Foster's Mound

Foster's Mound (22 AD 503) is a Plaquemine culture archaeological site located in Adams County, Mississippi northeast of Natchez off US 61. It is the type site for the Foster Phase (1350-1500 CE) of the Natchez Bluffs Plaquemine culture chronology. It was added to the NRHP on September 2, 1982 as NRIS number 82003091.

Description

The Foster's site has two platform mounds and is located on the northern bank of St. Catherine Creek near its confluence with the Mississippi River. The largest mound, Mound A, is 3 metres (9.8 ft) in height and 30 metres (98 ft) by 30 metres (98 ft) at its base and has had a plantation house on its summit since the 1790s. Its dimensions were originally smaller but it was enlarged to accommodate the veranda of the plantation house. Mound B is 220 metres (720 ft) to the south across a large plaza area. It is an amorphous blob about 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) at its highest point. It has been seriously eroded by the creek and is barely recognizable as a rectangular platform mound. The site sat at a major crossroads in Precolumbian times, because of its location on the original route of the Natchez Trace, directly connected to Emerald Mound to the northeast and the Grand Village of the Natchez to the southwest, and its proximity to the Mississippi River. The site was excavated in 1971-72 by Jeffrey P. Brain as part of the Lower Mississippi Survey for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University. Pottery recovered from beneath the mounds was found to be proto-Natchezan and was instrumental in defining the protohistoric Foster Phase (1350 to 1500 CE) of the Plaquemine culture chronology.

Mound

A mound is an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. The most common use is in reference to natural earthen formation such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. The term may also be applied to any rounded area of topographically higher elevation on any surface. Artificial mounds have been created for a variety of reasons throughout history, including ceremonial (platform mound), burial (tumulus), and commemorative purposes (e.g. Kościuszko Mound).

Archaeology

North American archaeology

In the archaeology of the United States and Canada, the term "mound" has specific and technical connotations. In this sense, a mound is a deliberately constructed elevated earthen structure or earthwork, intended for a range of potential uses. In European and Asian archaeology, the word "tumulus" may be used as a synonym for an artificial hill, particularly if the hill is related to particular burial customs.

While the term "mound" may be applied to historic constructions, most mounds in the United States are pre-Columbian earthworks, built by Native American peoples. Native Americans built a variety of mounds, including flat-topped pyramids or cones known as platform mounds, rounded cones, and ridge or loaf-shaped mounds. Some mounds took on unusual shapes, such as the outline of cosmologically significant animals. These are known as effigy mounds. Some mounds, such as a few in Wisconsin, have rock formations, or petroforms within them, on them, or near them.

Mound (disambiguation)

A mound is an artificial heap or pile, especially of earth, rocks, or sand.

Mound and Mounds may also refer to:

In places:

See also:

Rift (album)

Rift is the fourth official studio album by the American rock band Phish. It is the band's second concept album, the first being The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday in 1987, which has never been officially released. Rift's songs convey the experience of a man dreaming about the rift in his relationship with his girlfriend. Recorded in September and October 1992 and produced by Muscle Shoals music veteran Barry Beckett, the album was released by Elektra Records on February 2, 1993.

All songs were written by Trey Anastasio and Phish lyricist Tom Marshall except "Mound" and "Weigh" by bass guitarist Mike Gordon and "Lengthwise" by drummer Jon Fishman.

The instrumental, "All Things Reconsidered", is an intentional variation on the theme to the National Public Radio news show All Things Considered, and has been featured on the show itself several times. An orchestral version of the song appears on Trey Anastasio's 2004 solo album Seis De Mayo.

The cover art was created by New York-based painter David Welker, who worked closely with the band during winter 1993 in order to visually depict each of the album's tracks in a single image, with the notable exception of "The Horse". (For this reason, a horse intentionally appears on the cover of Phish's next album, Hoist). Relix magazine listed Rift as one of the most iconic album covers of all time in 2007.