The effigy mounds of the Upper Midwest and the Ohio Valley long have been regarded as distinct and independent cultural developments. A review of effigy mound iconography in both regions reveals similarities suggesting that they are elements of a shared cultural tradition. Comparisons with rock art imagery from the Upper Midwest and Missouri, the inferred centers of this artistic and ceremonial florescence, reveal co-occurrences of specific motifs and provide additional evidence of cultural connections among the Late Woodland to early Late Precontact societies inhabiting the lower Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio river valleys. Oral traditions of Native American groups with documented connections to these regions allow this rich corpus of imagery to be understood as key episodes in their genesis stories.
American Antiquarian Society (1884) Proceedings. Annual Meeting, October 22, 1883, at the hall of the Society in Worcester. Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society Volume 3, Part 1, pp. 1–35.
2.
BaldnerRP (2017)
In sculpted valleys: Revisiting the native American rock art legacy in Northeast Iowa-Part II. Journal of the Iowa Archaeological Society64: 61–97.
3.
BaldnerRP (2020)
Indigenous equations: Exploring iconography and meaning in rock art of Northeastern Iowa. Journal of the Iowa Archaeological Society67: 36–67.
4.
BennDA (1989)
Hawks, serpents, and bird-men: Emergence of the oneota mode of production. Plains Anthropologist34–125: 233–260.
5.
BirminghamRA (2010) Spirits of the Earth: The Effigy Mound Landscape of Madison and the Four Lakes.
Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press.
6.
BirminghamRAEisenbergLE (2000) Indian Mounds of Wisconsin.
Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press.
7.
BirminghamRARosebroughAL (2017) Indian Mounds of Wisconsin. 2nd ed.
Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press.
8.
BoszhardtRF (1995) Rock Art Research in Western Wisconsin 1994–1995. Reports of Investigations No 201.
La Crosse:
Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
9.
BoszhardtRF (2003) Deep Cave Rock Art in the Upper Mississippi Valley.
St. Paul:
Prairie Smoke Press.
10.
BoszhardtRF (2014) The Willow Drive Mounds (47Da-0119) and Willow Creek Habitation (47Da-0124) Sites. Madison: Report submitted to the Wisconsin State Archaeologist’s Office, Wisconsin Historical Society.
11.
BoszhardtRFBendenDM (2017) Beneath Your Feet: Archaeology at Trempealeau.
Lodi:
Driftless Pathways LLC.
12.
BoszhardtRFHarrisSSchmittC, et al. (2018)
A systematic lidar survey for effigy mounds in the Bad Axe River Valley, Vernon County, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Archeologist99-2: 5–24.
13.
BowersAW (1950) Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization.
Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
14.
BowersAW (1992) Hidatsa Social & Ceremonial Organization.
Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press.
15.
BrownJA (1989) On style divisions of the southeastern ceremonial complex: A revisionist perspective. In: GallowayPK (ed) The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.
Austin:
University of Texas Press, pp. 183–204.
16.
BrownJA (2007) Sequencing the Braden style within Mississippian period art. In: Kent ReillyFGarberJF (eds) Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms.
Austin:
University of Texas Press, pp. 213–245.
17.
BrownJA (2011) The regional culture signature of the Braden art style. In: LankfordGEKent ReillyF IIIGarberJ (eds) Visualizing the Sacred.
Austin:
University of Texas Press, pp. 37–63.
18.
CarrCMcCordR (2013)
Ohio Hopewell descriptions of composite creatures. Part I – biological identification and ethnohistorical insights. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology38: 5–81.
19.
ComstockARCookRA (2018)
Climate change and migration along a Mississippian periphery: A Fort Ancient example. American Antiquity83: 91–108.
20.
ConkeyMHastorfC (1990) The Uses of Style in Archaeology.
Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
21.
CookJ (2013) Ice Age Art: The Arrival of the Modern Mind.
London:
British Museum Press.
22.
CookRA (2017) “Continuity and Change in the Native American Village” Multicultural Origins and Descendants of the Fort Ancient Culture.
Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
23.
DeetzJ (1965) The Dynamics of Stylistic Change in Arikara Ceramics.
Champaign:
University of Illinois Press.
24.
Diaz-GranadosC (2015) Symbolism and preliminary assessment of styles in Picture Cave. In: Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJRReillyKF III (eds) Picture Cave: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Mississippian Cosmos.
Austin:
Univeristy of Texas Press, pp. 189–208.
25.
Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJR (2000) The Petroglyphs and Pictographs of Missouri.
Tuscaloosa:
University of Alabama Press.
26.
Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJR (2004a) Empowering the SECC: The “Old Woman” and oral tradition. In: Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJR (eds) The Rock-Art of Eastern North America: Capturing Images and Insight.
Tuscaloosa:
University of Alabama Press, pp. 190–215.
27.
Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJR (2004b) The Rock-Art of Eastern North America: Capturing Images and Insight.
Tuscaloosa:
University of Alabama Press.
28.
Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJRReillyKF III (eds) (2015) Picture Cave: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Mississippian Cosmos.
Austin:
University of Texas Press.
29.
