Linear Mounds was designated as a national historic site of Canada in 1973 because the site contains some of the most spectacular and best-preserved examples of mortuary mounds belonging to the Devil’s Lake-Sourisford Burial Complex. Located near the Souris River in southern Manitoba, the Linear Mounds burial site is a sophisticated construction consisting of three mounds spread out over a large area of land. These burial mounds, dating from approximately 900 to about 1400 AD, are complex constructions of soil, bone and other materials. The excellent state of preservation of these mounds has yielded a wealth of information concerning life in the Great Plains at this time, revealing, by the nature of the goods in the burial mounds, that the peoples of this area were part of a continent-wide trading network.

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