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Crystal River Indian Mounds
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Temple mound
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Location	Crystal River, Florida
Coordinates	28°54′33.3″N 82°37′42.81″W / 28.909250°N 82.6285583°W / 28.909250; -82.6285583
Area	61 acres (250,000 m)
Visitation	21,000
NRHP reference No.	70000178
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	September 29, 1970
Designated NHL	June 21, 1990

Crystal River State Archaeological Site is a 61-acre (250,000 m) Florida State Park located on the Crystal River and within the Crystal River Preserve State Park. The park is located two miles (3 km) northwest of the city of Crystal River, on Museum Point off U.S. 19/98.

Under the title of Crystal River Indian Mounds, it is also a U.S. National Historic Landmark (designated as such on June 21, 1990).

History

The park contains a six-mound complex, occupied from the Deptford period through Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture and up to the Late Fort Walton period. This timespan makes it one of the longest continually occupied sites in Florida, believed to have been occupied for 1,600 years. Native Americans traveled long distances to the complex to bury their dead and to engage in trading activities. An estimated 7,500 people may have visited the complex annually when it was occupied. The complex contains burial mounds, temple/platform mounds, a plaza area, and a midden. The earliest burials at the site are believed to be located in the conical mound and date back to about 250 BC. Many of the people buried in this mound had copper tools and ornaments buried with them. The copper artifacts came from the Ohio River area through a trade network developed by the Hopewell culture that existed at the time. There seemed to be indirect trading between the people who lived here and the Hopewell culture. People that were buried later did not have this type of artifacts buried with them and some burials do not contain artifacts. This tells us that over the 2,000 years that ancient people used the site, burial practices and ceremonies changed. It also tells us that trading with the northern portions of North America changed. The shell and sand ring also contains burials some of which were placed between layers of shells while others were not. It is not clear why this occurred or whether it was related to status or just a change in the burial customs. The platform was constructed as burials filled in the gap between the ring and the cone. It is estimated that about 1,200 to 1,500 people are buried in this complex.

Over a period of approximately 1,900 years, beginning about 500 BC, the Native Americans at the Crystal River Site threw away great quantities of materials that would form the middens that adorn the site. This "midden material" contained various kinds of woodland animal bones, fish bones, turtle shells, broken pottery, broken hand tools and arrowheads. By the time of abandonment, the midden area had reached 1,300 feet (400 m) in length, 100 feet (30 m) in width, 7 feet (2 m) in depth, and was formed into a crescent shape. Two large platform mounds are believed to have been used primarily for ceremonial purposes. A 1⁄2 mile (800 m) paved loop trail passes by each mound, with signs interpreting the mounds. A 55 step observation deck atop the park's largest mound, Temple Mound, provides a panoramic view of the area. The park contains coastal marsh and is part of the Great Florida Birding Trail.

The park is also home to a limestone slab, possibly a "stele", on which is a crudely carved human face and torso. This is odd because the slab is one that is not found on other mound sites except in locations such as the Caribbean, South America, and Central America. At this particular site there were at least four of these large stones placed by the inhabitants in their ancient time. This carving shows that the person represented possessed long hair in a plume over the left shoulder. There has been debate as to how strongly this inscribed stone slab was influenced by the monumental stelae of Mesoamerica. Although there may be some evidence for contact between the Huastec Culture of the Mexican Gulf Coast and the American Southeast, those claims which suggest the most direct connections are probably unfounded. The slab is today housed on the site within a metal cage.

Roberts Island

A complex of mounds and middens on Roberts Island, 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) downstream on the Crystal River from the park, was added to the park in 1996. The Roberts Island complex succeeded the Crystal River site as a ceremonial center in the 9th and 10th centuries.

Recreational activities

Activities include salt and fresh water fishing, picnicing, bird watching and a boat tour of Crystal River. Amenities include a small picnic area. The visitor center/museum features an open captioned video about the tribes that once lived in the area, and houses a collection of artifacts from the site, including arrowheads, pottery, jewelry, stone and bone tools. A centerpiece diorama dominates the interior of the museum, depicting a scale model of the site as it may have looked centuries before its abandonment.

