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Several
earthen platforms were grouped
around the public square.
Using baskets full of earth from
borrow pits and the ditch, the
people of Etowah constructed the
mounds. A ramp with steps
of packed clay led to the tops
of the mounds. Mound A is
approximately 63 feet high,
covers three acres at its base
and is a half-acre on its
top. Mound B is 25 feet in
height, while Mound C the burial
mound, measures 19 feet in height.
Only Mound C has been completely
excavated and rebuilt on its
original site. Mounds D, E
and F were residential mounds
for revered village leaders, According
to excavations, these mounds
were six to eight feet high with
a wattle-and-daub structure on
the flat-topped mound summit.
The
people of Etowah, skilled in
many crafts, used copper, shell,
can, flint, wood, clay and bone
to make hundreds of items,.
Photo
courtesy of the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources
Pottery
was on of the most important
Etowah crafts, Wood was carved
into masks, ornaments and
rattles, while copper was shaped
into decorative ornaments and
shells were made into bead
necklaces, Baskets and mattings
were woven from cane, and cloth
was made from plant fiber, hair
and feathers. Sewing
implements, weaving tools, hairpins
and fishhooks, were cut from
bone, and stone was used for
axes, arrow points and knives.
The
Etowah settlement had contact
with other Native American
communities. Marine shells
from Florida, Flint from
Tennessee, copper from the Great
Lakes region and pottery from
various areas found their way to
Etowah. Decorations on
pottery and religious objects
are typical of Mississippian
culture.
Crops
provide the people with their
main food source. most of
the valley was used for corn,
but Native Americans also grew
beans and pumpkins. On
wooded hills lining the valley,
they gathered wild nuts, fruits
and roots. Excavations of
refuse areas indicate that deer
and turkey were the main game,
while mussels and fish were
obtained from the river.
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