Mill Cove Complex
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burial mound | |
Architectural details | Number of monuments: 2 |
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The Mill Cove Complex is a group of prehistoric archaeological sites located in Duval County, Florida built by people of the St. Johns culture approximately 900 to 1250 CE. The site encompasses two sand mounds, Grant Mound (8DU14) and the contemporaneous Shields Mound (8DU12) located 750 metres (0.47 mi) away, and an area in between the two which is full of St. Johns culture midden deposits.
Shields Mound
The mound is a mortuary structure first excavated in 1894 and 1895 by
burial mound and not a substructure platform mound with burials as Moore assumed. Moore found a number of exotic grave goods in the mound, including copper artifacts and several spatulate celts similar to ones found in Mississippian culture sites in other parts of the southeastern US and generally seen as elite status symbols.[1] He also found one copper plate similar to others he'd found when he excavated the Grant Mound and Mount Royal Mound, another nearby St. Johns culture sites.[2]
Grant Mound
In 1894 C. B. Moore described the mound as being a truncated cone
ear spools and two long-nosed god maskettes.[1] Both the copper covered earspools and long-nosed god maskettes are rare items that have associations with the Cahokia site in western Illinois and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.[2]
Trade
The presence of exotic copper items in the two mounds along with
yaupon holly, two local products, were valuable elite commodities to the peoples of the Mississippian cultures, used to make shell gorgets, ritual drinking vessels, beads and columnella pendants and the ingredient for the black drink.[2]
See also
References
- ^ a b Ashley, Keith H. "Introducing Shield Mound (8DU12) and the Mill Cove Complex" (PDF). The Florida Anthropologist.
- ^ a b c Ashley, Keith H. (2002). "On the periphery of the Early Mississippian world : Looking within and beyond Northeastern Florida" (PDF). Southeastern Archaeology. 2 (2).