Ormond Mound
| Ormond Mound | |
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| Florida Historic Site | |
| Indian Mound Park, City of Ormond Beach | |
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| Location: | Volusia County, Florida |
| Nearest city: | Ormond Beach, Florida |
| Coordinates: | 29°16′48.5″N 81°3′12.4″W / 29.280139°N 81.053444°W |
| Governing body: | City of Ormond Beach |
Ormond Mound is a Pre-Columbian burial mound of the St. Johns culture, in Ormond Beach, Volusia County, Florida, US.
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Overview [edit]
The Ormond Mound has been preserved as an intact burial mound in eastern Florida. The site was turned into a City Park in 1982 due to the efforts of the community.
History [edit]
It has been estimated that over 100 individual burials are in Ormond Mound, based on salvage excavations that were conducted in 1982. Most of these remains were laid to rest during the late St. Johns period, after A.D. 800.
A charnel house, a structure used to store bodies prior to burial, was located near the Ormond Mound. Charnel houses were used by the St. Johns people to prepare the corpses of mostly high-ranking and important people for the afterlife. The dead were laid out on wooden racks and allowed to decompose. A charnel house attendant, usually a high priest, would carefully remove the flesh from the bones as they decomposed.[1][2]
After the bodies dried away, the charnel house priest would end up with individual sets of cleaned bones. Each set of bones was bundled up and buried in mounds during special ceremonies. This method accounts for the many skeletons found in burial mounds.[1][2]
References [edit]
- ^ a b True Natives: The Prehistory of Volusia County (1992), By Dana Ste. Claire, The Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach
- ^ a b A Nature Wooing at Ormond by the Sea (1902), By Willis Stanley Blatchley
Gallery [edit]
External links [edit]
Media related to Ormond Mound at Wikimedia Commons
- Ormond Mound at Volusia County Heritage site
- Ormond Beach Historical Society
- Ormond Beach Historical Trust
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