point acquisition A PREHISTORIC MOUND IS PRESERVED

acquisition A Prehistoric Mound Is Preserved

Gibson Mound 2 is largely intact despite the fact that a house was built on top of it.

In a part of Louisiana where much of the land is either at or below sea level, an Indian mound is an obvious landmark, and for some people it’s an ideal location for a building. That was the case with Mound 2 at the Gibson site, the Conservancy’s recent acquisition in southeastern Louisiana. The Gibson site is located in the town of Gibson, in Terrebonne Parish, one of Louisiana’s southernmost parishes, and it’s covered by several bayous that empty into the Gulf of Mexico, which borders the parish to the south. The Conservancy learned of the Gibson site when the owner decided to sell the lot that included an abandoned house on top of an approximately 10-foot high prehistoric mound. A realtor who was showing the house found a pile of bones and pottery sherds in the basement. Some of the bones appeared to be human, so county and state authorities were immediately alerted. It was determined that some of the bones were indeed human and others animal.

According to the niece of a previous owner, the bones and pottery may have been those that were found in the 1950s when her aunt and uncle dug a small fallout shelter into the mound. She said they stored the items they’d found

Even though a house and a fallout shelter were built on top of the mound, it remains largely intact.

in the mound in a box with the hopes that one day they would be reburied. It’s possible the box eventually disintegrated, which would explain why the bones were in a pile on the floor.

The discovery of the bones made the local newspapers, and Louisiana’s state archaeologist Chip McGimsey contacted the Conservancy about acquiring the mound. According to McGimsey, the construction of the house doesn’t appear to have done much damage to the mound, and since it’s in such a state of disrepair, the Conservancy can have the house removed and restore the portion of the mound that was affected.

Believed to have been occupied approximately a.d. 800 to 1300, the Gibson site also consists of another, larger mound in an adjacent lot and a small remnant of a third mound that was also once crowned with a building. The mounds are reported to sit atop a two-foot thick midden full of broken pottery and rangia shell. Rangia is a type of clam, found in local waterways, that was a staple of Native American diets.

Other parties expressed interest in buying the lot and leveling the mound, so the Conservancy purchased it and took the first step toward preserving the entire site. Hopefully, the rest of the site can be acquired in the near future, and one of the few remaining mound sites in this part of the state will be permanently preserved in its entirety. —Jessica Crawford summer • 2010