Angel Mounds as regional center included numerous mounds, palisades that surrounded portions of the site, and hundreds of individual structures. The site was eventually abandoned by most of its population after about 300 years of occupation for reasons that are not necessarily understood although it is commonly believed to be due to exhaustion of local resources, climate change, and/or internal social stress.

Today, the Angel Mounds State Historic Site still occupies an impressive 600 acres that includes reconstructed buildings and features, a laboratory, and an interpretive center. Angel Mounds State Historic Site is open and accessible to the public. 

Artifact Collections

The Angel Mounds collections represent the IUMAA's largest archaeology collection, amounting to over 2.5 million artifacts. Excavations at Angel Mounds began in 1939 with Glenn Black supervising WPA works at the site. The excavation tradition continued from the 1940s to the present with Indiana University field schools resulting in a rich collection of artifacts and associated records that have long guided archaeological research on Mississippian culture. Research at the site and with the Angel collections is ongoing and the significance of the Angel Mounds site continues to be defined as more analyses are conducted.