Rock Eagle Effigy Mound is an archaeological site in Putnam County, Georgia, U.S. estimated to have been constructed c. 1000 BC to AD 1000 (1,000 to 3,000 years ago).

What prompted the early inhabitants of Middle Georgia, who lived in a time long before the rise of the later Mississippian, Creek and Cherokee cultures, to build these massive effigy mounds is still something of a mystery.

While there is strong evidence that the area was occupied by Archaic Indians at that time, scholars no longer believe that they created the mound.

[2] Theories as to the reasons for its construction currently range from the need for some central burial place by the ancient inhabitants of the area to the possibility that the people of Rock Eagle were sending a message to the gods.

The bird's head is often described as being turned to the east (see Marker) "to face the rising sun", perhaps to suggest a cosmological significance to its placement.

The rocks comprising the bird's chest are piled eight to ten feet high, while the wings, tail, and head rise lower.

[4] Scholarly study of the Rock Eagle Effigy Mound began by 1877, when noted archaeologist Dr. Vincenzo Petrullo published measurements of the image.

Because of this excavation, a single set of human and animal bones remain and a projectile point was found that may or may not be related to the effigy.

A 1950s research project did find a single quartz tool at Rock Eagle, along with evidence of cremated human burials in the mound.

In association with the University of Georgia, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a granite tower at the foot of the effigy.