[2] It was the largest site in the region and probably functioned as the center of a paramount chiefdom that occupied 20 miles (32 km) stretch of the Tennessee River Valley.

[8] The people of Shiloh Mounds were intensely involved in maize agriculture, as well as other food crops originating in the Americas, such as squash, sunflowers, goosefoot, marshelder, and maygrass.

Downstream on the river's eastern bank, at the present location of Savannah, Tennessee, was another palisaded multiple mound settlement, although it is still unclear if the sites were occupied at the same time.

[6] Because the site has been included within the Shiloh National Military Park boundaries for so long it has never been disturbed by modern farming techniques.

The pipe is carved from a distinctive material, Missouri flint clay, and in the same style as other statuettes from the Cahokia site in Collinsville, Illinois.

Many contained the remains of wattle and daub houses, which had been built with walls of vertical posts interlaced with branches and coated with a thick layer of clay.