LAY OF THE LAND

An Amazing Mound Discovery

Archaeology is all about discovery. The discovery of ancient artifacts. The discovery of past cultures. The discovery of fascinating new information about people long gone. In this issue of American Archaeology we report on the discovery of dramatic new information about Poverty Point, a National Historic Landmark in northeastern Louisiana. (See “New Thinking About Poverty Point,” page 25.) Poverty Point has long been an enigma to students of past cultures. It dates to the late Archaic period, some 3,500 years ago, and contains one of the largest earthen mounds as well as a series of six concentric ridges that may have been the base for habitation structures.

Since these ancient Americans had no draft animals or even wheelbarrows, we naturally assume that the massive Mound A was built over decades, even centuries. Making assumptions, even educated ones, is a dangerous business, and now researchers T.R. Kidder and Anthony Ortmann have discovered that Mound A was constructed in as little as 30 days. Baskets of earth were carried to the site and carefully deposited to build the great mound—enough soil to fill 31,217 modern dump trucks. This would have taken some 1,019 fulltime workers.

In the Archaic period, people lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle, perhaps residing in well-scattered villages of extended families. What brought so many people together in one place to construct this massive mound? One answer leads to many new questions, and that’s why we all love archaeology. That’s why the Conservancy is working hard to preserve the remaining mounds of the South that are rapidly being destroyed by development and modern agriculture. We now have some that predate Poverty Point by 2,000 years, and who knows what we will find next.

Mark Michel, President