The Lake George site (also called Holly Bluff) originally had as many as 28 mounds and is one of Mississippi's largest continuously occupied Native American sites. The history of earthmoving at the site is impressive. Though people began living at Lake George during the Poverty Point period (ca. 1500-1000 BC), the first earthen mounds were built during the Coles Creek period (AD 850-1000) or possibly a bit earlier.
Professional archaeologists excavated portions of many of the mounds in the 1940s and 1950s and found that Mound C was one of the first to be built. One or two additional mounds were also built during this time.
A major campaign of mound building took place during the Early Mississippian period (ca. AD 1100-1350). Mound A, the largest at the site at 55 feet tall, was built during this time. Originally a rectangular platform, its shape has been altered by dynamiting and subsequent erosion. Still, the monument is visible on the south side of Satartia Road. When Mound A was built, it became the central feature of the site and all other site features were organized around it. These features include two large plazas adjacent to Mound A on the east and west as well as several earthen mounds that define the perimeter of each plaza. It is likely that Mound A served as a platform for the house of Lake George's paramount leader or chief as this was a common function of Mississippian platform mounds.
Sometime after AD 1350, people living at the site constructed an earthen wall and wooden palisade surrounded by a wide moat. These features surround the site on three sides, while the fourth side is open to Lake George. Archaeologists believe that the moat and palisade were intended as defensive fortifications during a time of political instability in the surrounding region. Around this time, many of the mounds at Lake George were abandoned and activities seem to have been focused primarily on the eastern plaza. The site was abandoned around AD 1500.
In addition to dating many of the site's earthworks, archaeological excavations found evidence of buildings atop many of the mounds. They also found ceramic, stone, shell, and animal bone artifacts. Today, Mounds A and B (with a house on its summit) are the most visible. Several of the smaller mounds are recognizable as small rises while many others have been plowed away.
