Ancient site · Tomb
Grave Creek Mound
One of the largest cone-shaped burial mounds in North America, about 19 metres high and 73 metres across, in Moundsville, West Virginia, on the Ohio River. People of the Adena culture moved more than 60,000 tonnes of earth to build it, about 250–150 BCE, over burials.
Amateur diggers tunnelled into it in 1838, finding skeletons with beads, sea shells and copper bracelets, but destroying much evidence. It is the largest surviving Adena mound and now has a museum.
- Dates
- c. 250–150 BCE
- Still standing
- Yes
- Location
- 39.92° N, 80.74° W
How we know
No writing existed; the mound is dated by radiocarbon and by the Adena-style objects buried in it.
Nearby sites
- Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks (Newark) c. 1–400 CE
- Great Serpent Mound built c. 300 BCE (Adena) or c. 1000 CE (Fort Ancient) — disputed
- Poverty Point c. 1700–1100 BCE
- Watson Brake c. 3500–3000 BCE
- Blackwater Draw (Clovis type site) Clovis level c. 11,100–10,800 BCE
- El Mirador main city c. 600 BCE – 150 CE (later reoccupied)
Related
- Adena culture archaeological culture
- The world in 300 BCE: Heirs of Alexander chapter