Neanderthals to Mound Builders

The Effigy Mound Builders picked up where the Neanderthal, Paleolithic and Holocene people left off. In each culture, the people are looking for a way to explain their existence and the events that make up their daily lives. The progression from Neanderthal to Paleolithic to Holocene and finally Effigy mound builders is all connected to the environment the groups lived in and the changes that happened over their course of existence.

The earlier cultures, the Neanderthals, Paleolithics and Holocenes, created art that reflected what they saw in everyday life, like men being killed, such as the painting in the Lascaux cave we studied on Wednesday. They painted pictures of animals that they had a connection to; animals that they interacted with and related to. This is much the same as what the mound builders did with their images on their pottery of the upperworld and lowerworld. They obviously are representations of animals, such as birds and serpents and fish. Perhaps this is where the earlier cultures, like the Paleolithic people, were going when they painted images of deer and bison. These were animals they saw and interacted with on a regular basis. The people knew the animals were powerful and important to their daily life and their general survival, or in many cases, their death. So they painted them and represented them. Perhaps they were trying to glorify them in the only way they knew possible.

The mound builders certainly succeeded beyond the efforts of the earlier cultures in glorifying their spirits. Instead of just painting them, they connected with them in a way even the Holocene people failed to do. They gave them symbols, they turned them into burial mounds and held elaborate ceremonies to honor the dead buried in the figures. According to Robert Hall, the representation of spirits in mounds and on other forms of art actually connect with the symbols or totems belonging to Indian tribes. The mound builders really tried to make a connection with these animals and bring them into their lives as a way to find harmony and connection in their world.