Approximately fifty miles (eighty kilometers) to the north-west of Atlanta, Georgia, near the city of Cartersville, sit the 'Etowah Indian Mounds', a site which contains the tallest mounds of the Mississippian culture in North America.

On the north bank of the Etowah River, the mound complex spans fifty-four acres (twenty-two hectares) and contains six mounds, three being prominent earthen structures and three lesser ones.

The complex was active between AD 1000-1500 for several thousand inhabitants of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture. These people were the ancestors of the later Muscogee, who were called the Creek by settling Europeans.

They grew corn, beans, and squash, and also crafted intricate jewelry, pottery, and shell carvings. Etowah is the Anglicization of the Cherokee-altered version of the Itza Maya and Itsate Creek word, 'Etula', which means 'principal town'. It was at its peak between about 1325-1375.  
[https://americanlives.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesGeneral/Georgia\_EtowahMounds01.html](https://americanlives.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesGeneral/Georgia_EtowahMounds01.html)

Etowah Mounds: the Etowah Indian Mounds site contains the tallest mounds of the Mississippian South Appalachian culture in North America, a native cultural tradition which preceded the first arrival of Europeans.