SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Rising above the end of this city’s central avenue, the prehistoric Criel Mound—one of the largest burial mounds in West Virginia—has long captivated both onlookers and archaeologists alike.
Over the years, its origins have sparked countless theories—ranging from tales of mythic giants to speculation about a lost tribe of Israelites.
In reality, it was constructed nearly 2,000 years ago by indigenous peoples—“Indians” who were of average stature, and it shares similarities with many other mounds and earthworks throughout the eastern U.S.
Yet, something about the mound is remarkably different: the orientation of bodies buried within it is unlike that of other mounds, and this, says archaeologist Bob Maslowski, suggests something peculiar.
“The Criel mound is the only mound in the area with a central burial surrounded by other burials,” he says. In other mounds, burials appear to be more haphazard.
This could imply that the mound at South Charleston marked the site of a kind of nexus—a center point at which many people converged. The mound may represent alliances between tribal groups, and the burials may represent different ethnic groups placed together to solidify alliances.
“Most mounds will have burials that appear to be in random order in terms of directions, and one of the theories about Adena, especially in Kentucky and other areas of West Virginia, is that the burials don’t represent a particular Adena population,” Maslowski says.
“So what you’re getting is groups of people coming together to solidify treaties and other things. It’s a way of cooperating and reduces conflict between groups.”
The term “Adena” is a modern designation used to describe people who shared common practices and inhabited the Ohio Valley region from approximately 500 B.C. to 400 A.D. Their traditions overlapped with those of the Hopewell culture, which occupied the western part of the same region from around 100 B.C. to 400 A.D.
Like the Adena and Hopewell, descendant Native American groups in the 1600s and 1700s followed similar practices, although they did not build large mounds.
“Certain tribes buried their dead with their heads in a particular direction. Local Siouan tribes buried the dead with their heads east, toward the rising sun. Some Algonquian tribes, like the Shawnee, buried their dead with the heads to the west; others buried their dead with heads to the north or south.”
What early archaeologists found at South Charleston
Many of the first Virginian colonists to reach the valley in the late 1700s may have believed the mounds were built by a race that predated the indigenous peoples of the Americas. However, scholars now know they were the forebears of the present-day Native Americans.
While laypersons occasionally dug into the mounds, a serious archaeological study wasn’t performed until 1884. American ethnologist and entomologist Cyrus Thomas spearheaded a survey with the Smithsonian Institution, investigating dozens of mounds and earthworks in the central Kanawha Valley, including those around what’s now Dunbar, Charleston, Saint Albans, and South Charleston.
Thomas and his team partially excavated the Criel mound, then owned by the Criel family, which farmed the valley after the American Civil War, and discovered 13 bodies interred at two different depths. Four feet below the surface, they found two skeletons buried with stone hoes, a projectile point, and stone disks.
At the bottom of the mound, however, they found 11 skeletons — 10 of which surrounded a central figure. Thomas wrote of a similar mound in Sullivan County, Tenn., but most other mound sites in the valley had burials that appeared to be randomly distributed.
Maslowski says the five burials on the east side were found with burial goods, while those on the west side had none, potentially representing two different tribes.
The figure in the center is believed to have been a chief or shaman—someone of great importance, buried with shell beads and copper fragments, which are thought to be remnants of a headdress.
“These customs may go back to the local Adena mound builders, but it hasn’t been studied yet,” says Maslowski. Artifacts excavated from the mound are now housed at the Smithsonian.
Giants, Israelites, and other fallacies about the mound builders
Over the years, myths have circulated surrounding burial mounds. One myth is that giants built the mounds. According to the National Register nomination for the mound, a Charleston resident who assisted in its excavations stated that one of the skeletons measured 6 feet, 8 inches.
However, Maslowski said this was an exaggeration or miscalculation, possibly caused by the pressure of the earth pressing down on the skeleton over time. Most of the bodies recovered were in poor condition, and none were provided to the Smithsonian.
Much of the spectacle about giants and non-native origin was also political propaganda that justified taking land from the Indigenous peoples.
“The intellectuals at that time knew that the mounds were built by Indians. They knew that these Indians most likely came from Asia,” Maslowski says.
“Thomas Jefferson excavated a mound and demonstrated this in the early 1800s. Later on, you get the development of the myths about the Lost Tribes of Israel and all kinds of things like this.”
“If you look at the landscape at Institute and the original maps by the Smithsonian, it looks like some of the picnic shelters are built on top of mounds.
“I don’t know if they did any archaeological work there or not, but that leveling of some of the mounds prevented any further excavations to see if there was evidence of feasting ceremonies. It’s been a major loss in terms of archaeological information.”
This loss also means it is difficult to prove precisely when these mounds were built.
“There’s a lot in the Smithsonian from these mound excavations, but the provenance isn’t well documented, and the problem is we don’t have a lot of radiocarbon dates,” he says.
“We can’t put a modern up-to-date sequence of the building of these mounds—how long mound-building periods lasted, when it ended, what changes were made after it ended.”
It’s essential to preserve the remaining mounds and learn from those who came before, he says.
Most of the mounds in the Kanawha Valley were destroyed during the area’s industrialization, which began in the 1870s. Four known remaining mounds are the Criel Mound, the Wilson Mound in Institute, the Shawnee Mound in Dunbar, and a flat-topped mound adjacent to Sunset Memorial Park.
“It’s part of the history of the area and the human race. Archaeologists feel that you can learn a lot from studying these ancient civilizations, how they changed and adapted to change,” Maslowski said.
“When you look at it from a world perspective, societies have been adapting to climate change and economic change for tens of thousands of years, and how those societies adapt determines whether they continue to exist or become extinct.”
