They depict the richness and depth of pre-Columbian culture, science, astronomy, and sacred monumental architecture.

[1] UNESCO inscribed the earthworks as the United States' 25th and newest World Heritage Site on September 19, 2023.

These goods were fashioned into elaborate artifacts like carved sheets of mica and stone animal effigy pipes.

[2][5] The exact function or specific construction timelines for the mounds remain unclear due to centuries of neglect and destruction, lack of written or oral information and the unique nature of the sites.

As a result, it is believed that the mounds were constructed by hunter-gatherers as ceremonial and burial sites, in contrast with centralized mound-building societies like those at Cahokia centuries later.