The Ghost site (
16 TE 18),
or Ghost site mounds is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
in
Tensas Parish, Louisiana
Tensas Parish (french: Paroisse des Tensas) is a parish located in the northeastern section of the State of Louisiana; its eastern border is the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,252. It is the least populated paris ...
, with an early to middle
Coles Creek culture
Coles Creek culture is a Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi valley in the Southeastern Woodlands. It followed the Troyville culture. The period marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area. Population i ...
component (700–1200 CE) and a Late Coles Creek to
Plaquemine culture
The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture (circa 1200 to 1700 CE) centered on the Lower Mississippi River valley. It had a deep history in the area stretching back through the earlier Coles Creek (700-1200 CE) and Troyville culture ...
component (1200 to 1541 CE).
Description
The site has three surviving
mound
A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...
s and could have had as many as five. Mound A, the largest mound, is an in height and by
platform mound
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system or ...
. The mound has been used historically as a cemetery. Since 1990 considerable erosion has damaged the mound, after portions of it were removed to build a dam across a nearby bayou. The other two remaining mounds are small dome-shaped mounds less than tall and about by at their bases. Mound B was also partially removed for the dam project, but Mound C is still intact. Two other small rises still exist (Mound D and Mound E), but it is unclear if they were mounds or natural features.
[
]
Excavations
Limited archaeological testing has been done at the site. Bone, shell, ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
, and charcoal were found underneath Mounds A and B, and based on decorative elements on the pottery they are dated 700–1200 during the Early to Middle Coles Creek period. Other examples were found in Mounds B and C that have been dated to 1200 to 1541 during the Plaquemine period.[
]
Location
The site is located along highway La 4 east from its junction with La 128. It is verges on a bayou that flows into the Tensas River
The Tensas River is a river in Louisiana in the United States. The river, known as Tensas Bayou in its upper reaches, begins in East Carroll Parish in the northeast corner of the state and runs roughly southwest for U.S. Geological Survey. Nationa ...
.[
]
See also
* Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley
*Balmoral Mounds
Balmoral Mounds ( 16 TE 12) is an archaeological site of the Coles Creek culture in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. The site has components located both on the east and west sides of US 65 near Bayou Rousset.
Description
The site consists of 3 platform ...
*Flowery Mound
Flowery Mound is an archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana with components from the Late Coles Creek and Plaquemine-Mississippian culture which dates from approximately 950–1541.
Description
The site is located on Andrews Bayou. The ...
*Sundown Mounds
Sundown Mounds is an multimound archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana from the Early Coles Creek culture.
It is the type site for the ''Sundown Phase (600-800 CE)'' of the Tensas Basin and Natchez Bluff Coles Creek chronology.
Descripti ...
References
External links
Ghost Site Mounds
at megalithic.co.uk
{{Pre-Columbian North America
Plaquemine Mississippian culture
Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture
Mounds in Louisiana
Geography of Tensas Parish, Louisiana