 Leake Mounds site in 2015 | |
  Location within Georgia today | |
| Location | Cartersville, Georgia, Bartow County, Georgia,  USA |
|---|---|
| Region | Bartow County, Georgia |
| Coordinates | 34°8′21.55″N84°50′46.03″W / 34.1393194°N 84.8461194°W /34.1393194; -84.8461194 |
| History | |
| Founded | 300 BCE |
| Abandoned | 1500 CE |
| Periods | Middle Woodland,Lamar phase |
| Cultures | Swift Creek Culture,South Appalachian Mississippian culture |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural details | Number of temples: 3 |
Leake Mounds (9BR2) is an importantarchaeological site inBartow County, Georgia built and used by peoples of theSwift Creek Culture. The site is 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the well-knownEtowah Mounds on theEtowah River. It predates that site by hundreds of years.
Excavation of nearly 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) on the site showed that Leake Mounds was one of the most importantMiddle Woodland period site in this area from around 300 BCE to 650CE. It was a center with ties throughout the Southeast and Midwest. It was abandoned about 650 CE. It was not occupied again for nearly nine hundred years, until about 1500, by different peoples near the end of theMississippian culture period.[1]
The site includes at least three major platformmounds and a large semi-circular moat/ditch. While much of the mounds were razed to be used as road fill for the expansion of theGeorgia State Route 113 andGeorgia State Route 61 in the 1940s, significant portions of the site remain. Several sites on nearby Ladds Mountain were integrally associated with Leake, including Shaw Mound, a stone burial mound; Indian Fort, a stone wall enclosure; and Ladds Cave, a large cave.
Examples of a type of pottery decoration consisting of a diamond-shaped checks found at Leake Mounds are also known from Hopewell sites in Ohio (such as Seip, Rockhold, Harness, and Turner), theMann site in southernIndiana. This style has also been found on pottery at other sites in the South, such as theMiner's Creek site, 9HY98, andMandeville site in Georgia, and theYearwood site in southernTennessee.[2]
| 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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