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Formation of Mound 7The history of Mound 7 documents an important aspect of the site's history, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing [Figure 5] and photograph [Figure 6].A wattle-and-daub house was built atop the extant A soil horizon. During the time the house stood on this site, its roof protected the underlying ground surface from erosion. Meanwhile, the ground surface outside the house--probably denuded of vegetation by constant foot traffic from the residents of this and several nearby houses--eroded down 30-40 cm. Rather than the houses being "built on rises" as Roberts thought, the houses were pedestalled by erosion of the surrounding ground surface. After the house was abandoned, the wall daub collapsed, mantling the floor with 15-20 cm of sediment. Bioturbation, and lateral erosion of the house-mound's margins, then homogenized and/or removed evidence of wall posts or wall trenches. [Figure 5] With evidence of the wall features no longer visible, the best evidence that a house stood at this location is the buried soil weathering profile (see photo [Figure 6]) preserved beneath the thin mantle of collapsed daub. This buried profile has a thick A horizon whose top is 30 cm above the current ground surface around the house mound. Beneath this pedestalled, buried A horizon is a thick and well developed, leached E horizon that shades gradually into a B horizon. By comparison with this buried soil profile, a nearby, off-mound shovel-test displays a thin A horizon overlying a similarly thin, weakly developed E horizon that rapidly grades into a strongly developed B horizon. The off-mound soil profile is consistent with a relatively young soil developing atop an ancient soil that had been truncated by about 30 cm. |
The Shiloh Indian Mounds Site |
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Background |
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Recent Excavations |
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Formation of Mound 7 |
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Formation of Mound N |
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Conclusions |