Eastern Woodlands · 1700 BC-500 AD

Earthworks: the mound builders of North America

Thousands of years ago, Native peoples in North America raised giant earth rings, burial mounds and geometric earthworks. Students explore Poverty Point, the Adena and the Hopewell, and a myth that tried to take this history away from them.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 1500 BC to AD 100
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Thousands of years ago, Native peoples in North America raised giant earth rings, burial mounds and geometric earthworks. Students explore Poverty Point, the Adena and the Hopewell, and a myth that tried to take this history away from them.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe what the earthworks of Poverty Point, the Adena and the Hopewell looked like and roughly when they were built.
  • Trace on the map how far Hopewell trade goods travelled.
  • Explain why the 19th-century "lost race" myth about the mounds was wrong and harmful.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

1500 BC

Rings by the river

Open the map in 1500 BC near the lower Mississippi River. Find the area labelled Poverty Point culture. Its builders fished, hunted and gathered. Why might they choose a place near big rivers?

Open this view on the map
b

500 BC

Mounds of the Ohio valley

Jump to 500 BC and find the Adena Culture in the Ohio River valley. Then drag the slider to 100 AD. Which new name appears, and how much larger is its area?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 100

A trade network

Stay in 100 AD and zoom out. Hopewell people used copper from Lake Superior, shells from the Gulf of Mexico and obsidian from the Rocky Mountains. Find all three regions. How far apart are they?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Poverty Point was built by people who did not farm. What does that tell us about who can build big monuments?
  2. Why would people carry copper, shells and obsidian over thousands of kilometres?
  3. Many mounds were burial places. How should such places be treated today?
  4. In the 1800s, many settlers claimed that a "lost race", not Native Americans, built the mounds. Why would people want to believe that?
  5. Most mounds were ploughed flat or built over. What is lost when a monument disappears?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt in the centuries when Poverty Point was being built. Afterwards, compare: Egypt's monuments were ordered by a ruler. Who might have organised the work at Poverty Point, where we know of no king?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.