Marksville Emerald Mound and 46 Locations in Louisiana and Mississippi Mark Stars of Auriga: The Indian Trail Natchez Trace Thus Followed the Edge of the Milky Way

The Native America(n) "Indian" mounds of Louisiana and in part Mississippi below the Toltec Mounds of Arkansas mark primarily stars of Auriga, as shown in the graphic image below. The Natchez Trace, the most famed of the Indian Trails, is thus shown to have followed the edge of the Milky Way in the stars.

The mounds in the graphic image below for which there are corresponding stars in Auriga (with a few exceptions in Taurus) are the Winterville Mounds, which at the top of the map illustrations mark Theta Aurigae and nearby stars, Jaketown, Galloway Place Mound, Mott Mounds (presumably Hoedus I, II and nearby stars, but the mound locations are unclear), Hedgepeth Mounds, Scott Place Mounds, Venable Mound, Caney Bajou Mound, Watson Brake Mounds, Filhiol Mound, Landerneau Mounds, Poverty Point Earthworks [which is in Auriga for the continental system, but used locally for astronomical calculation in the Pleiades], Julice Mound, Transylvania Mound, Lower Jackson Mound, Marsden Mounds, Tendal Mound, Schicker Mound, Insley Mounds, Fitzhugh Mounds, Shackleford Church Mounds, Wade Landing Mound, Ghost Site Mounds, Balmoral Mounds, Mayflower Mound, Sundown Mounds, Flowery Mound, Mound Plantation, Magnum Mound, Boothe Landing Mound, Alexander Mound, Harrisonburg Mounds, McGuffee Mounds, Tew Lake Mounds, Routon Mounds, Troyville Earthworks, Peck Mounds, Lamarque Landing Mound, Cypress Grove Mound, Crooks Mound, Churupa Plantation Mound, Frogmore Mound, Emerald Mound (the right corner star of Auriga, Hassaleh, and nearby stars), Natchez Trace, Grand Village of the Natchez, Marksville (marking Elnath, the left corner star of Auriga, assigned incomprehensibly to Taurus by modern astronomers, and nearby stars), Boyd Mounds and LSU Campus Mounds (which are clearly in Taurus).

The Emerald Mound is described at the National Register of Historic Places. The Wikipedia writes:

"The Emerald Mound Site is a Plaquemine Mississippian period archaeological site located on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton, Mississippi, United States. The site dates from the period between 1200 and 1730 CE. The platform mound is the second-largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the country, after Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois. The mound covers eight acres, measuring 770 by 435 feet at the base and 35 feet in height. Emerald Mound has a flat top with two smaller secondary mounds at each end. Travelers in the early 19th century noted a number of adjoining mounds and an encircling ditch that are no longer present. Emerald Mound was stabilized by the National Park Service in 1955. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989."

Mound locations in the illustrations rely in part on Google Earth and in part on the Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map at http://www.megalithic.co.uk with whom we have no affiliation. The astronomical decipherments here have been independently made by Andis Kaulins, March, 2015, Traben-Trarbach.

If you go down far enough on the map to the two mounds on LSU (Louisiana State University) Campus, then those mounds without doubt represent stars in Taurus, but without decipherment of surrounding mounds, the identification of the exact stars corresponding to the LSU mounds would be just a pure guess.

We are grateful to, and wish to note specifically:

• all those who contribute and have contributed to the Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map at http://www.megalithic.co.uk, as also the image overlay at Google Earth, which helped us greatly to decipher these sites. Thank you! The work would be much tougher without that info
• the three-mound photograph at the Boyd Mounds at http://www.natcheztracetravel.com/natchez-trace-mississippi/canton-jackson-ms/173-boyd-mounds.html, which helped us to identify those stars, even though we still have no ground plan of the site available
  
• several online illustrations of the mounds of the Emerald Mound which helped to identify it as marking the right corner star of Auriga, Hassaleh, and the nearby stars
  
• the map illustration of the Mott Mounds online, though the actual location of these mounds still remains unclear, whence also making very provisional their assignment to Hoedus I and II and nearby stars, and
  
• of course, the astronomy software program, Starry Night Pro, which makes this analysis possible, and without which, it would be impossible, and,
  
• the ever-present Wikipedia, which provides us with data in our unquenching thirst for information about the mounds, rock art, cave paintings and petroglyphs of Native America
  

THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 42 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America

Marksville Emerald Mound and 46 Locations in Louisiana and Mississippi Mark Stars of Auriga: The Indian Trail Natchez Trace Thus Followed the Edge of the Milky Way