Troyville Earthworks ( 16 CT 7) is a

Woodland period In the classification of :category:Archaeological cultures of North America, archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 Common Era, BCE to European con ...

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 ...

with components dating from 100 BCE to 700 CE during the

Baytown Baytown may refer to: * Baytown, Texas, a city in the United States near Houston, Texas *Baytown culture, an archaeological culture in the United States *Operation Baytown Operation Baytown was an Allied amphibious landing on the mainland o ...

to the Troyville- Coles Creek periods. It once had the tallest mound in Louisiana at in height. It is located in

Catahoula Parish, Louisiana Catahoula Parish (french: Paroisse de Catahoula) is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,407. Its seat is Harrisonburg, on the Ouachita River. The parish was formed in 1808, shortly after the U ...

in the town of Jonesville. The site 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 Age ...

for the

Troyville culture The Troyville culture is an archaeological culture in areas of Louisiana and Arkansas in the Lower Mississippi valley in the Southeastern Woodlands. It was a Baytown Period culture and lasted from 400 to 700 CE during the Late Woodland period. It ...

of the lower Ouachita and Tensas River valleys. Before it was destroyed for bridge approach fill in 1931, the main mound at Troyville was one of the tallest in North America.

Site description

Troyville Earthworks layout Troyville culture HRoe 2011

The site is at the confluence of the Tensas, Ouachita, and Little Rivers. It had nine

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 a perimeter embankment that were built before 700 CE. A historian, John W. Monette, in 1844 described the complex as occupying close to 400 acres and noted the existence of twelve small mounds and one large one. The embankment was started during the Middle Baytown period, with periodic repair work taking place during the Late Baytown period. The largest mound, Mound 5 ( also known as the "Great Mound" ), was in height. It was the tallest precolumbian mound in Louisiana and the second tallest in North America. Its base covered an acre of ground and had three levels, the bottom two rectangular and the third on the top a truncated conical mound. Monette described the lower level of Mound 5 as being by at its base and rising to the height of . He described the conical mound at the top as . Measurements for the smaller mounds at the site were about to in height with bases measuring by . Four of the mounds were surrounded on the southern and western side of the plaza by the embankment, which measured in height, in width and across. By the time of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the mound had been reduced in size to in height. During the Civil War, the mound was reduced even further when some of its fill was removed to construct

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

rifle pit A defensive fighting position (DFP) is a type of Earthworks (engineering)#Military use, earthwork constructed in a military context, generally large enough to accommodate anything from one soldier to a fire team (or similar sized unit). Termin ...

s. In 1871 the town of Jonesville was founded on the site and more of Mound A's fill was used to fill ditches (

borrow pit Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock on the surface of Earth. Digging is actuall ...

s created by the removal of earth to construct the mounds themselves) and level the land as the town grew. The townspeople frequently camped out on the mounds during flooding. In 1883 the site was visited by the prominent ethnologist

Cyrus Thomas Cyrus Thomas (July 27, 1825 – June 26, 1910) was an American ethnologist and entomologist prominent in the late 19th century and noted for his studies of the natural history of the American West. Biography Thomas was born in Kingsport, ...

, who described the group as then consisting of six mounds within an embankment, with some of the smaller mounds having been largely destroyed. One had been turned into a modern cemetery, which can still be seen today on the grounds of the local Methodist Church. The Great Mound had also been reduced, by this time it was only in height, in length and in width. In 1931 the mound was drastically reduced in size, the majority of its remaining mass being used as fill for a nearby bridge approach. Today the mound is only in height.

Excavations

Great Mound Troyville Earthworks HRoe 2011

The site takes its name from the Troy Plantation, which was part of a Spanish land grant of 1,000 acres made to John Hebrard in 1786.

William Dunbar William Dunbar (born 1459 or 1460 – died by 1530) was a Scottish makar, or court poet, active in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. He was closely associated with the court of King James IV and produced a large body of work in ...

was the first European to make note of the mound site in his report to

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

for the Red River expedition of 1804. It is the first written description of an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

site in Louisiana. In 1931 and 1932 the Smithsonian archaeologist Winslow Walker excavated parts of the site. He found woven cane matting, palmetto fronds, and wooden planks within the mound, materials used by the Native Americans as part of the complex engineering to build the large structure. These materials had been used to construct a "cane dome", which had been layered like an onion by alternating layers of split cane and mound fill to strengthen the structure. The builders also used different colors of dirt, including blue clays and red clays. Walker also discovered a log

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...

and steps made of tree trunks up one corner of the mound. He published a 103-page booklet on his work. In the late 2000s parts of the site were being investigated for purchase by

The Archaeological Conservancy The Archaeological Conservancy is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that acquires and preserves archaeological sites in the United States. Whereas nearly every other nation protects all archaeological sites within its borders as part of its nation ...

, a nonprofit organization that plans to protect the site from future degradation. The Conservancy purchased the site of Mound 4 and the old house located on the property was demolished. The Conservancy plans to landscape and fence the site and use it as a research preserve.

References

External links

Troyville Earthworks I: Ancient Mounds Trail - Louisiana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Troyville Earthworks II: Ancient Mounds Trail - Louisiana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Jonesville site (Troyville Great Mound)

The builders of the Great Mound at Jonesville

Great Mound was once the tallest in North America
{{Pre-Columbian North America Troyville culture Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture Mounds in Louisiana Geography of Catahoula Parish, Louisiana

Site description

Excavations

See also

References

External links