Higher Ground: America's Mound Builders · Episode 2 of 7 · 38 min
Older Than the Pyramids: Watson Brake & Poverty Point
Before farming, pottery or the Egyptian pyramids, hunter-gatherers in Louisiana were sculpting mountains of earth. Watson Brake rose around 3500 BCE, and Poverty Point, with six concentric ridges, followed; its 72-foot Mound A may have been raised in under three months, basket by basket, with no wheel and no draft animals. The episode finds the deep root of the flood-refuge idea in engineered high ground on river terraces.
Where it happens
- Watson Brake, near Monroe, LouisianaOldest earthwork complex in North America, eleven mounds in a 900-foot oval
- Poverty Point, West Carroll Parish, LouisianaSix nested ridges and a 72-foot Mound A; UNESCO World Heritage Site
Timeline
- c. 3500 BCEMound construction begins at Watson Brake.
- c. 1700 BCEConstruction ramps up at Poverty Point.
- c. 1600-1300 BCEMain ridge-building phase; Mound A raised rapidly.
- c. 1100 BCEPoverty Point's flourishing winds down.
- 1953An aerial photograph reveals the six concentric ridges.
- 2014Poverty Point is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Still debated
Sources disagree on Poverty Point's dates at the edges, and its population is uncertain; the series uses about 5,000 while some scholars estimate differently.
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