Diaz-GranadosCRoweMHymanJR, et al. (2001)
AMS radiocarbon dates for charcoal from three missouri pictographs and their associated iconography. American Antiquity66: 481–492.
30.
Diaz-GranadosCSimekJSaboG, et al. (2018) Transforming the Landscape: Rock Art and the Mississippian Cosmos.
Oxford:
Oxbow Books.
DrookerPB (1997) The View From Madisonville: Protohistoric Western Fort Ancient Interaction Patterns. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology.
Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan, No. 31.
33.
DuncanJR (2015) Identifying the characters on the walls of Picture Cave. In: Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJRKent ReillyF III (eds) Picture Cave.
Austin:
University of Texas Press, pp. 209–240.
34.
DuncanJRDiaz-GranadosC (2018) The Big Five petroglyph sites: Their place on the landscape and relation to their creators. In: Diaz-GranadosCSimekJSaboG III, et al. (eds) Transforming the Landscape: Rock Art and the Mississippian Cosmos.
Oxford:
Oxbow Books, pp. 30–56.
35.
DuncanJRRoweMWDiaz-GranadosC, et al. (2015) The black warrior pictograph: Dating and interpretation. In: Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJRKent ReillyF III (eds) Picture Cave: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Mississippian Cosmos.
Austin:
University of Texas Press, pp. 125–132.
36.
EdgingRAhlerSR (2004) Rock-art and late woodland settlement in the Northern Ozarks. In: Diaz-GranadosCDuncanJR (eds) The Rock Art of Eastern North America: Capturing Images and Insights.
Tuscaloosa:
University of Alabama Press, pp. 90–109.
37.
FletcherACLa FlescheF (1992) The Omaha Tribe, 2 Volumes.
Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press.
38.
FletcherRCameronTLepperBT, et al. (1996)
Serpent mound: A fort ancient icon?Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology21: 105–143.
39.
GiedionS (1962) The Eternal Present: A Contribution on Constancy and Change.
New York:
Pantheon Books.
40.
GoldsteinL (1983) The Southeast Wisconsin Archaeological Project: 1982-83. Report of Investigations No. 68. Milwaukee: Archaeological Research Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
41.
GoldsteinL (1995) Landscapes and mortuary practices: A case for regional perspectives. In: BeckLA (ed) Regional Approaches to Mortuary Analysis.
New York:
Plenum, pp. 101–121.
42.
GriffinJB (1952) Prehistoric cultures of the central Mississippi valley. In: GriffinJB (ed) Archaeology of Eastern United States.
Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, pp. 226–238.
43.
GriffinJB (1960) A hypothesis for the prehistory of the Winnebago. In: DiamondS (ed) Culture in History.
New York:
Columbia University Press, pp. 809–865.
44.
HallRL (1979) In search of the ideology of the Adena-Hopewell climax. In: BroseDSGreberN (eds) Hopewell Archaeology: The Chillecothe Conference.
Kent:
Kent State University Press, pp. 258–265.
45.
HallRL (1993)
Red Banks, Oneota, and the Winnebago: Views from a Distant Rock. The Wisconsin Archeologist:74: 10–79.
46.
Hall RL (1997) An Archaeology of the soul: North American Indian belief and ritual. Urbana (IL): University of Illinois Press.
47.
HerrmannEWMonaghanGWRomainWF, et al. (2014)
A new multistage construction chronology for the Great Serpent Mound. Journal of Archaeological Science50: 117–125.
48.
HolmesWH (1886)
A sketch of the Great Serpent Mound.Science8: 624–628.
49.
LaphamIA (1855) The Antiquities of Wisconsin. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 7.
Washington:
Government Printing Office.
50.
LepperBT (2018)
On the age of Serpent Mound: A reply to Romain and colleagues. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology43: 62–75.
51.
LepperBT (2020a)
The Mississippian iconography of Serpent Mound.Journal of Ohio Archaeology7: 38–55.
LepperBTDuncanJRDiaz-GranádosJR, et al. (2018)
Arguments for the age of Serpent Mound. Cambridge Archaeological Journal28: 433–450.
54.
LepperBTFrolkingTA (2003)
Alligator Mound: Geoarchaeological and iconographical interpretations of a Late Prehistoric effigy mound in central Ohio, USA. Cambridge Archaeological Journal13: 147–67.
55.
LepperBTFrolkingTAPickardWH (2019)
Debating the age of Serpent Mound: A reply to Romain and Herrmann’s rejoinder to Lepper concerning Serpent Mound. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology44: 42–56.
56.
LewisTH (2006)
Sculptures in Carver’s Cave, St. Paul, Minn. The Wisconsin Archeologist87(1&2): 223–225 (report from original 1898 The Macalaster Monthly 1-
2: 37–42).
57.
MacLeanJP (1885)
The Great Serpent Mound.American Antiquarian7: 44–47.
58.
McKernWC (1930)
The Kletzien and Nitschke Mound Groups. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee3–4: 417–572.
59.
MonaghanGWHerrmannEW (2019)
Serpent Mound: Still built by the Adena, and still rebuilt during the Fort Ancient period. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology44: 84–93.
60.
MorseDFMorsePA (1983) Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley.
