Winterville Mounds lies north of Greenville in Washington County, Mississippi. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) describes it as a Native American communal gathering place used for more than a thousand years, with mound construction associated with communities that thrived in the region from about AD 1000 to 1450. Twelve of the original 23 mounds and two large plazas remain within the historic landscape. The site is not simply a collection of grassy hills: it was a place for gathering, trade, ceremony and celebration.
The earthen platforms were made by hand, with soil carried in baskets, placed in layers and tamped down. MDAH says archaeological evidence indicates that builders enlarged mounds repeatedly and that structures on their summits were sometimes burned before a new platform and building were added. Such practices point to a changing communal place rather than a finished monument built in one moment. The landscape visitors see today is only the surviving outline of a much more active settlement and ceremonial centre.