(AP) — A new state marker in southwestern Indiana honors an archaeologist who championed efforts to preserve a series of ancient Native American earthen mounds.
The marker was dedicated Saturday near the Angel Mounds State Historic Site along the banks of the Ohio River in Evansville. It was erected by the Indiana Historical Bureau in front of Glenn Black’s former home, which is near the site’s entrance.
The Evansville Courier & Press reports the mounds’ importance may have been lost forever without Black’s decades of work at the site, and financial support from an Indianapolis philanthropist. Black died in 1964.
The 603-acre site encompasses 11 mounds that were once part of a fortified, walled city Native Americans occupied until about 1450. It’s considered one of North America’s best-preserved, pre-contact Native American sites.