Frenchman's Bend
Coordinates: 32 ° 38 ′ 13.6 " N , 92 ° 2 ′ 37.8" W.
Frenchman's Bend is an archaeological site from the Middle Archaic Period north of Monroe in Ouachita Parish in the US state of Louisiana . This is a complex earthwork of five as Mounds about simultaneous designated artificial mounds, similar to the still much more complex with eleven Mounds on a larger area, reference Watson Brake 35 km south.
The site is named after a bend in the Black Bayou in which it lies.
description
The highest mound was largely destroyed by predatory graves with a bulldozer, so that in some cases only a rescue excavation was possible for a scientific investigation of the facility. Four of the five mounds were along an edge of the terrain, the fifth and second highest a little to one side. The highest mound was originally four to five meters high. The third highest was found undamaged and measured at 1 meter 60. The total volume of all mounds is about 3600 m³ - or one and a half Olympic pools. A society at the level of the middle archaic period could easily build up this volume in manageable periods of time. The site was built using radiocarbon dating to a period between 3500 and 3000 BC. Dated.
The residents of Frenchman's Bend mostly ate fish with around 90% of the identifiable animal food leftovers. Other foods were freshwater clams and snails, roe deer and small mammals. Pecans and hickory have been proven to be plant-based foods, and it is assumed that the roots of hackberry trees and goose feet are consumed . Post holes were found under the mounds, suggesting simple tent constructions. The mounds were raised and raised in several stages. A detailed investigation revealed that the mounds contained former surfaces that were used as living space before the mound was further built. In particular, fireplaces were found in several mounds, along with clay objects believed to have been used to heat food. Stone tools were made exclusively from local material, there is no evidence of the exchange of or trade in stones or other objects. Individual stone beads were found in the area around the complex, including one made of jasper .
Frenchman's Bend was a dwelling place for egalitarian hunters, gatherers and fishermen who had not yet trained any social classes . Its mounds, along with the other mid-archaic mound systems around the lower Mississippi River, are among the oldest structures in America.
The prehistoric complex is now on the edge of a housing estate, adjacent to a golf course. When building the area in 2001, the state of Louisiana imposed regulations on the operators of the facility for the protection and access to this site of national historical importance.
literature
- Joe Saunders: 1992 Annual Report for Management Unit 2, Regional Archeology Program, Department of Geosciences, Northeastern University . Devision of Archeology, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Office of Cultural Development, Baton Rouge, 1992 (first description of the system)
- Joe Saunders, Allen Thurman, Roger T. Saucier: Four Archaic? Mound Complexes in Northeastern Louisiana . In: Southeastern Archeology Volume 13, No 2 (Winter 1994), pages 134–153 (publication of the relevant excavations)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Michael Russo: Southeastern Archaic Mounds . In: Kenneth E. Sassaman, David G. Anderson (Eds.): Archeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast . University Press of Florida, 1996, ISBN 0-8130-1434-4 , pages 259-287
- ^ Jon L. Gibson: The Power of Beneficial Obligation in First Mound-Building Societies . In: Jon L. Gibson, Philip J. Carr (Eds.): Signs of Power - The Rise of Cultural Complexity in the Southeast. University of Alabama Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8173-1391-5 , pages 254-269; 265
- ↑ Joe Saunders: Are we Fixing to Make the Same Mistake Again? In: Jon L. Gibson, Philip J. Carr (Eds.): Signs of Power - The Rise of Cultural Complexity in the Southeast . University of Alabama Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8173-1391-5 , pages 146-161
- ↑ Frenchmans Bend Unit 4. (PDF; 1.7 MB) (No longer available online.) In: Frenchmans Bend Golf Course. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved May 16, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
