounded shape of a large bird (102 ft long from head to tail, and 120 ft wide from wing tip to wing tip). Although it is most often referred to as an eagle, scholars do not know exactly what type of bird the original builders intended to portray. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) because of its significance. The University of Georgia administers the site. It uses much of the adjoining land for a 4-H camp, with cottages and other buildings, and day and residential environmental education.

What prompted the early inhabitants of Middle Georgia, who lived in a time long before the rise of the later Mississippian, Creek and Cherokee cultures, to build these massive effigy mounds is still something of a mystery. They obviously hold ceremonial significance and the Rock Eagle seems to have been expanded from a large dome-shaped central mound.[2]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ "Rock Eagle Effigy Mound - Eatonton, Georgia". ExploreSouthernHistory.com. Retrieved March 28, 2011.