Folkert Mound Group

The Folkert Mound Group of Hardin County, Iowa is a collection of 27 prehistoric mounds on the bluffs above the Iowa River, in a variety of shapes, including linear, compound, conical, and an enigmatic cruciform mound. The earliest map of the mounds was made by John Hotopp in 1974,[2] and the mound group was mapped in detail in 2006.[3] The alignment of the cruciform mound is especially interesting to researchers.[4] Horton[5] felt the cruciform mound aligned with the 11th century Crab Nebula supernova. However Lensink[6] felt there was little evidence of this possible alignment. An apparent alignment of the largest conical mound, A, in the south with the end peaks of the cruciform mound, X, and an alignment between Mound X and the end of longest mound, T, has been postulated, but the meaning of these alignments is unknown.[7]

Folkert Mound Group
Simple outline of the mound group, linears/compounds in green, conicals in orange, cruciform in red.
Locationnear Steamboat Rock, Iowa
Area4.5 acres (1.8 ha)
Architectural styleMound Group
NRHP reference No.09000126[1]
Added to NRHPMarch 17, 2009
Main article: Iowa archaeology

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Hotopp map of 13HA30, 1974, on file, Office of the State Archaeologist, Iowa City.
  3. Collins and Whittaker (2007) Digital Mapping and Ground-Penetrating Radar Survey of the Folkert Mound Group (13HA30), Hardin County, Iowa. Contract Completion Report 1395. Office of the State Archaeologist, University of Iowa, Iowa City.
  4. Collins and Whittaker (2007) Folkert Mound Group Revealed: Restoration and Non-Destructive Mapping of Hardin County Mounds. Newsletter of the Iowa Archaeological Society 57(1):10, http://www.uiowa.edu/~osa/IAS/central/Spring2007.pdf Archived 2009-10-14 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Horton (2007) A Star Explodes! A.D. 1054: Did Prehistoric Native Iowans Witness and Record this Titanic Stellar Event? Newsletter of the Iowa Archaeological Society 57(3):1-2.
  6. Lensink (2007) Newsletter of the Iowa Archaeological Society 57(3):2.
  7. Collins and Whittaker (2009) Alignments at the Folkert Mound Group. Newsletter of the Iowa Archaeological Society 59(1):1-2


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