What Does Poverty Point look like?

The Poverty Point site contains earthen ridges and mounds, built by indigenous people between 1700 and 1100 BC during the Late Archaic period in North America. Archaeologists have proposed a variety of possible functions for the site including as a settlement, a trading center, and/or a ceremonial religious complex.

What are the mounds at Poverty Point?

Built around 1700 B.C., Mound B is a small, conical mound 21 feet tall and 180 feet in diameter. Mound C is the only mound built in the plaza during Poverty Point times. Mound D was built by a group of American Indians 2,000 years after the people of Poverty Point.

What artifacts were found at Poverty Point?

The most numerous artifacts discovered were baked clay objects, known as Poverty Point Objects or PPOs. Also discovered were projectile points, tubular pipes, pendants, beads and plummets which were used as weights for fishing nets.

What is unique about Poverty Point?

Built by American Indians 3,400 years ago, Poverty Point is unlike any other site. Its design, with multiple mounds and C-shaped ridges, is not found anywhere else. No other hunting and gathering society made mounds at this scale anywhere else in the world.

How do archaeologists know so much about Poverty Point?

The Poverty Point Culture is primarily identified by its artifacts and the imported rocks used to make them. Rocks such as cherts, flints, soapstone, hematite, magnetite, and galena were brought in to be used in making tools and ornaments.

How do we know that Poverty Point is a complex civilization?

Poverty Point was able to have a complex society because they had trade to get the objects or minerals they couldn’t get from hunting or gathering. The Mississippi River led them to being able to trade.

What are mounds and how are they connected to Poverty Point?

Mound A is the tallest earthen structure at the Poverty Point site. This amazing mound is located along the western edge of the concentric rings of ridges and is thought by some to resemble a bird in flight. This is why some people call it the Bird Mound.

Is Poverty Point A mound?

Poverty Point: Mound A. Mound A is the largest mound built at Poverty Point. It stands a whopping 72 feet tall, 710 feet long and 660 feet wide. American Indians built this massive mound around 1300 B.C. That makes it one of the last mounds built during the Late Archaic period.

What evidence is there to support the claim that the people at Poverty Point more complex than previously thought?

Native Americans build massive earthworks and used the earthworks as places of worship. This supports the claim that Poverty Point was more complex than previously thought because complex societies have organized religions and build temples in the center of their civilizations for worship.

What natural resources did Poverty Point lack?

Because Poverty Point lacked a local source of stone, people there used the loess soil to make artificial rocks called Poverty Point Objects (PPOs) using the loess soil. These earthen cooking-balls were constructed by taking a small handful of moist soil and rolling it between the palms and fingers.

What was Poverty Point used for?

Some of the strangest objects you’ll find at Poverty Point are so rare, that they’ve come to be known simply as Poverty Point Objects. These are balls of fired clay that were used as cooking stones. Measuring small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand, these PPOs came in many shapes, sizes and colors.

What are the advantages of Poverty Point being located on the Mississippi River?

The Mississippi River was an important aspect of the daily life at Poverty Point because that gave them the opprotunity to trade, have a source of water, and have a source of food.

What was the economy of Poverty Point Louisiana?

Foraging was a fundamental part of Poverty Point society. So was commerce. The site was once at the center of a huge trade network. Seventy-eight tons of rocks and minerals from up to 800 miles away were brought to Poverty Point, an area built on an elevated landform, Macon Ridge, that contained no stone of its own.

Why was Poverty Point in New Orleans abandoned?

The question of why Poverty Point was abandoned remains unanswered. A subsequent American Indian group came along around 700 A.D. and reused a small part of the site, but otherwise, it remained abandoned until its rediscovery in the 1800s. White cylinders give visitors an idea of how large the post circles in the plaza were.

What is the story of Poverty Point World Heritage Site?

The Story of Poverty Point World Heritage Site Centuries ago, when Stonehenge was built and Queen Nefertiti ruled Egypt, American Indians were building earthen monuments in north Louisiana. Hand by hand and basketful by basketful, men and women shaped nearly 2 million cubic yards of soil into stunning landscapes.

Why was Poverty Point important to the Mississippi Valley?

This makes sense, as the Lower Mississippi Valley is one of North America’s most fertile regions, abundant with food that was literally ripe for the picking. Foraging was a fundamental part of Poverty Point society. So was commerce. The site was once at the center of a huge trade network.