The Poverty Point Landscape

The Poverty Point Landscape. . , Earthen mounds had been built before, during the Middle Archaic period. Single ridges had, too. But, the six nested ridges at Poverty Point are unique in both their formation and their scale. The diameter of the outermost ridge, from north to south, is about ¾ mile. The great size of the ridges and their subtle topography combine to make them difficult to recognize from the ground. (To help visitors identify the ridges, the Office of State Parks allows the grass to grow higher on the ridgetops than in the adjacent swales, or low areas.) From the air, however, they are much more obvious. That is how Dr. James Ford discovered the ridges in 1953, from an aerial photograph. Archaeologists have concluded that people lived on the ridges. , Moundbuilding at Poverty Point began with Mound B sometime around 1650 BC. Mound E was probably built at about the same time. The age of Mound C is not yet known, as inconsistent dates suggest it could have been one of the earlier mounds or one of the later ones. The remarkable Mound A, one of the largest mounds in North America, was created after 1400 BC. Late Archaic mound construction at Poverty Point likely ended with Mound F, sometime after 1250 BC. , The plaza, which appears today as just a large flat area, is also an earthwork. Traces of large circles of wooden posts are buried beneath two to three feet or more of soil that effectively raised the level of the plaza in some places This was probably accomplished between about 1400 and 1200 BC.