More to the (Poverty) Point: Investigation of a Previously Unknown Mound

Summary

Poverty Point, recently inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List, is a monumental earthworks site built ca. 3700-3100 BP by hunter-fisher-gatherers. Until very recently, the original Late Archaic configuration was believed to include four mounds; six concentric, semi-elliptical, earthen ridges; and a large interior plaza. A fifth mound was added about 1800 years later. In August 2013, a small, suspicious rise in the woods on the northeast edge of the Poverty Point monumental core was confirmed to be an artificial earthwork. Following convention, this sixth mound was named Mound F. Soil development within the mound fill is consistent with it being a Poverty Point-aged earthwork. Radiocarbon dates from a submound A horizon indicate it was likely built late within the Poverty Point chronology. We present the results of initial investigations, including soil coring and geophysical survey (downhole and surface magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity, and conductivity), undertaken to better define the limits and internal structure of the mound.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage