Bottle Creek Indian Mounds

Bottle Creek Indian Mounds
1 BA 2
	Bottle Creek Mounds and related Mississippian sites
	Location within Alabama today
Location	Stockton, Alabama, Baldwin County, Alabama, USA
Region	Baldwin County, Alabama
Coordinates	31°0′31.69″N 87°56′26.04″W / 31.0088028°N 87.9405667°W
History
Founded	1250
Abandoned	1550
Cultures	Pensacola culture
Site notes
Excavation dates	1932
Archaeologists	David L. DeJarnette
Architecture
Architectural styles	platform mound
Architectural details	Number of temples:
	Bottle Creek Site
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. National Historic Landmark
NRHP reference No.	74000398
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 2, 1974
Designated NHL	April 19, 1994

Bottle Creek Indian Mounds (1BA2) is an archaeological site owned and monitored by the Alabama Historical Commission located on a low swampy island within the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta north of Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was occupied by the peoples of the Pensacola culture, a regional Mississippian culture variant, and is the largest site of the Mississippian culture on the central Gulf Coast. It is important to understanding the history and culture of the Mobile-Tensaw delta in late prehistoric times and was designated as a National Historic Landmark^[2] on March 10, 1995, making it one of only two such sites in Alabama (alongside Moundville Archeological Park).

History[edit]

The site was occupied between 1250 and 1550, and served as the focal point for interaction with other Mississippian culture areas along the coast and the interior of the Southeastern United States. It is located on Mound Island in the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, north of present-day Mobile, and includes 18 platform mounds, the tallest being roughly 45 feet (14 m) high. Five of those eighteen mounds are arranged around the central plaza. It was the largest Mississippian chiefdom on the north-central Gulf Coast. It is difficult to reach by foot; however, it would have been easily accessed by dugout canoes, the primary mode of transportation of the peoples in the region. It lies near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers. The streams become a maze of branches and bayous at the head of Mobile Bay. The site was a ceremonial center for the Pensacola people, as well as a social, political, religious, and trade center for the Mobile Delta region and the central Gulf Coast.^[2]

Bottle Creek site was first mapped in the 1880s, but its location in the middle of the delta, completely surrounded by swamp and hidden by immense cypress trees, made it inaccessible. This protected it from most of the plundering that occurred at similar sites in the Southeast. It was a ceremonial center for the Pensacola people and served as a gateway to their society despite its seemingly remote location. It was first professionally investigated in 1932 when David L. DeJarnette, of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, began his work there to determine if the site had a cultural relationship with Moundville, connected to the north by a river system. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.^[2]

Access[edit]

Due to their remote location, the site is only accessible to visitors via watercraft tours that depart from Stockton, Alabama. Tours depart daily and take about 4 hours by boat and 6–8 hours by canoe or kayak. Trips consist of a trip to and from Mound Island and interpretive discussions about the Mississippian culture peoples that lived at Bottle Creek, including their sport, food, culture and a visit to the top of the largest mound.^[3]

References[edit]

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Bottle Creek Site". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 1, 2009. Retrieved October 13, 2007.
^ "Bottle Creek Indian Mound Interpretive Kayak Tour". WildNative Tours. September 13, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2018.

External links[edit]

[nris-1] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.

[nhlsum-2] "Bottle Creek Site". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 1, 2009. Retrieved October 13, 2007.

[3] "Bottle Creek Indian Mound Interpretive Kayak Tour". WildNative Tours. September 13, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2018.

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v t e Pre-Columbian North America
Periods Lithic Archaic Formative Classic Post-Classic
Archaeological cultures	Adena Alachua Ancient Beringian Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) Avonlea Baytown Belle Glade Buttermilk Creek complex Caborn-Welborn Cades Pond Calf Creek Caloosahatchee Clovis Coles Creek Comondú Deptford Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Walton Fremont Glacial Kame Glades Hohokam Hopewell List of Hopewell sites La Jolla Las Palmas Maritime Archaic Mississippian List of Mississippian sites Mogollon Monongahela Old Cordilleran Oneota Paleo-Arctic Paleo-Indians Patayan Plano Plaquemine Poverty Point Red Ocher Safety Harbor Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Steed-Kisker Suwannee Valley Tchefuncte Troyville Weeden Island
Archaeological sites	Angel Mounds Anzick site Bandelier National Monument Bastian Benson Blue Spring Shelter Bluefish Caves The Bluff Point Stoneworks Brewster Cahokia Candelaria Cave Casa Grande Chaco Canyon Coso Rock Art District Crystal River Cuarenta Casas Cueva de la Olla Cutler Eaker El Fin del Mundo El Vallecito Effigy Mounds Etowah Indian Mounds Eva Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Center Fort Juelson Four Mounds Gila Cliff Dwellings Glenwood Grimes Point Helen Blazes Holly Bluff Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Horr's Island Huápoca Key Marco Kimball Village Kincaid Mounds Kolomoki Mounds Lake Jackson Mounds Lehner Mammoth-Kill Site L'Anse aux Meadows Lynch Quarry Site Marksville Marmes Rockshelter Meadowcroft Rockshelter Mesa Verde Moaning Cavern Moorehead Circle Morrison Mounds Moundville Mummy Cave Nodena site Ocmulgee Mounds Old Stone Fort Orwell site Paquime Painted Bluff Parkin Park Pinson Mounds Plum Bayou Mounds Portsmouth Earthworks Poverty Point Pueblo Bonito Recapture Canyon River Styx Roberts Island Rock Eagle Rock Hawk Rosenstock Village Russell Cave Salmon Ruins Serpent Mound Sierra de San Francisco Shell ring sites Spiro Mounds Stallings Island SunWatch Taos Pueblo Town Creek Indian Mound Turkey River Mounds Upward Sun River Velda Mound West Oak Forest Earthlodge Wickiup Hill Windover Winterville Wupatki
Human remains	Anzick-1 Arlington Springs Man Buhl Woman Kennewick Man La Brea Woman Leanderthal Lady Melbourne Man Minnesota Woman Peñon woman Spirit Cave mummy Vero man
Miscellaneous	Aridoamerica Black drink Ceremonial pipe Chanunpa Chunkey Clovis point Container Revolution Eastern Agricultural Complex Eden point Effigy mound Falcon dancer Folsom point Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Kiva Medicine wheel Metallurgy Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing Mound Builders N.A.G.P.R.A. Norse colonization of North America Oasisamerica Piasa Projectile point Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stickball Three Sisters agriculture Thunderbird Transoceanic contact Underwater panther Water glyphs
Related Genetic history Pre-Columbian era

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Alabama
Lists by county	Autauga Baldwin Barbour Bibb Blount Bullock Butler Calhoun Chambers Cherokee Chilton Choctaw Clarke Clay Cleburne Coffee Colbert Conecuh Coosa Covington Crenshaw Cullman Dale Dallas DeKalb Elmore Escambia Etowah Fayette Franklin Geneva Greene Hale Henry Houston Jackson Jefferson Lamar Lauderdale Lawrence Lee Limestone Lowndes Macon Madison Marengo Marion Marshall Mobile Monroe Montgomery Morgan Perry Pickens Pike Randolph Russell St. Clair Shelby Sumter Talladega Tallapoosa Tuscaloosa Walker Washington Wilcox Winston
Lists by city	Birmingham Mobile
Other lists	Bridges Multiple Property Submissions National Historic Landmarks
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

History[edit]

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