point acquisition

Preserving Evidence of Cultural Transition

acquisition The DePrato site is a well-preserved example of cultural change in Louisiana.

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 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

DePrato site is contemporaneous with the Troyville site, and some of the people who lived there are likely the same people who built and used the now destroyed Troyville site.

The Troyville occupation at DePrato is overlaid by an Early to Middle Coles Creek occupation. This culture, named for a creek near Natchez, Mississippi, is widely distributed throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley. It is during this occupation that archaeologists believe the mounds at DePrato were constructed. Very little is known about the nature of the transition from the Troyville to the Coles Creek Culture, and DePrato promises to be an excellent source of information. According to Louisiana regional archaeologist Joe Saunders, DePrato is one of the region’s best preserved examples of the Troyville-to-Coles Creek transition.

At first glance, the DePrato Site may not resemble an important multi-mound complex. The site is located on an old natural levee deposit of the Mississippi River near the confluence of two bayous. Due to flooding, two and a half feet of alluvium covers the site. Consequently, the five mounds appear smaller than they originally were and the archaeological resources remain virtually untouched by modern activity such as road construction and farming.

Investigations indicate the site has a layer cake stratigraphy, which means the different occupations may be separated by alluvium from flood events. Such conditions on archaeological sites are rare and offer researchers an opportunity to link artifacts and archaeological features, such as pits, hearths, or post molds to different occupations. This is also helpful in the analysis of changes in village organization during the three time periods. In addition, DePrato has excellent floral and faunal preservation that can provide valuable data concerning the diets of the site’s occu-

POINTAcquisitions

acquisition

pants and any changes through time. The DePrato family has owned the site since the early 1900s. The current owner, Lloyd “Buddy” Paul, Jr.’s mother Martha DePrato Paul grew up on this land and was fully aware of its archaeological importance. Under Paul’s ownership, the meticulously maintained site has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Paul and his wife, Betty, are both educators, as was Martha Paul. With over 50 years of teaching among the three of them, they are well aware of the research potential of the DePrato site. By selling the site to the Conservancy, Buddy continues his family’s tradition of education. —Jessica Crawford

Smokes Creek

The Protect Our Irreplaceable National Treasures (POINT) Program was designed to save significant sites that are in immediate danger of destruction.

DePrato