Chapter 15: The Americas "Mound Builders"

Introduction
Students have read that in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys groups of Native Americans known as Mound Builders erected large earthen mounds. Archaeologists believe the mounds were ceremonial centers or tombs for leaders. Now students can read more about one of the cultures that created earthworks over a period of about 20 centuries.

Lesson Description
Students will go to The Adena Mounds Web site. They will then answer four questions about what they have read.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will learn more about an early group of Native Americans called the Mound Builders.
2. Students will learn about the first group of Mound Builders, the Adena.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. The Adena are believed to be the first group of people to build giant earthworks. They were found in a wide area that included much of present-day Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and parts of Pennsylvania and New York.
2. The construction of the mounds took a great deal of effort, which suggests that the people would have had to have been well organized and cooperative.
3. Most people were cremated after death and placed in small log tombs covered with earth. More important people were often buried intact with a variety of items such as flints, beads, pipes, and mica and copper ornaments.
4. Students' answers will vary but might mention artifacts, what scientists learned from them, the size of the mounds, and what ceremonies were conducted there.

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