Page 24 - Studio International - April 1974

(burial mounds) Other variants on the basic burial mound are those
constructed during prehistoric times in the Missis-
sippi basin (4e) (photo). Variations on the burial
function are the effigy mounds built in the same
general culture. These utilized animal forms above
the mound, or in the mound itself, although burials
were not always placed within them. Structures
similar to those in the Mississippi valley were
built in the Neolithic period in the British Isles and,
later, the Megalithic complexes of the Atlantic
coast of Europe.

5. mounds in A variety of hill-mounds (5a) (photo) and more
nature transient mound forms (5c) are to be found with-
in, on, or above the surface of the earth. Usually
formed by varying structural properties and stresses
in the strata, and occasionally accompanied by
internal pressures and temperature changes within
these same layers.
Variants in nature include surface bubbles (see p. 165)
on liquids caused by turbulence or internal pressures,
animal shells as protective coverings as in the cases
of turtles (5b) or armadillos, and the transitory
forms in cloud formations (5c) (photo). Cloud
formations are floating counterparts to land-hills
and similarly exist in terms of a plane, except an
invisible one composed of air currents indicated by
the flattened bottoms and other variations of form
in the cloud masses (5c) (photo).
The mound form of the human cranium is the
natural form most immediate to us (5d). The skull
serves as a protective shell device for the brain
(centre of consciousness) and conforms in shape to
it. Bones, some biological organs, and, to a certain
extent, muscles are all comprised of forms based
upon true mounds and inverted mounds.
Another variation in nature is the split-mound
caused by glacial or errosive activity (5e). An example
would be Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.
Similar effects have been obtained through artificial
means in the construction of roadways and mines
through hills and mountains, causing splits, fissures,
or tunnels.

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