Bayou Grande Cheniere Mounds ( 16 PL 159) 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 ...

Plaquemines Parish Plaquemines Parish (; French: ''Paroisse de Plaquemine'', Louisiana French: ''Paroisse des Plaquemines'', es, Parroquia de Caquis) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 23,515 at the 2020 census, the parish ...

near the southeast corner of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. Built by the

Coastal Coles Creek culture Coles Creek culture is a Woodland period#Late Woodland period (500–1000 CE), Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi River, Mississippi valley in the Southeastern Woodlands. It followed the Troyville culture. The period mar ...

, it was inhabited from 875 to 1200 CE, from the Early Coles Creek period to the Coles Creek/Plaquemine period.

Description

The site is located on a natural levee of Bayou Grande Chenière and has twelve

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, eleven arranged around a central

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. ...

and one to the south, connected to the main group by a constructed landform. The site was connected by a manmade

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...

to Bayou Grande Chenière. The elliptical plaza measures on its north-south axis by east-west. Mound 1, the largest, is a conical mound measuring and located on the eastern edge of the plaza. The southern edge of the plaza is bounded by Mound 10 and the northern edge by Mound 3, both are

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. The western edge of the plaza is a string of interconnected small mounds, Mounds 4 to 9. The site is unusual in its size and number of mounds. Typically Coastal Coles Creek settlements had three mounds arranged around a plaza. The site's plan and large scale are most like the large Coles Creek settlement in

Avoyelles Parish Avoyelles (french: Paroisse des Avoyelles) is a parish located in central eastern Louisiana on the Red River where it effectively becomes the Atchafalaya River and meets the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 census, the population was 42,07 ...

, the Greenhouse site.

Excavations

Henry Collins, Jr., an assistant entomologist for the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, first excavated the site in 1926. The mound site was mapped by McGimsey in 2000. Dr. Rebecca Saunders, Timothy Schilling, and seven students from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

conducted field excavations at the site in January 2003.

Pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

found during excavations was dated from 875 to 1200 CE during the '' Bayou Ramos (700-875 CE)'', '' Bayou Cutler (875-1000 CE)'' and '' St. Gabriel (1000-1200 CE)'' phases, spanning the Early Coles Creek period to the Transitional Coles Creek/Plaquemine period for the eastern delta. No material from earlier than 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 ...

were found, nor were any materials from after the Plaquemine period. In the late 2000s

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

's Stennis Space Center, in partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District and

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

, undertook an archaeological survey of the southeastern Louisiana marshes, including the Bayou Grande Chenière site. This survey discovered the manmade causeway leading from the site to the bayou.

References

{{Pre-Columbian North America Plaquemine Mississippian culture Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture Mounds in Louisiana Geography of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana 1926 archaeological discoveries 9th-century establishments in Coles Creek culture 12th-century disestablishments in Coles Creek culture

Description

Excavations

See also

References