Location and description
Poverty Point is a prehistoric community in northeastern Louisiana that was occupied during the Late Archaic period (ca. 3700–3100 BP). The cultural landscape of the site includes five earthen mounds and six concentric, arc-shaped earthen ridges that surround a large, level plaza. The entire Poverty Point earthwork complex covers an area of over 1 km2.
Geoarchaeology at Poverty Point
Systematic archaeological research at Poverty Point began as early as the middle of the twentieth century, and over the past decade, archaeological investigations at the site have increasingly incorporated geoarchaeological techniques.
Mound A
Excavations in Mound A, the largest mound at the site, were designed to test how the earthwork was constructed, when it was built, and how quickly it was erected (Ortmann and Kidder, 2013). Mound A rises to a height of over 21 m with basal dimensions of approximately 200 m on each side and a volume of nearly 238,000 m3of earth. Mound...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Dalan, R. A., Beard, J., Blaha, A., and Cota, A., 2010. Magnetic susceptibility studies at the poverty point state historic site. Report submitted to the State of Louisiana, Office of Cultural Development, Division of Archaeology, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Greenlee, D. M., 2009. 2009 annual report of the station archaeology program at the poverty point state historic site. Report submitted to the Division of Archaeology, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Hargrave, M. L., and Clay, R. B., 2014. Geophysical investigations at the poverty point site (16WC5), 2006–2011. Report submitted to the State of Louisiana, Office of Cultural Development, Division of Archaeology, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Ortmann, A. L., and Kidder, T. R., 2013. Building Mound A at Poverty Point, Louisiana: monumental public architecture, ritual practice, and implications for hunter-gatherer complexity. Geoarchaeology, 28(1), 66–86.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ortmann, A.L. (2017). Poverty Point Site, Louisiana. In: Gilbert, A.S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4409-0_184
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4409-0_184
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4827-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4409-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences