Poverty Point
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Poverty Point, known for its mound construction, is an archaeological site in northeastern Louisiana (near the town of Epps), overlooking the Mississippi River flood plain. It was constructed c. 1730 BC–1350 BC by American Indians of the archaic Poverty Point Culture that inhabited the Mississippi Delta at that time, and contiuned to develop further in the centuries to come.The earthen structures were built and enlarged for centuries, with the site reaching its final form at about 1000 BCE. It is considered by some to be the first true city of North America.
The site is a wide, 400 acre (1.6 km²) plaza consisting of six concentric earthen ridges. The ridges may have originally been six feet high. Aisles intersected the ridges, leading directly from the center to the perimeter. Unique in the configuration of its earthen structures — notably concentric, semi-elliptical ridges of great size — it had no equal in grandeur in its day. "Clearly an earth-moving project of this magnitude and sophistication, no matter how protracted over time, required not only a large pool of labor, but also formal orchestration...geometric patterning among Archaic mounds, including those of Poverty Point, is an archaeological fact whose significance lies not so much in the labor needed to erect them, but in the ideas needed to conceive of them" (Sassaman, p.92-93).
Poverty Point also contains a diverse archaeological record. "Raw materials imported from as far away as the Great Lakes and the Appalachians, while impressive in volume and diversity, were often used to make mundane items: soapstone for cooking vessels; granite, basalt, and greenstone for celts; hematite and magnetite for plummets; and various cherts for projectiles and cutting tools... coupled with the ubiquitous baked clay objects, hearths, pits, and midden accumulation, the inventory of subsistence technology strongly suggests that Poverty Point was a place of residence" (Sassaman, p.92). At its height, a permanent population of several thousand people lived on Poverty Point's curving ridges.Living in a pre-agricultural culture, the population subsisted on wild foods, such as acorns, hickory nuts, fish, turtles, and deer.
Stewardship
Poverty Point is owned and maintained by the State of Louisiana, designated as Poverty Point State Historic Site. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 and designated a National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970. Due to its significance, there were discussions between the state and the federal governments in the 1980s to transfer ownership of Poverty Point. On October 31, 1988, Congress authorized the creation of Poverty Point National Monument in anticipation of a land donation from the state. However, Louisiana has not yet acted to transfer the site to the National Park Service, and currently has no plans to do so. As of 2005, there are no federal facilities at Poverty Point.
References
Sassaman, Kenneth. “Structure and Practice in the Archaic Southeast.” North American Archaeology. Ed. Timothy R. Pauketat and Diana Dipaolo Loren. Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005.79-107.
External links
- Poverty Point State Historic Site
- Poverty Point National Monument (National Park Service)
- Poverty Point Earthworks: Evolutionary Milestones of the Americas video presentation by The Archaeology Channel
- Poverty Point: A Terminal Archaic Culture of the Lower Mississippi Valley by Jon L. Gibson, (1996)
