Pottery is not abundant at Poverty Point, but its people were among the first in the Lower Mississippi Valley to make earthen vessels. They also made many other objects of fired earth or clay, such as Poverty Point Objects and figurines. When visiting the site, you will see numerous examples of fired clay used thousands of years ago.
However, stone was more popular than clay for making vessels. And not just any stone. Soapstone from Georgia and Alabama quarries was frequently used, and some pieces were decorated with bird and panther designs. The soapstone bowls were highly valued, and at Poverty Point, you can find examples of broken stone bowls that were repaired or reused—and others that were turned into pendants and beads. Sandstone was also used to form vessels. Before leaving the museum, be sure to read about and see examples of what are known simply as Poverty Point Objects, the most numerous of all artifacts found at the site.
These are small, hand-formed clay balls that were used to cook food. The PPOs were placed in a hole, and a fire was built to heat them. When the fire died down, raw meat or fish was added, and the hole was covered with dirt, cooking the meat.
Other native cultures used rocks for the same purpose, but at Poverty Point—where stones were costly to obtain—prehistoric chefs found an ingenious workaround.
Skip to content. The People. The Mounds. The Artifacts. Most of the animal remains found on-site were from locally caught fish in this hunter-gatherer community. People moved soil by hand, basketload by basketload, without the assistance of domesticated animals or wheeled carts. Noted archaeologist James Ford published with Clarence Webb the original side report in Also discovered were projectile points, tubular pipes, pendants, beads and plummets which were used as weights for fishing nets.
Webb believed that the culture developed a strong microflint industry by using local gravel as cores to make tools for scraping, cutting, sawing, engraving and polishing.
The artifacts show that the Poverty Point people were members of an extensive trade network. As can be seen in the map on the right, items found at the site were transported from as far away as the Great Lakes. Mound A at Poverty Point is the second-largest constructed earthen mound in North America; it was built about 2, years before the largest mound, Monks Mound, which is located at the Cahokia site in Collinsville, Illinois.
Archaeologists cannot conclusively explain why American Indians constructed mounds. Some later mounds were used as cemeteries, and others were used as foundations or platforms for special buildings.
Some archaeologists have suggested that early mounds may have served to demarcate territorial boundaries, to assert how powerful the leaders were, or to build a sense of shared community among participating builders.
There is no clear evidence to indicate the functions of the mounds at Poverty Point. For many years, archaeologists believed that earthen monuments like those at Poverty Point could only have been built by people who relied on farming to survive. It was assumed that people who depended on hunting, gathering, and fishing did not have sufficient resources to support such activities as mound construction.
Many mounds were built by farming cultures, but some, such as those at Poverty Point, were not. Indeed, archaeological investigations at Poverty Point forced archaeologists to reconsider their assumptions about what prehistoric hunter-gatherers could accomplish. Archaeologists first began to investigate Poverty Point in the early twentieth century. Clarence Bloomfield Moore excavated at the site in February Clarence H. Webb, a physician and avocational archaeologist, began exploring Poverty Point in the s and was pivotal in research there for decades.
Webb collaborated with a local enthusiast, Carl Alexander, as well as other avocational and professional archaeologists, including James A. Ford, who conducted research at Poverty Point in — Since then, many archaeologists have worked at the site, accumulating greater knowledge, but raising additional questions in the process. The story of Poverty Point is a continually evolving one. Although the ages of all the mounds at Poverty Point are not precisely established, five are thought to be associated with the main construction episode from to B.
These mounds are quite different in terms of size, shape, construction material, and construction technique. The C-shaped ridge system at Poverty Point went unrecognized for many years, mostly because of its magnitude. On the western side of the plaza, archeologists have found some unusually deep pits. One explanation is these holes once held huge wooden posts, which served as calendar markers. Outside the ridged enclosure are five other mounds. Mound A and Motley Mound appear to many to be in the shape of a bird in flight.
Motley Mound may be considered to be unfinished. Scientists believe these mounds were used for special activities or as a gathering place for the elite.
Mound B is a domed mound feet in diameter and 20 feet in height. Throughout the eastern United States, domed mounds were frequently used for burial. However, no burial sites have been excavated at Poverty Point.
Lower Jackson Mound is estimated to be as much as 1, years older than other mounds at the site. Robert Connolly, Ph. What this points to is that people came back to the PP site after the original occupation.
And not only continued to conduct activities here, but actually continued adding to the earthworks as well, up to a period of AD. Besides the construction of the colossal earthworks and mounds, another hallmark of the Poverty Point culture is long-distance trade. Since there were no local stones on the Macon Ridge, rocks were major trade goods. Other materials, such as food, may have also been traded. Due to lack of preservation and soil erosion, little archeological evidence of those goods remains.
The people of Poverty Point acquired stones from the Quachita, Ozark and Appalachian mountains and even copper from the Great Lakes—1, miles away. Some were traded in a natural condition, but many were circulated in finished forms. While some rocks were used to make tools, others were used to create ornaments or symbolic objects. The extensive trade network of the Poverty Point culture is one big difference with the earlier Watson Brake Indians who relied only on local raw materials for manufacturing tools.
Located between the woodlands and the swamplands, the Macon Ridge was rich in plant and animal food sources. Archeologists have recently found evidence of what appears to have been a large lake, where there is now only farmland. The predominance of fish and reptile bones at the site suggests most of their foods came from slow-moving water.
Fishermen may have used cast and gill fishing-nets weighted with plummets to capture the fish. Hunters stalked their prey with spears. To provide added power and distance, the inhabitants used atlatls, or spear-throwers. Atlatl hooks were sometimes made of carved antler. Polished stone weights were attached to help transfer the force of the throwing motion to the spear.
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