New York:
Academic Press.
61.
MuellerNGFritzGJ (2016) Women as symbols and actors in the Mississippi Valley: Evidence from female flint-clay statues and vessels. In: ClaassenC (ed) Native American Landscapes: An Engendered Perspective.
Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, pp. 109–148.
62.
ParksDR (1991) Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians, 4 Volumes.
Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press.
63.
PauketatTRBoszhardtRFBendenDM (2015)
Trempealeau entanglements: An ancient colony’s causes and effects. American Antiquity80: 260–289.
64.
PhillipsPBrownJA (1978) Pre-Columbian shell engravings from the Craig Mound At Spiro, Oklahoma,
Vol. 1-VI.
Cambridge:
Peabody Museum Press, Harvard University.
65.
PickardWMarleyMPansingL, et al. (2018) Stone Steps Removal at Serpent Mound: Site Maintenance Provides Additional Radiocarbon Dates. On File, Ohio History Connection,
Columbus:
Department of Archaeology.
66.
PowerSC (2004) Early Art of the Southeastern Indians: Feathered Serpents & Winged Beings.
Athens:
University of Georgia Press.
67.
PozzaJM (2019)
Approaching a vast and varied copper collection: An analysis of oneota copper artifacts of the Lake Koshkonong Region in Southeastern Wisconsin. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports25: 632–647.
68.
PriceTDBurtonJHStoltmanJB (2007)
Place of origin of prehistoric inhabitants of Aztalan, Jefferson Co., Wisconsin. American Antiquity72: 524–538.
69.
PutnamFW (1890)
The Serpent Mound of Ohio. The Century39: 871–888.
RadinP (1965) The Winnebago Tribe.
Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press.
72.
ReillyFK III (2004) People of the earth, people of the sky: Visualizing the sacred in native American art of the Mississippian period. In: TownsendR (ed) Hero, Hawk and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South.
Chicago:
The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, pp. 125–137.
73.
ReillyFK (2011) The great serpent in the Lower Mississippi Valley. In: LankfordGFKent ReillyF IIIGarberJF (eds) Visualizing the Sacred.
Austin:
University of Texas Press, pp. 118–136.
74.
ReillyFK IIIGarberJF (2007) Introduction. In: Kent ReillyF IIIGarberJF (eds) Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms.
Austin:
University of Texas Press, pp. 1–7.
75.
RomainWF (2019)
Serpent Mound in its Woodland period context: Second rejoinder to Lepper. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology44: 57–83.
76.
RomainWFHerrmannEW (2018)
Rejoinder to Lepper concerning Serpent Mound.Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology43:76–88.
77.
RomainWFHerrmannEWMonaghanGW, et al. (2017)
Radiocarbon dates reveal Serpent Mound is more than two thousand years old. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology42: 201–222.
78.
RosebroughAL (2010) Every Family a Nation: A Deconstruction and Reconstruction of the Effigy Mound “Culture” of the Western Great Lakes of North America. PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
79.
SandersSL (1991)
The Stone Serpent Mound of Boyd County, Kentucky: An investigation of a stone effigy structure. Midcontinential Journal of Archaeology16: 272–284.
80.
SchapiroM (1953) Style. In: KroeberAL (ed) Anthropology Today.
Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, pp. 283–311.
81.
SchrabGBoszhardtRF (2016) Hidden Thunder Rock Art of the Upper Midwest.
Madison:
Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
82.
SquierEDavisE (1848) Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, Contributions to Knowledge, Volume 1.
83.
Stanley LA (2004) Ratcliffe Sacred Rock and the Seven Sacred Stones. In: Diaz-Granados C and Duncan JR (eds). The Rock-Art of Eastern North America. Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press, pp. 145--158.
84.
SteinbringJFarvourF (1987) The Hensler Petroglyph Site, Dodge County, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Archeologist, vol.
68-4, pp. 396–411.
85.
StoltmanJBBoszhardt RF (2019) An overview of driftless area prehistory. In: CarsonECElmo RawlingJ IIIMichael DanielsJ, et al. (eds) Physical Geography and Geology of the Driftless Area: The Career and Contributions of James C. Knox. Special Paper 543.
Denver:
The Geological Society of America, pp. 93–118.
86.
StoltmanJBChristensenGC (2000) The Late Woodland stage in the driftless area of the Upper Mississippi Valley. In: EmersonTEMcElrathDLFortierAC (eds) Late Woodland Societies: Tradition and Transformation Across the Midcontinent.
Lincoln:
The University of Nebraska Press, pp. 497–524.
87.
TaylorRC (1838)
Notes Respecting Certain Indian Mounds and Earthworks in the Form of Animal Effigies, Chiefly in the Wisconsin Territory, U.S. Silliman’s American Journal of Science and Art34: 88–104.
88.
ThelerJLBoszhardtR (2006)
Collapse of crucial resources and cultural change: A model for the Woodland to Oneota transformation. American Antiquity71-3: 433–472.
89.
WhiteJR (1986)
The Kern Effigy: Evidence for a prehistoric Fort Ancient Summer Solstice marker. North American Archaeologist7-2: 137–165.
