Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T02:02:54.369Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Magnetic Evidence of Ridge Construction and Use at Poverty Point

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael L. Hargrave ,
Tad Britt  and
Matthew D. Reynolds
Michael L. Hargrave
Affiliation:
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, PO Box 9005, Champaign, IL 61826-9005 (Michael.L.Hargrave@erdc.usace.army.mil, John.T.Britt@erdc.usace.army.mil)
Tad Britt
Affiliation:
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, PO Box 9005, Champaign, IL 61826-9005 (Michael.L.Hargrave@erdc.usace.army.mil, John.T.Britt@erdc.usace.army.mil)
Matthew D. Reynolds
Affiliation:
Tierra Right of Way Services, 1575 E. River Road, Suite 201, Tucson, AZ 85718-5831 (mreynolds@tierra-row.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A magnetic field gradient survey was conducted at Poverty Point to determine if that technique could detect discrete subsurface features and differentiate the ridges and swales in an area that today exhibits very little topographic relief. The survey area (280 m long by 20 to 60 m wide) crossed Ridges 1 through 5 in the southwest portion of the site. The ridges were revealed as variegated bands of positive and negative magnetic anomalies whereas the swales appeared to be relatively homogeneous. Ridge 1, nearest the plaza, is wider and higher but has less of a flank midden than the other ridges. Two roughly circular arrangements of anomalies on Ridge I are potentially important but cannot be reliably interpreted without ground truthing excavations. Future large-area, high-resolution magnetic gradient surveys could dramatically enhance our understanding of this enigmatic site.

Résumé

Résumé

Una prospección geofísica del gradiente del campo magnético fue realizada para determinar si esa técnica puede detectar rasgos debajo de la superficie y diferenciar las elevaciones y planos en un área que hoy expone poco relieve topográfico. El área de la prospección (280 m de largo por 20 a 60 m de ancho) cruzó las Elevaciones 1 a 5 en la parte suroeste del sitio. Las elevaciones fueron reveladas como bandas variadas de anomalías magnéticas positivas y negativas, mientras que los planos parecían relativamente homogéneos. Elevación 1, la mas cercana a la plaza, es mas alta y ancha pero esta rodeada por menos basurales que las otras elevaciones. Dos arreglos aproximadamente circulares de anomalías sobre la Elevación 1 son potencialmente importantes pero no pueden ser interpretados seguramente sin excavaciones para verificar. Futuras prospecciones geofísicas de alta-resolución en áreas grandes pueden aumentar dramáticamente nuestro entendimiento de este sitio enigmático.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 757 - 770
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Aitken, M. J. 1961 Physics and Archaeology. Interscience Publishers, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breiner, S. 1999 Applications Manual for Portable Magnetometers. Geometries, San Jose, California.Google Scholar
Britt, Tad, Hargrave, Michael L., and Simms, Janet 2002 Geophysical Archaeological Survey at Poverty Point State Historic Site (16WC5), West Carroll Parish, Louisiana. U. S. Army Engineer Research Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, Special Report 02-13. Champaign, Illinois.Google Scholar
Clark, Anthony 2001 Seeing Beneath the Soil: Prospecting Methods in Archaeology. Revised edition. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Clay, R. Berle 2001 Complementary Geophysical Survey Techniques: Why Two Ways are Always Better than One. Southeastern Archaeology 20(1):31–43.Google Scholar
Clay, R. Berle 2006 Conductivity (EM) Survey: A Survival Manual. In Remote Sensing in A rchaeology: an Explicitly North American Perspective, edited by Jay K. Johnson, pp. 79–108. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Connolly, Robert 2002 The 1980–1982 Excavations on the Northwest Ridge 1 at the Poverty Point Site. Louisiana Archaeology. Bulletin of the Louisiana Archaeological Society No. 25. Louisiana Archaeological Society, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Connolly, Robert 2003 Annual Report: Station Archaeology Program at Poverty Point State Historic Site. Department of Geo-sciences, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Poverty Point State Historic Site.Google Scholar
Crowther, J., and Barker, P. 1995 Magnetic Susceptibility: Distinguishing Anthropogenic Effects from Natural. Archaeological Prospection 2:207–215.3.0.CO;2-#>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalan, Rinita A. 2003 Down-Hole Magnetic Susceptibility Tests, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Submitted to the Midwest Archaeological Center, National Park Service, Lincoln, Nebraska.Google Scholar
