There’s an underwater earthwork in South Carolina that sparks curiosity among archaeologists and history lovers alike. The Chauga Mound, whose adjacent village dates back as a far as 8,000 BC, sits at the bottom of the Tugaloo River in Oconoee County, just 1200 feet north of the river’s confluence with the Chauga River.
The ancient Chuaga Mound was inundated with water in 1962 when Hartwell Dam was completed and the reservoir was filled with water.
That water traveled all the way up to widen and deepen the Tugaloo River forever covering the mound completely and preventing further archaeological digs.
But this flooding didn't occur before archaeologists got to spend a few years studying the site and making a few productive digs to learn more about this ancient Native American mound once located on the banks of the Tugaloo River.
They discovered the mound was part of a village and that the first use of the land here by indigenous peoples dated all the way back to the Middle Archaic period (8000 to 1000 BC).
And the village, which may have resembled a Native American village in Illinois illustrated here, may very well have been utilized last by the Cherokee as recent as early in the 18th century.
Chauga Mound itself, was built in the 12th century by peoples of the South Appalachian Mississipian culture, a term coined to describe indigenous peoples of the Southeast.
Above, is a similar mound also built by the South Appalachian Mississipians. This mound, defined as a temple and named Temple Mount is found at Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia. It's the same platform mound structure as is the Chauga Mound that now sits at the bottom of the Tugaloo River.
In this diagram we take a closer look at the construction of a platform mound. Found mostly in the eastern part of the U.S., platform mounds were truncated pyramids with a flat top, sometimes used to perch a structure high above the natural terrain.
The construction of these mounds usually involved thousands of people who would carry the soil used to build the mound in bags.
Before the flood waters of the Tugaloo River arrived, archaeologists discovered that Chauga Mound contains more than 60 graves. They also found a number of artifacts within the mound, including potsherds like the one seen here. It's believed many of the tools, potsherds, ornaments, copper plates and various other items recovered from the mound were deposited as grave goods at the time of burials.
To date, this underwater earthwork in South Carolina remains one of the most baffling sites for historians and archaeologists alike. This is primarily a result of the inability to access, study, and preserve the site for future generations. Did you know about it before now?
