Ancient History
Interactive Timeline
Scroll thousands of years with maps, artwork, historic photos, audio narration, and video.
Macon, Georgia · Est. 900 CE
Ocmulgee Mounds: Ancient Civilization of Macon
Discover 17,000 years of history in the palm of your hand — the ancestral homeland of the Muscogee (Creek) people.
- 17,000
- years of human presence
- 2.5M+
- artifacts recovered
- 702
- acres of protected land
The Complete History Experience
One app for the whole story
Ancient history, living culture, active archaeology, and everything you need to stand on the mounds yourself.
Navigate
Interactive Park Map
GPS guidance to the Great Temple Mound, Earth Lodge, Funeral Mound, trails, and facilities.
Immersive
360° Virtual Tours
Step inside the Earth Lodge, climb the Great Temple Mound, and fly over the park.
Research
Archaeology Center
New discoveries, Artifact of the Month, excavation reports, and archaeologist interviews.
Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Indigenous Culture
Traditions, language, art, music, ceremonies, and storytelling shared with Nation partners.
Family & Classroom
Interactive Learning
Quizzes, scavenger hunts, Kids Mode, achievement badges, and completion certificates.
Interactive Timeline
From Ice Age hunters to a national park
A preview of eight eras. Open the full timeline for maps, artifacts, and narrated chapters.
c. 15,000 – 8,000 BCE
Paleo-Indian Period
The earliest known peoples camped along the Ocmulgee River, hunting late Ice Age game and shaping Clovis-style spear points from local chert.
c. 8,000 – 1,000 BCE
Archaic Period
Seasonal camps grew into long-term settlements. Communities gathered river cane, nuts, and shellfish, and began working stone bowls and ground tools.
c. 1,000 BCE – 900 CE
Woodland Period
Pottery, burial mounds, and cultivated plants transformed daily life. Villages became permanent and ceremonial life deepened.
c. 900 – 1,100 CE
Mississippian Culture
A major town rose on the plateau: the Great Temple Mound, the Funeral Mound, and the Earth Lodge with its bird-shaped clay floor and 47 molded seats.
Virtual Tour
Inside the Earth Lodge
A council chamber with 47 molded seats around a bird-shaped platform, dated to roughly 1015 CE.
Artifact of the Month
The Engraved Shell Gorget
Falcon imagery links Ocmulgee to a ceremonial world stretching across the Mississippian South.
AI Tour Guide
Ask anything about the mounds
A guided companion for the questions visitors ask most — on the trail or from home.
“Who built the mounds?”
Ancestors of today's Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The largest earthworks were raised by Mississippian-period communities beginning around 900 CE.
“How old is the Earth Lodge?”
Its original clay floor has been radiocarbon dated to roughly 1015 CE, making it one of the oldest surviving ceremonial floors in North America.
“What should I see first?”
Start at the Visitor Center museum, walk to the Earth Lodge, then climb the Great Temple Mound for sunrise views over the Ocmulgee River floodplain.
“What artifacts have been discovered?”
More than 2.5 million: shell gorgets, copper plates, stamped pottery, projectile points, and trade goods from the colonial deerskin era.
Membership
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