ABSTRACT
When European explorers traveled into the North American interior during the sixteenth century, they stumbled upon undeniable proof of ancient civilizations. By the nineteenth century, Americans posited countless explanations for the presence of the mounds. Scholars and clergymen proclaimed that they had been built by one of many ancient groups, including the Egyptians, Trojans, Welsh, Norsemen, Spaniards, or even the survivors of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. Similarly, the Book of Mormon and other religious texts declared that the builders descended from the ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The peoples indigenous to the eastern part of North America built their earthen structures over a period of three thousand years. Many of the oldest mounds, built in the Woodland tradition, served as burial sites. Some of the mounds built in the Mississippian tradition served as foundations for the Native American's most important buildings.
