Emerald Mound, Adams County – (c. 1250-1600) (National Historic Landmark) Emerald Mound is the largest ceremonial mound in Mississippi and the second largest in the United States, anchoring a site that once held numerous smaller mounds before they were plowed away during the Nineteenth Century. Emerald Mound is a platform mound, shaped like a plateau, which measures 775 by 435 feet, covers eight acres, and is 35 feet tall. On top of the platform mound are two smaller mounds, one of which is 30 feet tall. Emerald Mound’s summit formerly contained several more smaller mounds, which were plowed away, along with the encircling ditch, when the mound site was an active part of Emerald Plantation. Emerald Mound was constructed during the mound-building Mississippian culture by the Plaquemine culture between 1250 to 1600. Emerald Mound is a ceremonial mound, not a burial mound, and served as the religious and cultural center for the surrounding villages. The early Natchez tribe used Emerald Mound as their cultural center before abandoning it in the late 1600s and moving to Grand Village. The National Park Service has owned and maintained Emerald Mound since the 1950s. Emerald Mound is important due to its large size and the unusual placement of the ceremonial center at the summit of Emerald Mound, a rarely seen feature in other large mound complexes.
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