Our 4th graders all visited Mounds State Park in Anderson today to see the Indian mounds. We learned that they used the mounds to help them know what time of the year it is - or for their calendars. Many people believe that they are burial grounds, and some are, but most where used for ceremonial purposes. They would have "church" on the mounds. Also, they built the mounds so that at the spring and winter equinoxes, the sun would set directly behind a smaller mound letting them know it was time to hunt in the spring or gather food in the winter. It was very interesting.
Here is a picture of the great mound. It looks like a hill and a ditch. The Adena indians dug them themselves using bone and baskets. Because of erosion, the mounds aren't near as tall as they were originally built, and the ditches used to be much deeper. Indians today still consider these mounds sacred structures.
Here is our group in front of the mound.
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