See also

• Mound
• Mound builder (people)
• Earthwork (archaeology)

References

1. "National Register of Historical Places - Florida (FL), Citrus County". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. February 25, 2007. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016. Retrieved August 15, 2006.
2. Crystal River Site Archived 2009-05-02 at the Wayback Machine at National Historic Landmarks Program Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
3. Williams H. Sears (1962). "Hopewellian affiliations of certain sites on the Gulf Coast of Florida". American Antiquity. 28 (1): 5–18. doi:10.2307/278073. JSTOR 278073. S2CID 162379707.
4. ^ Crystal River State parks Archived 2009-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
5. Milanich, Jerald T. (1994). Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-8130-1273-5.
6. Milanich, Jerald T. (1999). Famous Florida Sites: Mount Royal and Crystal River. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. pp. 22–23. ISBN 978-0-8130-1694-8.
7. Bullen, Ripley P. (1966). "Stelae at the Crystal River Site, Florida". American Antiquity, 31(6):865
8. Snow, Dean R. (2010). Archaeology of Native North America. New York, New York: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-615686-4.
9. Florida DEP (October 27, 2008). "Crystal River Archaeological State Park Unit Management Plan" (PDF). Florida Department of Environmental Protection. p. 19. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 11, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
10. van Hoose, Natalie (May 14, 2020). "During tough times, ancient tourists sought solace in Florida oyster feasts". Florida Museum. Archived from the original on May 4, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2021.

Further reading

• Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Victor D. Thompson. New Histories of Village Life at Crystal River. Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series. Gainesville University of Florida Press, 2018. ISBN 978-1-68340-035-6.

External links

• Official website
• Crystal River State Archaeological Site pictures at Florida Center for Instructional Technology

v t e Hopewellian peoples
Woodland period List of Hopewell sites Mound Builders List of archaeological periods (North America)
Ohio Hopewell	Beam Farm Benham Mound Cary Village Site Cedar-Bank Works Dunns Pond Mound Ellis Mounds Ety Enclosure Ety Habitation Site Everett Knoll Complex Fort Ancient Fortified Hill Works Great Hopewell Road High Banks Works Hopeton Earthworks Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Indian Mound Cemetery Keiter Mound Marietta Earthworks Moorehead Circle Mound of Pipes Nettle Lake Mound Group Newark Earthworks Oak Mounds Orators Perin Village Site Pollock Works Portsmouth Earthworks Rocky Fork Enclosures Rocky Fork Mounds Seip Earthworks and Dill Mounds District Shawnee Lookout Shriver Circle Earthworks Stubbs Earthworks Tremper Mound and Works Williamson Mound Archeological District
Crab Orchard culture	Carrier Mills Archaeological District Cleiman Mound Hubele site Mann site Mount Vernon Site O'byams Fort site Wilson site Yankeetown site
Goodall focus	Goodall site Norton Mound group
Havana Hopewell culture	Albany Mounds State Historic Site Dickson Mounds Duncan Farm Golden Eagle-Toppmeyer Site Kamp Mound Site Mound House site Naples Archeological District Naples Mound 8 Ogden-Fettie Site Rockwell Mound Sinnissippi Mounds Toolesboro Mound Group
Kansas City Hopewell	Cloverdale archaeological site Renner Village Archeological Site Trowbridge Archeological Site
Marksville culture	Crooks Mound Grand Gulf Mound Marksville Prehistoric Indian Site Mott Archaeological Preserve
Miller culture	Bynum Mound and Village Site Ingomar Mound Miller Site Pharr Mounds Pinson Mounds
Point Peninsula complex	Lewiston Mound Serpent Mounds Park LeVescounte Mounds
Swift Creek culture Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture	Crystal River Archaeological State Park Etowah Indian Mounds Leake Mounds Kolomoki Mounds Miner's Creek site Pierce Site Swift Creek mound site Third Gulf Breeze Yearwood site Yent Mound
Other Hopewellian peoples	Armstrong culture Copena culture Fourche Maline culture Laurel complex Saugeen complex Old Stone Fort (Tennessee)
Exotic trade items	Copper Galena Mica Fresh water pearls Obsidian Pipestone Sea shells
Related topics Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley Black drink burial mound Ceremonial pipe Effigy mound Hopewell pottery Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks Horned Serpent Eastern Agricultural Complex Underwater panther

