The Pinson Mounds comprise a prehistoric Native American complex located in Madison County, Tennessee, in the region that is known as the Eastern Woodlands.

The complex, which includes 17 mounds, an earthen geometric enclosure, and numerous habitation areas, was most likely built during the Middle Woodland period (c. 1-500 AD).

Most mounds were probably constructed between 100 and 300 AD, based on radiocarbon dating and the predominance of Woodland-period artifacts found at the site.

[2] At the request of the Jackson Archaeological Society and the National Park Service, in December 1961 the University of Tennessee archaeologists Fred Fisher and Charles McNutt carried out the first major excavation of the Pinson Mounds.

In the Mound 14 Sector, Fisher and McNutt discovered the remains of a 21 by 18 feet (6.4 m × 5.5 m) house surrounded by a posthole-lined wall-trench and containing a central hearth and storage pits.

Based primarily on the vast amount of pre-Mississippian culture debris found at the site and radiocarbon dating of charcoal, Fisher and McNutt concluded that the Pinson Mounds were probably built during the Middle Woodland period, c. 1-500 AD.

[8] Excavations by Dan Morse and Richard Polhemus in 1963 uncovered what they believed was an oval-shaped house, a large hearth, and various refuse pits.

[2] In the 1970s, John Broster of the Tennessee Division of Archaeology carried out extensive investigations of the site's Western section and the Mound 12 Sector.

[11] In the 1980s, Robert Mainfort discovered six tombs in the Twin Mounds, one of which contained the remains of eight young women wearing headdresses with copper adornments.

[2] Excavations carried out prior to construction of park facilities uncovered a possible habitation area at Mound 11 and a large number of 19th-century artifacts.

[2] The Middle Woodland natives most likely built the Pinson Mounds primarily for religious ceremonial purposes, although their motives have yet to be established definitively.

[3] Excavations have turned up a relatively scant amount of cultural material (e.g., arrowheads and pottery fragments), which points to a lack of permanent habitation at the Pinson Mounds site.