The LSU Campus Mounds or LSU Indian Mounds are two Native American

mounds A mound is an artificial heap or pile, especially of earth, rocks, or sand. Mound and Mounds may also refer to: Places * Mound, Louisiana, United States * Mound, Minnesota, United States * Mound, Texas, United States * Mound, West Virginia * ...

, likely of the Archaic Period, on the campus of

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 ...

in Baton Rouge,

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 ...

. The mounds are commonly thought to be more than 5,000 years old, and one estimate places them at 11,300 years old. They predate the Great Pyramids of Egypt, and are believed to be the oldest surviving man-made structure in the Americas, or possibly the whole world.

History

The mounds were built thousands of years ago on a spot overlooking the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

in what is now Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the site of Louisiana State University. The northern mound consists of hard clay dirt; the southern mound is more porous. The scholarly consensus is that they were used for "ceremonial and marking point purposes," rather than for burial. They are part of a larger, statewide system of mounds. They were first dated in 1982. In 2009, LSU professor Brooks Ellwood took core samples that revealed a layer of charcoal, possibly from a

pit barbecue Pit barbecue is a method and/or apparatus for barbecue cooking meat and root vegetables buried below ground. Indigenous peoples around the world used earth ovens for thousands of years. In modern times the term and activity is often associated wi ...

or a

cremation Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre is ...

. Additional excavation work was done in 2011, 2012, and 2018. Based on his analysis of the material found within the mounds, Ellwood conjectures that they contain cremated human remains and are substantially older than the existing consensus, as much as 11,300 years old.

Preservation

Due to their location in a heavily trafficked area of campus, the mounds began to show signs of degradation as well as natural erosion. To alleviate the issue, the university installed a sidewalk between the mounds in 1985. In addition, a low brick wall was placed around the mounds in order to prevent vehicles from dangerously crossing the mounds. Erosion continued to take its toll until a restoration project was initiated in 1996. Using river silt, the LSU Facility Services patched damage on both mounds and seeded a hybrid Bermuda grass to prevent future problems. The mounds were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on March 1, 1999. wit
two photos
/ref> With . In 2010, LSU announced the "Save the Mounds" campaign to preserve the mounds. Officials from the school stated that the mounds had suffered internal structural damage that would lead to their eventual collapse. While they were formerly used for tailgate parties, in 2010 they began to be fenced off during LSU's home football games to prevent them from being damaged.

References

* {{Portal bar, National Register of Historic Places Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana Archaic period in North America Geography of Baton Rouge, Louisiana History of Baton Rouge, Louisiana Campus Mounds Mounds in Louisiana National Register of Historic Places in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

History

Preservation

See also

References