Mound Builders in America

Mound Builders are indigenous cultures in North America that constructed earthen mounds for religious, ceremonial, burial, and residential purposes. These cultures flourished from as early as 3400 BCE to the 16th century CE, predominantly in the eastern United States.

The Mayan civilization was actually a composite of various sources, including Atlantis, Lemuria, and even the lost tribes of the Hebrew peoples.

Those in Yucatan, those in the adjoining lands as begun by Iltar, gradually lost in their activities; and came to be that people termed, in other portions of America, the Mound Builders.

Edgar Cayce – Reading 5750-1 – Iltar – Atlantis

To these broad valleys were to come, in later centuries, invading hordes in boats, and over the far northern isthmus where now are only vestiges of its former existence, the Aleutian Islands. They came from Asia, then, as now, to a large extent the home of semi-barbarians, except where the sway of Suernis had extended a civilizing influence by sending out the tribes which, in a later day, were to occupy so large a niche in history under the name of the Semitic races. But the barbarians who went into Incalia, occupying the North American plains and lake regions—a future age should come which would find these hordes gone from the earth forever; and, later still, curious people digging from archaeological remains would say: “Here lived the mound builders.”

Frederick Oliver

According to the passage, an organized society maintained orchards, plantations, homes, and large cattle herds across the Mississippi plains and obtained copper and other metals from mines in the northern lake region. This earlier presence ended or declined. In subsequent centuries, invading groups arrived in the same areas. These groups came from Asia, traveling by boat or across the northern land connection whose remnants are now the Aleutian Islands. The text calls them barbarians or semi-barbarians.

These Asian invaders occupied the plains and lake regions. The text states that they eventually disappeared from the earth. Much later, people who excavated the archaeological remains in those areas would refer to the builders of the mounds as the “mound builders.”

The account places these events in a colder climate, near the edge of a retreating glacial period. It therefore presents the Mound Builders as post-civilizational Asian settlers who left the earthen structures later studied by archaeologists, not as the original inhabitants who developed the plantations and metal extraction described earlier in the text.

Semitic or Hebrew origins

Both accounts link the Mound Builders to Semitic or Hebrew origins within post-Atlantis migrations across the Americas. Oliver places this link inside Asian population movements that included both civilized Semitic tribes and barbarian groups, with the latter occupying former Poseid lands and leaving the mounds. Cayce places the Hebrew tribes inside the composite identity of the Atlantean Iltar settlers themselves, who then declined into the Mound Builders while retaining a mixed Maya-related character.

The key distinction remains one of lineage and emphasis. Oliver separates the Semitic civilizing influence from the barbarian invaders who actually became the Mound Builders. Cayce incorporates the lost Hebrew tribes directly into the Atlantean-derived group that evolved into the Mound Builders. In both narratives, however, a Semitic or Hebrew thread forms part of the explanation for the origins of these North American mound-building peoples.

Mound buildings

Adena Culture (1000 BCE – 200 CE)

Ohio Valley region, including parts of present-day Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.

• Constructed small mounds for burial purposes.
• Created elaborate grave goods, including pottery, tools, and jewelry made from copper, mica, and shells.
• Known for the “Great Serpent Mound,” a large earthen structure in Ohio shaped like a serpent.

Hopewell Culture (200 BCE – 500 CE)

Centered in the Ohio River Valley, extending to Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and as far south as Mississippi.

• Built larger and more complex mounds than the Adena, often in geometric shapes.
• Engaged in extensive trade networks, obtaining materials like obsidian from the Rocky Mountains and shells from the Gulf of Mexico.
• Known for their intricate artworks and burial offerings.

Mississippian Culture (800 CE – 1600 CE)

Southeastern United States, including regions of the Mississippi River Valley.

• Constructed large, flat-topped pyramidal mounds used as platforms for buildings like temples and residences of leaders.
• Developed complex societies with large, centralized towns such as Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, Missouri, which was the largest city in pre-Columbian North America.
• Practiced agriculture extensively, primarily cultivating maize, beans, and squash.

Coles Creek and Plaquemine Cultures (700 CE – 1600 CE)

Lower Mississippi Valley, including parts of present-day Louisiana and Mississippi.

• Transitioned from building burial mounds to platform mounds used for ceremonial and political purposes.
• Known for large mound complexes, such as the Emerald Mound, used as religious centers.

Fort Ancient Culture (1000 CE – 1750 CE)

Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.

• Associated with the construction of the Great Serpent Mound, although the site predates them.
• Built circular and rectangular earthworks and mounds used for habitation and ceremonial purposes.