Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism
Louisiana Archaeological Survey and Antiquities Commission
Anthropological Study No. 7
POVERTY POINT
Bird design from Poverty Point stone art.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
STATE OF LOUISIANA
Edwin W. Edwards
Governor
DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE, RECREATION AND TOURISM
Noelle LeBlanc
Secretary
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND ANTIQUITIES COMMISSION
Ex-Officio Members
| Dr. Kathleen Byrd | State Archaeologist |
| Mr. Robert B. DeBlieux | Assistant Secretary, Office of Cultural Development |
| Mr. B. Jim Porter | Secretary, Department of Natural Resources |
| Mrs. Dorothy M. Taylor | Secretary, Department of Urban and Community Affairs |
Appointed Members
Mrs. Mary L. Christovich
Mr. Brian J. Duhe
Mr. Marc Dupuy, Jr.
Dr. Lorraine Heartfield
Dr. J. Richard Shenkel
Mrs. Lanier Simmons
Dr. Clarence H. Webb
First Printing April 1983
Second Printing, with corrections September 1985
The second printing of this document was funded by the Louisiana ResearchFoundation and the U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park ServiceHistoric Preservation Fund. This document was published by BourquePrinting, Inc., P. O. Box 45070, Baton Rouge, LA 70895-4070.
POVERTY POINT:
A Culture of the Lower Mississippi Valley
Jon L. Gibson
To Carl Alexander,
with gratitude
Editor’s Note
Louisiana’s cultural heritage dates back to approximately 10,000 B.C.when man first entered this region. Since that time, many other Indiangroups have settled here. All of these groups, as well as the more recentwhites and blacks, have left evidence of their presence in the archaeologicalrecord. The Anthropological Study series published by the Department ofCulture, Recreation & Tourism, Office of Cultural Development providesa readable account of various activities of these cultural groups.
Jon L. Gibson, a professional archaeologist with a long-standing interestin the Poverty Point culture, is the author of “Poverty Point: A Cultureof the Lower Mississippi Valley,” the seventh in the series. In this volume,Jon Gibson describes the Poverty Point culture—one of the most spectacularepisodes in Louisiana’s past. Few people realize that the Poverty Pointsite, at 1000 B.C., was the commercial and governmental center of its day.In its time, the Poverty Point site had the largest, most elaborate earthworksanywhere in the western hemisphere. No other Louisiana earthenconstructions approached the size of the Poverty Point s