Dalan, Rinita A. 2006 Magnetic Susceptibility. In Remote Sensing in Archaeology: An Explicitly North American Perspective, edited by Jay K. Johnson, pp. 161–204. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Dalan, Rinita A., and Bannerjee, S. K. 1998 Solving Archaeological Problems Using Techniques of Soil Magnetism. Geoarchaeology 13(1):3–36.3.0.CO;2-9>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demel, Scott J., and Hall, Robert L. 1998 The Mississippian Town Plan and Cultural Landscape of Cahokia, Illinois. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Places, edited by R. Barry Lewis and Charles Stout, pp. 200–226. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Doolittle, James A. 1989 Appendices to: Digging on the Dock of the Bay(ou): the 1988 Excavations at Poverty Point, by Jon L. Gibson. Center for Archaeological Studies Report 8. University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette.Google Scholar
Ford, James A., and Webb, Clarence H. 1956 Poverty Point, A Late Archaic Site in Louisiana. Anthropological Papers Vol. 45, Part 1. American Museum of Natural History Volume 45, Part 1, New York.Google Scholar
Ford, James A., Phillips, Phillip, and Haag, W. G. 1955 The Jaketown Site in West-central Mississippi. Anthropological Papers Vol. 45, Part 1. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 1989 Digging on the Dock of the Bay(ou): The 1988 Excavations at Poverty Point. Center for Archaeological Studies Report 8. University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 1990 Earth Sitting: Architectural Masses at Poverty Point, Northeastern Louisiana. In Recent Research at the Poverty Point Site, edited by Kathleen M. Byrd, pp. 201–248. Bulletin of the Louisiana Archaeological Society, No. 13. Louisiana Archaeological Society, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 1993 In Helona’s Shadow: Excavations in the Western Rings at Poverty Point, 1991. Center for Archaeological Studies, Report 11. University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette.Google Scholar
Gibson, Jon L. 2001 The Ancient Mounds at Poverty Point: Place of Rings. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Goad, Sharon 1980 Excavations at the Poverty Point Site. Manuscript on file, Louisiana Division of Archaeology, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Greene, Glen Stonefield 1990a The Deep Six Paleosol: The Incipient Poverty Point Occupation, 1983 Excavations. In Recent Research at the Poverty Point Site, edited by K. M. Byrd, pp. 113–130. Bulletin of the Louisiana Archaeological Society, No. 13. Louisiana Archaeological Society, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Greene, Glen Stonefield 1990b The Cultural Stratigraphy of the Northwest Sector Anthropic Epipedon: Ridges 1–5. Further Data on the Incipient Settlement During the Late Archaic-Early Formative Stage. Northeast Louisiana University, College of Pure and Applied Sciences. The Research Institute, Stratigraphic Series, No. 3.Google Scholar
Haag, William G. 1990 Excavations at the Poverty Point Site: 1972–1975. In Recent Research at Poverty Point, edited by Kathleen M. Byrd, pp. 1–39. Bulletin of the Louisiana Archaeological Society, No. 13. Louisiana Archaeological Society, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Hargrave, Michael L. 2006 Ground Truthing the Results of Geophysical Surveys. In Remote Sensing in Archaeology: An Explicitly North American Perspective, edited by Jay K. Johnson, pp. 269–304. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Hargrave, Michael L., Somers, Lewis E., Larson, Thomas K., Shields, Richard, and Dendy, John 2002 The Role of Resistivity Survey in Historic Site Assessment and Management: An Example from Fort Riley, Kansas. Historical Archaeology 36(4):89–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, H. Edwin 1991 The Trade Fair in Hunter-Gatherer Interaction: The Role of Inter-societal Trade in the Evolution of Poverty Point Culture. In Between Bands and States: Sedentism, Subsistence, and Interaction in Small Scale Societies, edited by Susan A. Gregg, pp. 265–286. Center for Archaeological Investigations Occasional Paper No. 9. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Kidder, Tristram R. 2002 Mapping Poverty Point. American Antiquity, 67(1) pp. 89–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kidder, Tristram R. 2004 Plazas as Architecture: An Example from the Raffman Site, Northeast Louisiana. American Antiquity 69:514–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kidder, Tristram R., Ortmann, Anthony, and Allen, Thurman 2004 Testing Mounds B and E at Poverty Point. Southeastern Archaeology 23(1):98–113.Google Scholar
