Marsden Mounds ( 16 R 13) 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 a ...

with components from the

Poverty Point culture The Poverty Point culture is the archaeological culture of a prehistoric indigenous peoples who inhabited a portion of North America's lower Mississippi Valley and surrounding Gulf coast from about 1730 – 1350 BC. Archeologists have identified ...

(1500 BCE) and the Troyville- Coles Creek period (400 to 1200 CE). It is located in

Richland Parish, Louisiana Richland Parish is a parish located in the North Louisiana Delta Country in the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United St ...

, near

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

. It was added to the NRHP on August 4, 2004, as NRIS number 04000803. It is the

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...

for the ''Marsden Phase (500-600 CE)'' of the Tensas Basin and Natchez Bluff regions local chronology.

Site description

The earthworks at the site include a group of five

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 ...

s and two portions of an earthen embankment. Mounds A, B, C and D (which are between and in height) are located along the eastern edge of Maçon Ridge with a section of the embankment connecting three of them. The largest mound at the site, Mound E, measures in height, with the base being by and a summit of by . It and another portion of embankment are located across a large

plaza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

to the southwest of the other mounds. During investigations at the site, artifacts from the

Poverty Point Poverty Point State Historic Site/Poverty Point National Monument (french: Pointe de Pauvreté; 16 WC 5) is a prehistoric earthwork constructed by the Poverty Point culture, located in present-day northeastern Louisiana, though evidence of t ...

culture were found under some of the mounds, showing that people occupied this at least as early as 1500 BC during the Archaic period. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples from one of the smaller mounds have been dated 400 and 1200 CE, during the

Late Woodland In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeolog ...

Troyville-Coles Creek period. The site is part of the Poverty Point Reservoir State Park. It is open to the public and accessible by foot.

References

External links

Marsden Mounds - Louisiana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

{{National Register of Historic Places Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana Poverty Point culture Troyville culture Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture Mounds in Louisiana Geography of West Carroll Parish, Louisiana National Register of Historic Places in West Carroll Parish, Louisiana

Site description

See also

References

External links