Golden Eagle-Toppmeyer Site, Archaeological site in Calhoun County, United States.
The Golden Eagle-Toppmeyer Site in Calhoun County, Illinois, near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, has two components: the Golden Eagle earthwork, a rounded geometric enclosure with one mound at its center and another at a gap called the entrance, and the Toppmeyer habitation site, which overlaps the earthwork's western edge.
The Golden Eagle earthwork was built during the Middle Woodland period, roughly 150 BC to 450 AD, by people of the Havana Hopewell culture. The Toppmeyer habitation site, overlapping the earthwork's western edge, dates to the Late Woodland period around 750 AD. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 14, 1979.
The site's name links the Golden Eagle earthwork with the Toppmeyer habitation site, whose remains overlap the earthwork's western edge. Hopewell people of the Illinois River valley are thought to have met here for trade and cultural exchange, making the location a regional transaction center. Visitors can look for the gap called the entrance, where one of the two mounds sits.
The site lies near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in Calhoun County, Illinois. It is an unexcavated archaeological site with no visitor facilities, so access is for research and observation only. Ground cover is open field; wear outdoor footwear and stay off the mounds and earthwork ridges to avoid damaging the features.
The earthwork has a gap called the "entrance", and a second mound sits within it rather than at the centre, where the other mound lies. The Toppmeyer habitation site overlaps the earthwork's western edge and dates to the Late Woodland period, around 750 AD.
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