Archaeotrek
( The Incredible Lake George Mound Complex—Mississippi )
By Dr. Greg Little
Portions of this article and the illustration are extracted from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Mounds & Earthworks.
The Lake George mounds are located 1.5 miles southeast of Holly Bluff, Mississippi on private land. They are on the south side of George Lake, about a half-mile east of the confluence of the lake with the Sunflower River. The site is cut in half by a county road giving visible access to the site. Numerous large mounds remain at the site as well as the remains of the huge wall that once surrounded the entire complex. The central village was contained by a massive palisade wall enclosing 25 mounds, with the largest once standing 60-feet high. The rectangular outer embankment used to support the palisade is still about 8-feet high. As can be seen in the archaeological reconstruction of the site, it was a huge, well-laid out complex of mounds, plazas, and a village.
The site is dominated by a massive truncated pyramid located in the center with two plaza areas associated with it. The huge central mound stands 55-feet high today and the identifiable remains of 24 other mounds are present. The design is considered to be quite unusual by archaeologists and it is known that the site was occupied for at least 1000 years. It was abandoned around A.D. 1200. Archaeologists performed excavations at the site in 1958-60 and removed what they described as hundreds of skeletons.