Boyd Mounds

"We are traveling along the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi up to Nashville, Tennessee and visiting the interpretive exhibits the park service has placed along the way.

"Today we visit Boyd Mounds. These Indian burial mounds stand along the shore of the Ross Barnett Reservoir. A village site near Boyd Mounds dates from around 500 A.D. This was near the end of the Woodland Indian Culture, but earlier than the Mississippian Indians who built Emerald Mound just north of Natchez. Indians occupied this site for centuries before the mounds were built. The village had long been deserted when these burial mounds were constructed between 1300-1500 A.D. Archaeologists have found pottery that dates from before 700 A.D. among the remains of the 41 burials discovered there. They also tell us that the 5 foot high mound that is over 100 feet long covers up two earlier mounds, and though this appears now to be only one mound, it's actually 3 mounds-in-one. Later, Choctaw Indians added burials to the site, and glass beads traded from the arriving white man were found among these later graves.

"Join us on our next program when we'll cross what was the northern boundary of British West Florida in 1764. For Natchez Trace a road through the wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas."

For more about Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, visit eddieandfrank.com