Kuttruff, Carl 1975 The Poverty Point Site: North Sector Test Excavations. Louisiana Archaeology. Bulletin of the Louisiana Archaeological Society No. 2, pp. 129–151. Louisiana Archaeological Society, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Kvamme, Kenneth L. 2001 Current Practices in Archaeogeophysics: Magnetics. Resistivity, Conductivity, and Ground Penetrating Radar. In Earth Sciences and Archaeology, edited by Paul Goldberg, Vance T. Holliday, and C. Reid Ferring, pp. 353–384. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Kvamme, Kenneth L. 2003 Geophysical Surveys as Landscape Archaeology. American Antiquity 68:435–457.Google Scholar
Kvamme, Kenneth L. 2006 Magnetometry: Nature’s Gift to Archaeology. In Remote Sensing in Archaeology: An Explicitly North American Perspective, edited by Jay K. Johnson, pp. 205–224. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Lewis, R. Barry, Stout, Charles, and Wesson, Cameron B. 1998 The Design of Mississippian Towns. In Mississippian Towns and Sacred Places, edited by R. Barry Lewis and Charles Stout, pp. 1–21. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Mayer, Frederick J. 1989 Appendix D: Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Sub-surface Testing, Poverty Point. In Digging on the Dock of the Bay(ou): The 1988 Excavations at Poverty Point, by Jon L. Gibson. Center for Archaeological Studies Report 8. University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette.Google Scholar
Miller, Jill H. 1997 NLU-UAB Research Project at Poverty Point: Excavation on Ridge 2, Northwest Sector. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama at Birmingham.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Mathew D. 2002 Magnetic Remote Sensing and Ground Truth: Some Examples from the Hollywood Site, Tunica County, Mississippi. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Mississippi, Oxford.Google Scholar
Robinson, Edwin S., and Çoruh, Cahit 1988 Basic Exploration Geophysics. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Russo, Michael 1996 Southeastern Archaic Mounds. In Archaeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast, edited by Kenneth E. Sassaman and David G. Anderson, pp. 259–287. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Sassaman, Kenneth E., and Jerald Ledbetter, R. 1996 Middle and Late Archaic Architecture. In Archaeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast, edited by Kenneth E. Sassaman and David G. Anderson, pp. 75–95. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Sassaman, Kenneth E., and Heckenberger, Michael J. 2004 Crossing the Symbolic Rubicon in the Southeast. In Signs of Power, the Rise of Cultural Complexity in the Southeast, edited by Jon L. Gibson and Philip J. Carr, pp. 214–233. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Saunders, Joe W., Allen, Thurman, and Saucier, Roger T. 1994 Four Archaic Mound Complexes in Northeast Louisiana. Southeastern Archaeology 13(2):134–152.Google Scholar
Saunders, Joe W., Allen, Thurman, LaBatt, Dennis, Jones, R., and Griffing, D. 2001 An Assessment of the Antiquity of the Lower Jackson Mound South of Poverty Point. Southeastern Archaeology 20(1):67–77.Google Scholar
Saunders, Joe W., Mandel, Rolfe D., Garth Sampson, C., Allen, Charles M., Thurman Allen, E., Bush, Daniel A., Feathers, James K., Gremillion, Kristen J., Hallmark, C. T., Edwin Jackson, H., Johnson, Jay K., Jones, Reca, Saucier, Roger T., Stringer, Gary L., and Vidrine, Malcolm F. 2005 Watson Brake, a Middle Archaic Mound Complex in Northeast Louisiana. American Antiquity 70:631–668.Google Scholar
Silliman, Stephan W., Farnsworth, Paul, and Lightfoot, Kent G. 2000 Magnetometer Prospecting in Historical Archaeology: Evaluation Survey Options at a Nineteenth-Century Rancho Site in California. Historical Archaeology 34(2):89–109.Google Scholar
Simms, Janet E. 2002 Appendix B: Initial Ground Conductivity and GPR Survey at Poverty Point State Commemorative Center (16WC5) West Carroll Parish, Louisiana. In Geophysical Archaeological Survey at Poverty Point State Historic Site (I6WC5), West Carroll Parish, Louisiana. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, ERDC SR 02-13. Champaign, Illinois.Google Scholar
Somers, Lewis E. 1997 Geophysical Investigations at Archaeological Sites 14RY3183; 14RY3193; 14RY5155; and 14GE3183, Fort Riley, Kansas. Geoscan Research (USA). Submitted to Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, Champaign, Illinois. Copies available from Geoscan Research, Sea Ranch, California.Google Scholar
Somers, Lewis E., and Hargrave, Michael L. 2001 Magnetic and Resistance Surveys of Four Sites. In Phase II Archaeological Evaluation of 25 Sites, Fort Bragg and Camp MacKall, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, and Moore Counties, North Carolina, by B. Idol and S. Pullins, pp. 342–355. Submitted to ERDC/CERL. Copies available from TRC Garrow and Associates, Inc., Durham, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Webb, Clarence H. 1982 The Poverty Point Culture. Geoscience and Man, Vol. 17. Second Edition, Revised. School of Geoscience, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar