be placed into the following sequences. The town was occupied in three distinct archaeological phases: CE, CE, and CE. It was at its peak from CE. Site description Etowah has three main platform mounds and three lesser mounds. The Temple Mound, Mound A, is high, taller than a six-story building, and covers at its base. In 2005–2008 ground mapping with magnetometers revealed new information and data, showing that the site was much more complex than had previously been believed. The study team has identified a total of 140 buildings on the site. In addition, Mound A was found to have had four major structures and a courtyard during the height of the community's power. Mound B is high; Mound C, which rises , is the only one to have been completely excavated. Magnetometers enabled archaeologists to determine the location of temples of log and thatch, which were originally built on the summits of the mounds. Adjacent to the mounds is a raised, level, ceremonial plaza, which was constructed to be used for ceremonies, stickball and chunkey games, and as a bazaar for trade goods. When visiting the Etowah Mounds, guests can view the "borrow pits" (which archaeologists at one time thought were moats), where workers dug earth to construct the three large mounds in the center of the park. Older pottery found on the site suggest that there was an earlier village ( BCE–600 CE) associated with the Swift Creek culture. This earlier Middle Woodland period occupation at Etowah may have been related to the major Swift Creek center of Leake Mounds, approximately two miles downstream (west) of Etowah. War was commonplace; many archaeologists believe the people of Etowah battled for hegemony over the Alabama river basin with those of Moundville, a Mississippian site in present-day Alabama. The town was protected by a sophisticated semicircular fortification system. An outer band formed by nut tree orchards prevented enemy armies from shooting masses of flaming arrows into the town. A to -deep moat blocked direct contact by the enemy with the palisaded walls. It also functioned as a drainage system during major floods, common for centuries, from this period and into the 20th century. Workers formed the palisade by setting upright high logs into a ditch approximately on center. They back-filled around the timbers to form a levee. Guard towers for archers were spaced approximately apart. Artifacts The artifacts discovered in burials