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Etowah Indian Mounds is an archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia south of Cartersville, Georgia in the United States. The site sits on the north shore of the Etowah River. Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site is managed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. There are three main mounds at the site and three lesser known mounds. The community was inhabited from about 1000-1550 A.D. by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture. Archaeological research on the subject is not conclusive, but the Etowah site may be the same as a village of a similar name visited by Spanish conquistador Hernando deSoto in 1540. Although Cyrus Thomas and John P. Rogan tested the site for the Smithsonian Institution in 1883, the first well-documented archaeological inquiry at the site was conducted by Warren K. Moorehead, beginning in the winter of 1925. His excavations into Mound C at the site revealed an incredibly rich array of Mississippian culture burial goods. These artifacts, along with the collections from Cahokia, Moundville, Lake Jackson (Florida), and Spiro Mounds, would later become the majority of the materials used to define the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. The professional excavation of this enormous burial mound contributed a major research impetus to the study of Mississippian artifacts and peoples, and greatly increased the understanding of pre-Contact Native Americans artwork. The Etowah site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
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