Nanih Waiya - Archaeological Evidence

Archaeological Evidence

The first archaeological evidence of occupation at Nanih Waiya is dated to 0-300 CE, during the Middle Woodland culture, when it was likely constructed. This made Nanih Waiya contemporaneous with the Hopewell culture, as well as ancient sites such as the Pinson Mounds in Tennessee and Igomar Mound in Mississippi. The dating was based on surface artifacts; no archeological excavation of the mound has been undertaken. Occupation apparently continued at least through 700 CE, the Late Woodland period. Originally the site included a large earthwork circular enclosure on three sides, about ten feet high and encompassing a square mile.

Archaeologists have not documented use by the succeeding Mississippian culture, but generally they suggest that Nanih Waiya has been used for religious purposes throughout its history. The 19th-century naturalist and physician Gideon Lincecum recorded a surviving Choctaw oral history of their coming to the area and constructing the mound. According to tradition, the people had been wandering in the wilderness for 42 Green Corn Festivals, through which they carried the bones of their dead, who numbered more than the living. They found the leaning hill here, where the magical staff indicated they could stay. It was a bountiful land. The council proposed that they build a mound of earth in which respectfully to inter the bones of their ancestors, and so they agreed to do. First they erected a frame of branches, then covered these over, and then added layers of earth, between their domestic tasks, until the mound had reached great size. After they finished, they celebrated with their 43rd Green Corn Festival since they had been in the wilderness. They also said that smaller conical earthen mounds were used for single burials after the first major mound had been built.

The mound has been a site of pilgrimage by the Choctaw since the 17th century, but they have not had any major festivals there. Their religion was more private, and involved rituals related to death and burial, and communication with spirits. Despite the account above, some anthropologists have noted that, unlike other tribes, the Choctaw did not appear to have practiced the Green Corn ceremony. In the 1850s, observers noted small mounds near Nanih Waiya, but these have apparently been plowed away, and were never dated. They may have been constructed by later Mississippian-culture peoples, or even later Native American groups. As there is neither archaeological data, historical records, nor Choctaw stories of the roles of these small mounds, nothing more may ever be known about them.