Parsing out the Pace of Occupation at Poverty Point

Summary

Built by hunter-gatherers, the Poverty Point UNESCO World Heritage site is a three-square-kilometer earthwork complex of two massive mounds, several conical and flat-topped mounds, and six elliptical ridges enclosing a 17.4-hectare plaza. The Late Archaic Poverty Point culture (ca. 3800-3000 cal. B.P.) exhibited an unprecedented form and scale of social organization indicated by non-local material measured by the metric ton and the construction of extraordinary monumental architecture at a scale that surpasses most monuments built by North American agriculturalists. Numerous sociocultural models have proposed explanations for Poverty Point social organization. Previous investigations led some researchers to suggest evidence for a large, socially stratified permanent population where the ridges served as platforms for residential structures. Others claim the data do not support the presence of social hierarchy, year-round occupation, or houses on the ridges. Recent excavations during 2017 were undertaken within the earthen ridge complex. Fundamental goals of the project were to apply modern geoarchaeological techniques to obtain high-resolution stratigraphic and chronologic data for assessing the pace and timing of ridge construction and occupation. This type of geoarchaeological analysis within large monumental earthworks provides necessary information to understand the history of political, social and economic organization at Poverty Point.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22259