The Mound Builders

[CMD]

1995 documentary. Hosted and narrated by the late Leonard Nimoy. May be dated somewhat, but if so, I'm not fluent enough in the subject matter to spot it.

Covers Cahokia, the Adena, the Hopewell, and the Mississippian culture, and covers the changing interpretations of same, from colonial times to mid 90's. Very well done!

[BabaORiley]

Thanks for the link CMD. I'm gonna Netflix that and watch it later on the big screen. It looks real good.

[Jethro355]

This is great!

iim Wanting to do a sort of “where are they now” investigation and perhaps photo documentary on some of the mounds/village sites in eastern arkansas.
I know many of the large, elevated sites/platform mounds have been damaged or destroyed due to agricultural use and subsequent erosion. I have visited many of them and have, with pictures in hand, had a hard time identifying them. A few have been preserved, somewhat, through the parks system, but most are shadows of their former selves.

[Hi-Lo]

Yes, thank you for bringing that link to our attention.
I've had the pleasure of visiting Cahokia on one occasion and it is amazing.
I too am looking forward to watching the piece.

[awassamog]

Thanks, didnt know about that program. Id like to earn more about those civilizations. Im esecially interested the hows and whys of thier decline

[awassamog]

Also like Mr Spock as narrator. The IMAX theatre at museum of science here used him, what a voice

[Havenhunter]

Sadly several of the Cahokian mounds were bulldozed when the interstate system went in connecting IL & MO. Archeologists scrambled to save what they could but many artifacts were bulldozed under.

[2ndoldman]

Thank you for the link Charlie. I found this fascinating to watch and thoroughly enjoyed listening to Leonard Nimoy once again.
One of the things that I found fascinating and yet at the same time hard to personally imagine or understand was the interpretation of some of the artifacts.
Particularly the symbols and their meanings as interpreted by those in those video. The sandstone tablet supposedly representing heaven and hell (the bird figure for above and the crosshatch for below) and the scroll work on the pottery being interpreted as water were both beyond my ability to see in the way they were described. For quite obvious reasons the copper artifacts found really drew my attention. For me, as you can well imagine, finding Copper Culture items is very high on my wish list.

[CMD]

Thank you for the link Charlie. I found this fascinating to watch and thoroughly enjoyed listening to Leonard Nimoy once again.
One of the things that I found fascinating and yet at the same time hard to personally imagine or understand was the interpretation of some of the artifacts.
Particularly the symbols and their meanings as interpreted by those in those video. The sandstone tablet supposedly representing heaven and hell (the bird figure for above and the crosshatch for below) and the scroll work on the pottery being interpreted as water were both beyond my ability to see in the way they were described. For quite obvious reasons the copper artifacts found really drew my attention. For me, as you can well imagine, finding Copper Culture items is very high on my wish list.

Yeah, I feel the same way at times. Reminds me of my wife's sage observation as well: any artifact that cannot be interpreted as to function is de facto "ceremonial" in nature. I also enjoy the classic "Motel of the Mysteries", in which an archaeologist in the distant future excavates the site of a motel, with amusing interpretive results:

https://gonzohistory.wordpress.com/2013/11/22/i-love-fake-history-part-i-motel-of-the-mysteries/

[2ndoldman]

With all of our information written on biodegradable paper and stored in computers which will not function a thousand years from now I imagine that future archaeologists will have a really tuff time sorting our crap out.

[Jarmyvicious]

You found a weak spot...

[CMD]

You found a weak spot...

Cool. I had several of Corliss's compilations back in the day. I'm a Fortean from way back when, lol...

[Jarmyvicious]

Some of it is worthwhile, in that whole book they mentioned Indiana once...

[BabaORiley]

Still trying to view it. Finding an hour of uninterrupted silence in this house is a needle in a haystack...

[Tam]

I’ll watch that again . What’s interesting is they just found some of those in the last few decades in Georgia .
I also read like Deb said lost to roads .
I keep saying our past is covered up . Maybe it’s for safe keeping to come up in another 1000 years when they dig all those up or sooner .

[Jethro355]

The Missississippi River levee system(and Arkansas, and St. Francis as well) all incorporated Indian “mounds” into their construction. I’m sure every other Works Project-era flood prevention earth moving marvel of engineering did the same.