 Mangum Mound | |
  Location within Mississippi today | |
| Location | Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi,  USA |
|---|---|
| Region | Claiborne County, Mississippi |
| Coordinates | 31°59′30.3″N90°53′59.14″W / 31.991750°N 90.8997611°W /31.991750; -90.8997611 |
| History | |
| Periods | Foster Phase |
| Cultures | Plaquemine culture |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1936, 1951, 1963 |
| Archaeologists | Charles F. Bohannon |
| Responsible body: State ofMississippi | |
Mangum Mound Site (22 CB 584) is anarchaeological site of thePlaquemine culture inClaiborne County, Mississippi. It is located at milepost 45.7 on theNatchez Trace Parkway.[1] Two very rareMississippian culturerepoussé copper plates have been discovered during excavations of the site. The site was used as aburial mound during theFoster Phase of the culture (1350 to 1500 CE) and is believed to have been abandoned before the 1540 expedition ofHernando de Soto.[2]
The burial mound was first investigated in 1936 by its owner Spurgeon C. Mangum, a farmer. Mangum found human remains, variouspottery fragments belonging to thePlaquemine culture,chunkey stones, and three fragments of arepoussé copper plate with an avian design similar to other plates found throughout the American Midwest and Southeast. These portray theBirdman motif important to theSoutheastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC).[3] The site underwent a series of test excavations in April 1951 as part of theNatchez Trace Park Survey.[3] During these excavations, twelve extended burials and possibly one bundled burial were found.[4]
The site was excavated in 1963 for theNational Park Service by archaeologistCharles F. Bohannon. Bohannon and his team found the burials of numerous individuals. One individual, believed to have been a woman in her late 30s, possessed markings on her bones which suggested to investigators that she suffered frommultiple myeloma.[5] Bohannon excavated the remains of eighty-four individuals, of which more than half were bundled burials. Some of the bundles seemed little more than disarticulated piles of bones, and Bohannon came to believe they were earlier burials that had been moved to make way for new extended burials. Another copper plate was also found during these excavations.[4]
| Middle Mississippian |
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| South Appalachian Mississippian |
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| Fort Walton culture | |||||||||||
| Pensacola culture | |||||||||||
| Plaquemine Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Caddoan Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Upper Mississippian cultures |
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| Culture |
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