ABSTRACT
Eastern North America's first moundbuilding cultural area emerged during the Late Archaic Period in the Lower Mississippi Valley. The Poverty Point site, which was occupied from about 1500 to 700 B.C., was its major center. It is located in northeastern Louisiana near the town of Epps, about twelve miles west of the present course of the Mississippi River. In the nineteenth century it was part of a plantation called Poverty Point, and today archaeologists call both the center and the culture by this unfortunate name. The Poverty Point site, nevertheless, is rich both in size and significance. It is roughly three square miles in area, and millions of artifacts were contained within it. Furthermore, it is of great antiquity. It had reached its peak size by 1000 B.C., which makes it by far the oldest cultural center within the bounds of the United States, and one of the oldest centers in all North America, since it is as old as, if not older than, the well-known Olmec sites in Mexico.
