Most Fascinating Ancient Sites in the U.S.âAccording to an Archaeologist
The U.S. is home to plenty of archaeological sites, many of which are hidden in plain sight and go unnoticed. Elic Weitzel, an archaeologist and historical ecologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, says that's a great shame. "The U.S. is absolutely full of countless archaeological sites, but in most cases you could be standing right on top of one and never know it," Weitzel told Newsweek. Below, Weitzel shares some of his favorite archaeological sites across the country, each offering a glimpse into the lives of the people who lived in North America long before European settlers arrived.
Natchez Trace Parkway Sites
One of Weitzel's top picks is the Natchez Trace Parkway, a historic route that passes through Mississippi. "My personal favorite collection of sites is along the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi. I would treat these sites as a unit though, not break them apart individually," he said. The Bynum Mounds, Emerald Mound and other sites along the parkway highlight the densely populated Native American landscape that once existed in the region. "The fact that you can see so many lesser-known archaeological sites in just a few hours' drive all along a single road really hammers this point home," Weitzel explained. "There were millions of indigenous people here before Europeans showed up and there had been for many thousands of years." Weitzel also noted that the Natchez Trace itself was an ancient Native American road, making the journey through these sites even more significant.
Shiloh Indian Mounds Site, Tennessee
Most visitors to Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee know it as the site of a major Civil War battle, but many overlook the Native American history there. "The Shiloh Mounds Site was an 11th- to 14th-century fortified town with a palisade wall, more than a hundred houses, seven platform mounds and one burial mound," Weitzel said. Unlike many other sites that have been damaged by modern farming, Shiloh's mounds remain well-preserved as they have been part of the protected military park. "This means that the remains of the mounds, houses and artifacts at the site were very well-preserved and allowed archaeologists to learn a lot about Native American cultures in this region and time period."
Poverty Point, Louisiana
One of the oldest archaeological sites in the U.S. is Poverty Point, which dates back 3,500 years. "Native Americans built this mound complex 3,500 years ago at a time when people in the area lived as hunter-gatherers, not agriculturalists," Weitzel explained. This is particularly remarkable because monumental structures are typically associated with agricultural societies. The fact that hunter-gatherers built Poverty Point challenges conventional ideas about early civilizations.
The Mashantucket Pequot Reservation, Connecticut
Some sites are invisible to the untrained eye, but at Mashantucket Pequot Reservation in Connecticut, visitors can experience a reconstructed fort from 1675. "In 1675, the surviving members of the Pequot tribe built a fort there to protect themselves during King Philip's War," Weitzel said. The war was a final effort by Native American tribes to push back against European settlers, but the colonists won, securing their dominance over New England. "The fort on the Mashantucket Pequot reservation was excavated by archaeologists in the early 2000s," Weitzel said. "Visitors to the site today can walk around the location where the fort would have been and see some reconstructed walls." A visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum provides a detailed history of the Pequot people, covering thousands of years.
Mesa Verde, Colorado
Weitzel also highlighted Mesa Verde National Park, famous for its well-preserved cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloans between the 7th and 13th centuries. "Mesa Verde is home to some of the largest and most famous cliff houses of the Ancestral Puebloan people, built right into the side of large rocky cliffs in the sides of mesas." Since most Native American architecture has not survived, sites like Mesa Verde attract significant public interest.
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
Another Ancestral Puebloan site is Chaco Canyon, known for its standing structures and ceremonial rooms called "kivas." "Chaco Canyon was also home to Ancestral Puebloan peoples and is a large site with lots of standing architecture like kivas—round subterranean rooms used for political meetings and ceremonies," Weitzel explained. Built between the 9th and 12th centuries, Chaco Canyon remains one of the most important archaeological sites in the American Southwest. "It's the presence of abundant standing architecture that makes these sites so famous," Weitzel said, noting that Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde are among the most well-known pre-colonial archaeological sites in the U.S.
Cahokia, Illinois
Considered the largest and most famous Native American site in the eastern U.S., Cahokia was a thriving urban center between the 11th and 14th centuries. "It's an 11th- to 14th-century Native American site located just outside of St. Louis and is home to dozens of mounds, including the largest earthen structure in the U.S. and Canada—Monk's Mound," Weitzel said. At its peak, Cahokia had a population similar to London's in the 1100s, making it one of the largest cities in North America at the time.
Moundville, Alabama
Moundville, another Native American mound site, dates from the 11th to 16th centuries and is located along the Black Warrior River near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. "It is home to several dozen mounds," Weitzel said. Sites like Moundville and Cahokia challenge misconceptions that all Native American groups were nomadic. "Because of our incomplete and biased education about Native American history here in the U.S., people don't often think of Native Americans as living in cities," Weitzel noted. "But Cahokia, Moundville, and other sites like them show that Native peoples absolutely lived in urban settings and weren't just nomadic groups living in tipis on the plains like popular conceptions would have us believe," he said.
