[1] These three mounds form an east-west line on a small ridgeline in a farm field.

Believed to have been built by Hopewellian peoples, the mounds are important because they may reveal information about daily life in the Hopewell culture.

For this reason, a site such as Ellis that bears the potential of yielding information about such aspects is valuable indeed, especially because its date has not yet been established: Ellis may have been built as early as 300 BC and as late as AD 600.

Furthermore, the location of the mounds outside of the Hopewellian heartland farther south may demonstrate the spread of Hopewell influence, since excavations in numerous locations have demonstrated the necessity of assembling a complex society with many workers in order to construct the ceremonial mounds for which the Hopewell are well known.

[2] In 1974, the archaeological significance of the Ellis Mounds was recognized when they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.