v t e Mississippian and related cultures
List of Mississippian sites Timeline of Mississippi valley
Middle Mississippian	American Bottom and Upper Mississippi Aztalan Big Eddy Cahokia Monks Mound Mound 34 Mound 72 Ramey state Woodhenge Cloverdale Dickson Mounds Emerald Acropolis Emmons Cemetery Horseshoe Lake John Chapman Kuhn Station Larson Lunsford-Pulcher McCune Mitchell Orendorf Sleeth Starr Steed-Kisker culture Sugarloaf Mound Lower Ohio River and Confluence area Adams site Dogtooth Bend Mounds Kincaid Mounds Marshall Site Millstone Bluff Orr-Herl Rowlandton Mound Towosahgy Turk Site Twin Mounds Ware Mounds Wickliffe Mounds Middle Ohio River Angel Mounds Angel phase Annis Mound Bone Bank Caborn-Welborn culture Ellerbusch Hovey Lake-Klein Hovey Lake District Murphy Prather Slack Farm Tolu Welborn Village Yankeetown Tennessee and Cumberland Backusburg Beasley Mounds Brentwood Library Brick Church Castalian Springs Dunbar Cave Fewkes Group Hiwassee Island Link Farm Mound Bottom Riverview Sellars Obion Old Town Swallow Bluff Central and Lower Mississippi Belle Meade Boone's Boyd Campbell Carson Chucalissa Denmark Eaker Janet's Menard-Hodges Murphy Nodena Nodena phase Owl Creek Parkin Quigualtam Tipton phase Tunica Koroa Yazoo Walls phase
South Appalachian Mississippian	Adamson Avery Beaverdam Creek Bell Field Mound Bessemer Biltmore Blair Bussell Island Chauga Chiaha Chota Citico Coosa Dallas phase Dyar Etowah Garden Creek Hoojah Branch Irene Jere Shine Joara Joe Bell King Lamar Lamar phase Liddell Little Egypt Long Swamp Mabila Mandeville McMahan Moccasin Bend Moundville Mouse Creek phase Mulberry Muscogee (Creek) Nacoochee Nikwasi Ocmulgee Park Mound Pisgah phase Punk Rock Shelter Rembert Roods Landing Rucker's Bottom Savannah Shiloh Sixtoe Summerour Taskigi Tomotley Toqua Town Creek Waddells Mill Pond Wilbanks
Fort Walton culture	Anhaica Apalachee Apalachee Province Cayson Corbin–Tucker Fort Walton Mound Lake Jackson Leon-Jefferson culture Letchworth Velda Yon
Pensacola culture	Bottle Creek Dauphin Island Fort Walton Hickory Ridge Cemetery Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Pensacola people
Plaquemine Mississippian	Anna Atchafalaya Basin Emerald Fitzhugh Flowery Fosters Ghost Glass Grand Village of the Natchez Holly Bluff Jaketown Jordan Julice Mangum Mazique Medora Mott Natchez Taensa Pocahontas Routh Scott Place Sims Transylvania Venable Winterville
Caddoan Mississippian	Battle Belcher Blue Spring Shelter Bluffton Caddo Caddoan Mounds Gahagan Hughes Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village Keller Spiro
Upper Mississippian cultures	Oneota Anker Beattie Park Blood Run Carcajou Point Fifield Fisher Mound Group Gentleman Farm Grand Village of the Illinois Griesmer Hartley Fort Hotel Plaza Hoxie Farm Huber Juntunen Knoll Spring Mero site Moccasin Bluff Oak Forest Palos Plum Island Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs Schwerdt Summer Island Fort Ancient culture Alligator Effigy Mound Clover Dodge Leo Petroglyph Serpent Mound SunWatch Indian Village
Culture	Agriculture Beans Chenopodium Little barley Maize Marshelder Pumpkin Squash Sunflower Three Sisters Tobacco Artwork Emmons mask Copper plates Rogan plates Spiro plates Wulfing cache Duck River cache Long-nosed god maskette Mill Creek chert Pottery Shell gorget Stone statuary Languages Caddoan Central Algonquian Cherokee Mobilian Jargon Muskogean Natchez Taensa Siouan Timucuan Tunican Yuchi Religion Ballgame (Southeastern) Northern Black drink Burial mound Ceremonial pipe Chanunpa Chunkey Earth/fertility cult Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Platform mound Red Horn Sacred bundle Village bundle Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stone box grave Thunderbird Underwater panther
Related topics Chevron bead Clarksdale bell Mound Builders de Soto Expedition

