ABSTRACT
The people who built the mounds in Eastern North America had deep roots in the region. Their moundbuilding activities were, from the very beginning, closely related to a larger complex of regional development, and this regional context was the product of various processes that can be traced back to the end of the Ice Age and the beginning of the Archaic Period (around 8000 to 500 B.C.). Global warming was transforming the planet's weather, and as the climate of Eastern North America changed, so did the plant and animal population and the shape of the land and the rivers. People throughout the region adapted to these changes, took advantage of the opportunities they offered, and thereby embarked upon the path that ultimately led to the creation of moundbuilding centers such as the one at Poverty Point, which emerged in northeastern Louisiana around 1500 B.C.
