Earthen pyramid-like mounds long predate Cahokia! Louisiana's Watson Brake is more than 5,000 years old, while Poverty Point's roughly 72-foot North Mound dates to its 1700–1100 BCE occupation. Holly Bluff was a fortified Coles Creek settlement in the 900s, with a moat, embankments and a 55-foot Mound A. Marksville (c. 100 BCE–400 CE) belonged to the Hopewell interaction sphere, while Ohio Hopewell continued to about 500 CE. The video argues that bow-and-arrow adoption around 600 CE expanded corn agriculture, increased the need to defend valuable farmland and drove new fortified settlement patterns that culminated in Mississippian civilization.
Earthen pyramid-like mounds predate Cahokia; a video links arrows to Mississippian rise
Key facts
- Watson Brake is the Louisiana mound more than 5,000 years old; Poverty Point's roughly 72-foot North Mound was built within the site's 1700–1100 BCE occupation.
- Holly Bluff was a fortified Coles Creek settlement in the 900s CE, with a moat and earthen embankments on three sides and the Mississippi River on the fourth; Mound A is about 55 feet high, covers about 2 acres at its base and is larger than any mound at Plum Bayou.
- Plum Bayou and Holly Bluff were contemporary Coles Creek communities, and the video connects them through regional exchange networks.
- Holly Bluff was abandoned around 1200 CE as Cahokia expanded. Clarence Moore's extensive 1908 excavation was at Poverty Point, not Holly Bluff.
- Marksville (c. 100 BCE–400 CE) is more accurately described as part of the Hopewell interaction sphere. Its principal embankment was about 10 feet high and 1,600 feet long, while Ohio Hopewell continued to about 500 CE.
- The video argues that the bow and arrow spread from Canada around 600 CE, expanded corn agriculture and increased the need to defend valuable farmland, driving new fortified settlement patterns that culminated in Mississippian civilization.
Sources
IDENTIFYING PATTERNS IN COLES CREEK MORTUARY ...rla.unc.edu
by MC Kassabaum · 2011 · Cited by 26 — The 3.2-ha Greenhouse site consists of seven mounds (A–G) arranged around a central plaza (Figure 2). The three most prominent mounds (A,. E, and G) are roughly…
Research at the Raffman Mound Center in Madison Parish ...library.search.tulane.edu
Social complexity and mound ceremony in the Coles Creek culture: Research at the Raffman Mound Center in Madison Parish, Louisiana. Social complexity and mound ...
(PDF) Excavations at the Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds ...researchgate.net
two separate yet related (interacting) cultures, the Coles Creek and the Coastal Coles Creek. Though some sites have more mounds than others, the there is scant ...
Coles Creek Culture and the Trans-Mississippi Southscholarworks.sfasu.edu
by FF Schambach · 1991 · Cited by 4 — Apparently all the important Early Caddo sites such as Crenshaw and. Bowman in Arkansas, Gahagan and Mounds Plantation in Louisiana, and the Davis site in east…
Coles Creek Incised Bowl from Plum Bayou Moundsarcheology.uark.edu
Inside this pit (also known as Feature 6), archeologists found dark greasy soils with an increased clay content, along with loads of burned material, including ...
Holly Bluff Site - Cliotheclio.com
At its peak, there were at least 28 mounds here, all of which surrounded a tall, 55-foot central mound, called Mound A. The natives who lived ...
Holly Bluff site Facts for Kidskids.kiddle.co
Holly Bluff site facts for kids. ... Mound A is the biggest. It is about 55 feet (17 meters) tall and ...
Lake George Mounds, Mississippimegalithic.co.uk
The Lake George Site (also called Holly Bluff) originally had as many as 28 mounds and is one of Mississippi's largest continuously occupied ...
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