v t e Indigenous peoples of Pre-Columbian Florida
Periods Paleoindians Archaic period Post-Archaic period
Archaeological cultures	Alachua Belle Glade Cades Pond Caloosahatchee Clovis Deptford Fort Walton Glades Leon-Jefferson Manasota Mount Taylor Norwood Orange period Paleo-Indians Pensacola Safety Harbor Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Suwannee Valley Swift Creek Weeden Island McKeithen North peninsular Gulf coast
Archaeological sites	Apalachee Bay Aqui Esta Burial Mound Bay Pines Bear Lake Mounds Big Heart West Big Mound City Big Mound Key-Boggess Ridge Bird Hammock Blueberry Bowers Bluff Middens Bubba Midden Burns Lake Butcherpen Mound Cayo Pelau Cayson Mound and Village C. J. Ostl Crystal River Cutler Demere Key Devil's Den Cave Dismal Key Douglass Beach Fort Center Fort Walton Mound Galt Island Garden Patch Green Mound Halfway Creek Helen Blazes Hickory Ridge Cemetery Hinson Mounds Horr's Island Indian Fields J&J Hunt Josslyn Island Jungle Prada Key Marco Kimball Island Midden Lake Jackson Mounds Lake Pithlachocco Letchworth-Love Mounds Little Salt Spring Madira Bickel Mound Mark Pardo Shellworks Miami Circle Mill Cove Monroe Lake Mound Key Mount Elizabeth Mount Royal Mount Taylor Mullet Key Myakkahatchee Creek Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Nocoroco Ormond Mound Ortona Prehistoric Village Otis Hare Page-Ladson Persimmon Mound Pierce Pineland Platt Island Plaza Pompano Beach Mound Portavant Mound Porter's Bar Princess Mound River Styx Roberts Island Rock Mound Rookery Mound Ross Hammock Safety Harbor Shark River Slough Shell Bluff Landing Spruce Creek Third Gulf Breeze Thomas Creek Turner River Turtle Mound Twin Mounds Upper Tampa Bay Useppa Island Velda Mound Waddells Mill Pond Wakulla Springs Yent Mound Yon Mound and Village
Human remains	Manasota Key Offshore Melbourne Man Vero man Warm Mineral Springs Windover
Miscellaneous	Beaver Lake point Indigenous peoples of the Everglades region Protection of Native American sites in Florida Shell ring List of shell ring sites#Florida Shell works Simpson point Suwannee point
Related Pre-Columbian era

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Florida
Lists by county	Alachua Baker Bay Bradford Brevard Broward Calhoun Charlotte Citrus Clay Collier Columbia DeSoto Dixie Duval Escambia Flagler Franklin Gadsden Gilchrist Glades Gulf Hamilton Hardee Hendry Hernando Highlands Hillsborough Holmes Indian River Jackson Jefferson Lake Lee Leon Levy Liberty Madison Manatee Marion Martin Miami-Dade Monroe Nassau Okaloosa Okeechobee Orange Osceola Palm Beach Pasco Pinellas Polk Putnam Santa Rosa Sarasota Seminole St. Johns St. Lucie Sumter Suwannee Taylor Union Volusia Wakulla Walton Washington
Lists by city	Miami Tampa
Other lists	Black Public Schools Bridges Multiple Property Submissions National Historic Landmarks Woman's clubhouses
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

• Swift Creek culture
• South Appalachian Mississippian culture
• Native American museums in Florida
• Museums in Citrus County, Florida
• Archaeological museums in Florida
• Archaeological sites in Florida
• National Historic Landmarks in Florida
• State parks of Florida
• Parks in Citrus County, Florida
• Protected areas established in 1970
• Archaeological parks
• Florida Native American Heritage Trail
• Crystal River, Florida
• Mounds in Florida
• Native American history of Florida
• National Register of Historic Places in Citrus County, Florida
• 1970 establishments in Florida