N E W P O I N T- 2
The DePrato site is a well-preserved example of cultural change in Louisiana.
JESSICA CRAWFORD
a cq u i s i t i o n
STONE ARTIFACTS OF TEXAS INDIANS
Preserving Evidence of Cultural Transition
DePrato's location on a high natural levee beside Black Bayou prevented flooding while allowing easy access to the wildlife and transportation routes provided by the bayou. Mound 3 (the low rise on the left) and Mound 4 (the low rise on the right) are shown here along the curving bank of Black Bayou.
M
. W. Dickeson was a medical doctor from Pennsylvania with a passion for archaeology. Over the course of seven years, from 1837 to 1844, Dickeson traveled throughout the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys excavating many mounds. In 1843, he visited the plantation of William Ferriday in Ferriday, a town in eastcentral Louisiana. Dickeson was immediately taken with the beauty of the mound site now known as the DePrato site. His diary contains poetic descriptions of the setting he encountered as he viewed
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the “great tumuli of a lost and unhistoried people.” At the time of his visit, there were eight mounds at DePrato. Dickeson partially excavated three of them and his notes mention several layers of mound construction containing hearths, arrow points, pieces of mica, clay pipes, pottery, and burials. The Conservancy recently purchased the DePrato site, at which five mounds remain. This site contains an impressive continuum of occupation from the Troyville Culture (A.D. 400 to 700) through the Middle Coles Creek
Culture (A.D. 700 to 800). The earliest occupation is the Troyville village area. The Troyville Culture marks the beginning of a change in mound construction from conical to larger, flat-topped, pyramid mounds. It’s believed they served as civic or religious structures. The Troyville type-site (the site for which the culture is named) was a large mound site of almost 400 acres located not far from DePrato at the confluence of the Little, Black, and Ouachita Rivers. Unfortunately, the Troyville site has been almost completely destroyed; however, the fall • 2004
