Ouachita River Mounds: A Five Millennium MysteryThe massive earthworks at Poverty Point near Epps were long considered the beginning of extensive mound construction. Non-native stones found on the site originated as far away as Wisconsin, Tennessee and Georgia indicate that Poverty Point was a major trade center circa 1500 BC. The Poverty Point culture spread over a large part of the Lower Mississippi Valley and flourished from around 1730 BC to 1350 BC. Until recently, Poverty Point was considered an amazing anomaly because no one had identified significant earlier sites... calibrated radiocarbon dates from several sites including Hedgepeth, Frenchman's Bend and Watson Brake... placed their construction between 3700 BC and 3000 BC. Saunders and others now have reason to believe that mound construction was widespread by 3000 BC in northern and southern Louisiana as well as Mississippi and Florida where other researchers have worked for years... When Allen obtained a core sample of the largest mound, he found advanced soil development. Saunders then decided the site was worth further study. Radiocarbon dating of Watson Brake places its construction in a 400-year period beginning at 3400 B.C. Watson Brake became a focal point of research into Middle Archaic mounds because it is larger, more securely dated and has been disturbed less than the others.
by Lori Tucker
circa 2000
We live a couple of miles from the Poverty Point mounds and we have several smaller mounds in a field below our house. After a frog-strangler of a rain in our fields, I can find all sorts of artifacts ... really nice arrowheads too.