About this property
Crystal River Archaeological State Park is a 61-acre (25 ha) Florida state park in Citrus County, preserving the pre-Columbian mound complex officially designated the Crystal River Site (Florida Master Site File 8CI1) and the associated Roberts Island complex downstream. The park occupies a low bluff on the north bank of the Crystal River roughly 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) above its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, within the boundary of Crystal River Preserve State Park and about two miles west and one mile north of the city of Crystal River. It was established on August 6, 1962, as Crystal River State Archaeological Site under the Florida Park Service, renamed to its current form after the reclassification of Florida's state archaeological sites as archaeological state parks, and is administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The mound complex on the park's main parcel includes an approximately 8 metres (26 feet)-tall stepped platform mound (Mound A), several smaller flat-topped platform mounds (H, J, and K), a circular earthen embankment enclosing three smaller burial mounds and a central sand mound (the Main Burial Complex, Mounds C through F), a discrete burial mound (G), an extensive crescent-shaped shell midden ridge (B), and three upright limestone "stelae," two of which bear low-relief anthropomorphic carvings. On the current Bayesian-modeled chronology developed by Thomas J. Pluckhahn and Victor D. Thompson, substantive use of the site began by the second century AD and continued through the late Weeden Island period; activity at the main complex declined by around AD 1050 as ceremonial functions shifted downstream to the Roberts Island complex, where mound-building and occupation continued until the complex was largely depopulated around AD 1233. Professional investigation of the complex began with Clarence B. Moore in 1903, whose excavations at the Main Burial Complex recovered copper panpipes and ornaments, mica sheet, quartz crystals, and marine-shell objects that would anchor debate over Crystal River's long-distance connections for the following century. Ripley P. Bullen conducted the first systematic modern investigations in the 1950s and 1960s, establishing the mound designations still in use and documenting two carved limestone stelae uncovered as the property was cleared for state park development in 1964. William H. Sears's 1962 paper formally placed the site within the Hopewell interaction sphere as a primarily mortuary center, an interpretation that dominated discussion for the following four decades; the multi-year reinvestigation by Pluckhahn and Thompson under the Crystal River Early Village Archaeological Project, published in 2018, has since substantially revised the received chronology and reframed the site as a long-occupied village and ceremonial complex integrated into a broader web of regional and interregional exchange.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Crystal River Indian Mounds
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Questions about this property
When was Crystal River Indian Mounds listed on the National Register?
Crystal River Indian Mounds was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 1970.
What type of historic resource is Crystal River Indian Mounds?
Crystal River Indian Mounds is classified as a site in the National Register of Historic Places.
Is Crystal River Indian Mounds a National Historic Landmark?
Yes. Crystal River Indian Mounds has been designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL), the highest level of federal recognition for historic properties in the United States.
What is the period of significance for Crystal River Indian Mounds?
The period of significance for Crystal River Indian Mounds is recorded as the modern era, specifically around 1970.
Can I research the history near Crystal River Indian Mounds?
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