T-shaped earthen structure preceded Moundville by more than 2,000 years

[Adsos Letter]

Source: TuscaloosaNews
By Tommy Stevenson Associate Editor

TUSCALOOSA | About 3,300 years ago, a group of archaic period Native Americans living in what is now northeast Louisiana decided to build a great mound.

Ninety days after the project was begun by the Stone Age hunters and gatherers, the T-shaped, earthen mound — 70 feet high, 1,000 feet long in one direction and 700 feet long in the other — was complete.

The site, near modern-day Monroe, La., is known today as “Poverty Point,” a name given in the 18th century by an owner of the property. On Friday, T. R. Kidder, chair of the anthropology department at Washington University in St. Louis, told the University of Alabama Anthropology Club it is one of the most mysterious sites in the country.

“It is the second-largest earthen mound in all of North America, second only to one in Illinois,” he said, in a lecture titled “The Poverty Point Paradox.”

“The paradox is, what was going on here at this time that led to this sudden creation of this great mound?”

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20090307/NEWS/903061942

I freely admit to having no professional credentials in archaeology...but the 90-day timeframe is difficult for me to believe

[Chulanowa]

1. It's not that hard to imagine

One has to bear in mind, the traditional estimates of precolumbian populations in the Americas have always been vastly underestimated. If you have a civilization and culture organized and numerous enough to WANT to build something like this, and that is able to devote any amount of time to it, then you have a culture and civilization that's probably large enough to actually do so fairly quickly - especially since we're talking Louisiana. The whole area is basically loose wet dirt with plants growing on it, so, it's a small matter to haul dirt and mud up. No need to move stones.

[Adsos Letter]

3. You could certainly be right...

It just boggles my mind to think of the cubic volume of material in a structure "T-shaped, earthen mound — 70 feet high, 1,000 feet long in one direction and 700 feet long in the other."

That's a lot of dirt.

[Chulanowa]

9. It also may not be entirely dirt

Louisiana's a pretty wet place. A good rain would ruin all their work. More likely the mound has wood shorings, possibly some stone as well. The guy talking about the thing also seems to be making a lot of conclusions about a mystery people who lived in the area over three thousand years ago.

It could turn out that this is just some guy having a Bosnian Pyramid moment. Maybe not, but really... "We know swamps were their gates to the underworld"? I imagine it's a little hard to deduce the cosmology of a people who lived three thousand years ago and kept no written records... Hell, we barely understand the basics of Greek religion and they did leave lots of written records...

[xchrom]

2. i think it's a matter of how well fed your population is -- year round --

to complete any project.

louisiana provides a climate favorable to feed people, dirt, and weather.

[Adsos Letter]

5. Yeah...I guess it's the "90 days" from start to finish part that blows my mind.

[xchrom]

8. yeah i find that a stretch myself.

however -- i think a project like that can go quickly when you have certain stars in alignment.

maybe not 90 days.

food preservation would be a problem in that part of the u.s. -- think about that.

[Traveling_Home]

4. any idea of population at that time? nt (like your posts!)

[Adsos Letter]

6. The article speculates on it...glad you enjoy the posts!

:hi:

[davsand]

7. We visited Moundville this last summer.

It is a fascinating place. They had removed a lot of the exhibits from the visitor center to do a remodel, but the site itself is acres of mounds--well worth the trip.

Three years ago we went to Angel Mounds there at Evansville, IN. The mounds are not as well preserved but it is still an awe inspiring place.

We live in Illinois and my SIL did some of the excavation work at the Cahokia site referenced in that article. She is in some of the pictures in the visitor center, in fact.


I claim no expertise in archeology either, but those mound sites are just amazing and they really are worth taking the time to go and see. What just grabs me is the realization that those folks moved all that earth by hand--probably in baskets. You have to see it to really internalize what a feat it was.

Thanks for putting this article up!


Laura