Mound Builder is a general term referring to prehistoric inhabitants of North America who constructed various styles of earthen mounds for burial, residential and ceremonial purposes. These included Archaic, Woodland period (Adena and Hopewell cultures), and Mississippian period Pre-Columbian cultures dating from roughly 3000 BCE to the 16th century CE, and living in the Great Lakes region, the Ohio River region, and the Mississippi River region. Beginning with Watson Brake in present-day Louisiana, indigenous peoples started building earthwork mounds before the pyramids were constructed in Egypt.