Transylvania 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 a ...
in
East Carroll Parish, Louisiana
East Carroll Parish (french: Paroisse de Carroll Est) is a parish located in the Mississippi Delta in northeastern Louisiana. As of 2020, its population was 7,459. The parish seat is Lake Providence. An area of cotton plantations in the antebell ...
with components from the
Coles Creek (700–1200)CE and
Plaquemine
Plaquemine is a city in and the parish seat of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area. At the 2010 United States census, the population was 7,119; the 2020 census determined i ...
/
Mississippi periods (1200–1541).
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 ''Transylvania Phase (1500-1680 CE)'' of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology.
Description
A large multimound site with two
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. ...
s and possibly as many as twelve mounds. The largest mound at the site was in height and was flanked on two sides by the plazas. Several of the mounds are no longer visible because intensive European farming methods have leveled them. The ones that do remain are , , , , and in height. The site underwent limited archaeological testing in the 1960s. These tests dated occupation of the site about 700–1200 CE during the Coles Creek period. Other
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 ...
discovered at the site were dated to 1200–1541 during the
Plaquemine Mississippian period. A series of radiocarbon samples returned dates between 1048 and 1411 CE. These investigations prompted archaeologists to use the Transylvania site as the type site for the ''Transylvania Phase (1500-1680 CE)'' of the local Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology. When the site was mapped in 2000 investigators were able to identify six remaining mounds.
[
]
See also
* Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley
References
External links
Transylvania Mounds at waymarking.com
Excavations at Transylvania Mounds
{{Pre-Columbian North America
Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture
Plaquemine Mississippian culture
Mounds in Louisiana
Geography of East Carroll Parish, Louisiana