The Poverty Point Culture flourished from approximately 2000 B.C. to 700
B.C. The culture is named for the famous Poverty Point Site where the
largest earthworks of the period were built. During this time, Poverty
Point people lived in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, and they
usually settled near major rivers, junctions of lakes and rivers, or in
coastal marshes. These locations supported a wide variety of plants and
animals that could be used for food.
[Illustration: Poverty Point Site]
The Poverty Point Site is near Epps, Louisiana, in the northeastern
corner of the state. The site is now a State Commemorative Area that can
be visited by the public. It covers more than a square mile, and when
the ridges and mounds were built they were the largest earthworks in the
Western Hemisphere. Although the exact function of the ridges is as yet
unknown, it is speculated that the aisles may have been used in
astronomical observations because two of them line up with the summer
and winter solstice sunsets.
Like Meso-Indians, some Poverty Point Indians lived in small dispersed
groups, but others established regional centers where large populations
lived throughout the year. Oval or horseshoe-shaped structures of earth
or shell were usually built at these centers. The reason for the
construction is unknown, but it is likely that the Poverty Point leaders
lived at such sites and that the sites functioned as ceremonial,
political and trading centers.
The Poverty Point Site in northeastern Louisiana was the largest
regional center. It was built between the Mississippi and the Arkansas
rivers. Using these rivers, as well as land routes, Poverty Point
Indians traded with other Indians as far away as Illinois, Virginia and
Florida.
At the Poverty Point Site, the Indians built earthen ridges that form
six semicircles, one inside the other. The ridges are interrupted by
four aisles that radiate out from the inner area. The outer ridge of
these earthworks measures nearly three-quarters of a mile across.
Immediately to the west is an earthen mound 70 feet high and just north
of it is another mound, 21 feet high.
The ridges and mounds were built by hand. Workers loosened dirt with
shells or stones used like hoes, then filled baskets and animal hides
with soil and carried them to the construction area. It took
approximately 30 million 50-pound loads to build the earthen ridges and
the two large mounds at Poverty Point. The construction must have taken
many generations to complete.
Poverty Point Indians probably had a ruling class, perhaps with a chief,
to direct earthwork construction and long-distance trade. The leadership
also may have helped organize food collecting and hunting activities.
People living at the regional center relied on hunting, fishing, and
plant collecting to supply their food, just as Meso-Indians had. They
may also have sown seeds of favorite wild plants in cleared garden
areas. There are indications that the Poverty Point Indians grew
pigweed, marsh elder, knotweed, lamb’s quarters and sunflowers using
this cultivation technique. This gardening, though helpful, would not
have been essential to feed the people in the rich natural environments
where they lived.
Poverty Point Indians continued to use the tools that Meso-Indians had
used for hunting, collecting, and food preparation. They were likely,
however, to get some of the stone for these tools through long-distance
trade. The Neo-Indians also made new tools that were added to the
Meso-Indian ones.
They made oval-shaped stone plummets that were used as weights on bolas
or nets. A bola could be flung so that it wrapped around the feet of
wild game. Weighted nets could have trapped both fish and small game.
Stone for the plummets used by Louisiana Indians was magnetite and
hematite from Missouri and northern Arkansas.
The Poverty Point Indians cooked their food in a new way. They made clay
cooking balls that probably were used like charcoal briquettes for
roasting and baking. They rolled clay in their hands, then squeezed or
shaped it into one of many forms. These were dried and heated in a fire
until hot, then up to 200 were placed in a roasting pit. The different
shapes may simply indicate the maker’s design preference or may have
controlled temperature and cooking time.
Another change in food preparation was the introduction of stone, and
later, pottery vessels. The stone cooking or storage bowls were made
from steatite (soapstone), or less commonly from sandstone. Later in the
period, the first Louisiana pottery vessels were made, and these
probably were modeled after the earlier stone bowls.
In addition to these practical goods, Indians of this period made many
exotic ornamental objects including stone and clay figurines, beads, and
pendants. The figurines were about 2.5 inches tall and represented
seated females, but usually the heads were removed. This may indicate
that the clay figurines were used in some kind of ceremony. The beads
were made from copper and clay, as well as gems and other stones.
Pendants, also made from clay and stone, were in the shape of birds,
insects, miniature tools, and geometrical shapes.
The Indians may have cut and drilled stones to make pendants and beads
with small stone tools usually less than an inch in length. These tools,
called microtools, were also used for cutting, scraping, sawing and
engraving bone, antler, and wood.
Many distinctive traits of the Poverty Point Culture were shared by
people living in Mexico and Central America at that time and even
earlier. These traits included earthwork construction, planned villages,
clay figurines, stone beads and pendants, and microtools. These southern
Indians almost certainly influenced the development of certain aspects
of Poverty Point culture, either by direct contact or by descriptions
shared by travelers.
[Illustration: Poverty Point: a, Plummet; b, Atlatl Weight; c-f,
Clay Cooking Balls; g, Clay Female Figurine; h, Stone Point; i,
Gorget; j-n, Stone Beads and Pendants; o, Microtools (½ actual
size)]
The Poverty Point Culture that flourished for over 1,000 years had
virtually disappeared by 500 B.C. There is no evidence of warfare or
conflict with another group, so perhaps internal political or religious
changes caused the decline. In any event, people gradually abandoned the
regional centers and returned to living in small scattered settlements.
Never again in Louisiana did the Indian people build such massive
earthworks or trade over such an extensive area.