Kanawha Valley in W.Va. had the highest concentration of burial mounds
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha Valley in western West Virginia once had the highest concentration of burial mounds in North America, though most were destroyed. More than 400 mounds have been recorded in West Virginia, and their presence was once so extensive that explorers couldn’t believe they were of Native American origin. READ MORE…
For more stories like this, sign up to receive a FREE copy of West Virginia Explorer Magazine in your email twice weekly. Sign me up!
I enjoyed this article. We should know more about those who lived and died in the Kanawha Valley.
Thank you, Mr. Helvey! We will continue to examine its history over time.
There is a Native American mound outside of Greenville, MS. Would love to know if any research has been done there.
According to Abraham Lincoln those mounds are Giants mounds. Made by the giants. Look it up..
Purportedly The Adena had members of large statue 8 to 9′ tall maybe larger confirmed by excavation. The Adena culture eventually evolved into The Hopewell culture who built more advanced earthworks and smelted copper and other metals proven by evidence at Fort Hill Ohio. I lived a couple of miles up steam of Hopewell Mound on North Fork of Paint Creek at the confluence of a small tributary. Many stone tools were found, stone jewelry and even one of those furnaces upstream of the small tributary waters. The descendant culture referenced is The Fort Ancient Culture and Mound, one of the final and most complex cultures and mounds built before the advanced ancient technology of astrological alignment was lost. Alignments with the Sun cycle are no easy task without advanced mathematics, alignments with a 17.5 year moon cycle require even more complex mathematics but have been proven. Oh, how I miss my place in Chillicothe Ohio, considered to be the center of even the most ancient cultures. I’m finished interjecting.
I found mound that is big they stripped all the lime stone slabs from the hill and built it. I cand imagine how they move those slabs. We always find arrow heads in the area. It is around 100 ft by 40ft
The Criel Mound in South Charleston WV is interesting. Having known Indian Woman from Canada I can assure you that some were tall I’m only 6 feet myself but I think that the Indians have been short because of inbreeding it’s quite common.
There’s a mound at Teays cemetery. My great grandparents are buried there. I wish I’d kept my grandmother’s scrapbooks. I got 10 and my 2 cousins each got the other 10. In one of theirs, there was a huge story with pics of when the South Chas. mound was opened. It showed the tall sleletons arranged in a circle with their feet touching. Another photo showed the skeletons on shelves at The Smithsonian
My male cousin died 13 years ago and my other cousin put hers in a storage unit long ago. Mine are gone but I did keep important articles. Sadly not this one. I’m pretty sure that the year waa 1938 and the artcle was in The Charleston Daily Mail. I wasn’t born yet but later on I’d read and reread that article with photos. Much layer I found out that no one at The Smithdonian knows where the skeletons and their belongings are. I think that’s extremely odd. In the article, it said that both male and female skeletons were over seven feet tall.
I’m sorry for the two or more typos. The mound at Teays Cemetery is near the Coal River and St. Albans.
Man, I hope my worst fears don’t culminate at a government cover-up…
This was VERY INTERESTING.I OFTEN WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO DIED GOING OUT WEST. WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR BONES WHEN A TOWN WAS MADE DID THEY TAKE CARE OF THE OTHER BONES OR DID THEY JUST THROW THEM AWAY OH PLEASE TELL ME THEY TOOK. REALLY GOOD CARE OF THEM.
Love being educated on the as I say the life of ALL the people in West Virginia
It let all outsiders know that their is a lot of history and we continue will continue to grow our state
kI think it would be nice if you told us where this mound in WV is located! You give a great history of it, all about why it was built, and everything but where it is so we could go visit it
Searching for an archeologist who can assist in researching and preserving a Criel mound in Western side of Viriginia.
I never knew there was a mound across from Sunset Cemetery but it makes sense as that land is close to the river. There is still a white duplex to the left of the funeral home. My parents and I lived on the left side when I was six to eight years old. My step grandfather owned that entire block but not sure about thr funeral home. It used to be a two story brick house. Whoever owned it had an answering machine business.
Read Africa and the discovery of America by Leo Weiner. Weiner says the mound builders are misnomered as Indians and that the mound builders are of African origin. Specifically West African that the peoples along the Niger River built conical mounds similar to the ones found along the Monongahela Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Sometimes the official narrative is an error. Also David Imhotep The first Americans were Africans.
Read Africa and the discovery of America by Leo Weiner. Weiner says the mound builders are misnomered as Indians and that the mound builders are of African origin. Specifically West African that the peoples along the Niger River built conical mounds similar to the ones found along the Monongahela Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Sometimes the official narrative is an error. Also David Imhotep The first Americans were Africans.
Adena arrived 2000-1800 BC and mostly disappeared 600 BC and were an average height of 6+ feet, many were shorter but many were over 7 foot +. They built many of the mounds in the US of A in conical shape and they built many of the city earthworks that we find as the ruins of their cities which cities the Hopewell people took over and remodeled to their use, and also built mounds of their own, adding on top of some Adena mounds. The Hopewell arrived first in 600 AD down in the Florida area and then split into two general factions with one staying generally south while the other migrated to the Tennessee area and later north to the plains of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and later still, heavily, to Ohio where much of the Adena had been and some further north and east, where they mined lots of raw copper in the Lakes Superior/Michigan area like too the Adena, and shipped much out to other lands, for they have traced it, metallurgic-ally, to UK, Europe, Mid East, etc. The south faction are the cousins of the Hopewell known as the American Indian, who mixed some, later after the Hopewell mostly disappeared 400 AD, with a remnant of Adena and a remnant of Hopewell and slowly spread all over this country as various tribes.
Very interesting information about the mounds. I didn’t know about the mound in Pinch
My sister has a house there, and I got here every year. I will try to find it on my next visit.
Can someone tell me where it is.
I have been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this site. Thank you, I’ll try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your site?