Frenchman’s Bend

I made a preliminary visit to the Frenchman’s Bend mound site last week along with Dr. Joe Saunders.  These are the closest mounds to my house in Monroe and they are some of the oldest anywhere.  Research that Joe did years ago dated the mounds to be more than 5000 years old which places them squarely in the Middle Archaic period.

There are at least 5 mounds in the complex which were most likely built adjacent to a natural embankment or ridge.  Bayou Desiard is nearby which would have provided the early residents with fish, snails and mussels to eat.

When Joe first investigated the site it was covered in cotton fields and dense woods.  Bulldozers were at work leveling the land for a new housing development and golf course.  This ancient site was very fortunate that the developer, Bishop Johnston, was sympathetic to the idea of saving it and altered his plans to protect it as much as possible.

So what we are left with now is an ancient mound site that is surrounded by beautiful homes and a golf course.  It is so surreal to stand atop one of the mounds and speak to golfers as they drive by in their carts.  Or listen as they swear at the putt that drifted off-line.

Inside the clubhouse is a small display of artifacts that were discovered during the initial excavation.  There are projectile points, fire cracked rock, a bannerstone and both snail and mussel shells.  There are also a few pictures from the excavation, one of which shows several old post holes from a structure that was once there.

I hope the residents understand the value of this sacred place but I wonder if they are beginning to take it for granted.  Someone had dumped a pile of old potting soil on one mound.  Another was being used as a repository for fallen limbs and brush.  But otherwise they were untouched except for the lines of ants marching across.  And probably the occasional errant golf ball.

Frenchman’s Bend, Mound A

Poverty Point Video

Sue Lincoln, a reporter for Louisiana Public Broadcasting, posted this link on my FB page.  I thought I would attach it here also.  It is a really well done video on Poverty Point.

http://beta.lpb.org/index.php?%2Fswi%2Fswi_episode%2Fpoverty_point1

 

How’d They Do That?

Do not adjust your set.  Yes, the image is in color.

These small decorative artifacts were all found at Poverty Point.  They don’t seem to have any type of utilitarian purpose … they weren’t used for gathering nuts or catching fish or cooking food or making tools or building mounds.  But I think the moundbuilders were aware that life isn’t just about having enough food to eat and a place to huddle under during bad weather.  And even though providing the basic necessities for a non-agrarian culture must have been a massive amount of work, they still found time for making “pretty clay thingys” (not a scientific term and I’ve even been told I’m spelling “thingys” wrong.)

Why?  Why did even these ancient cultures feel the need to create … art?  Why was it so necessary that people who were probably struggling to scratch out an existence for their civilization still stopped long enough to support extraneous endeavors, to do work that wasn’t going to put food on the table?  I think maybe it’s because they understood that life isn’t worth living if it is only about doing the necessary stuff, the required stuff, the expected stuff.  There have to be ways to do the other things that make life worthwhile.

I’m so grateful for the archaeologists who study these sites, find these artifacts, date the mounds and provide all of us with this information that enriches our lives while also preserving the lives of these ancient people.  They aren’t necessary.  They aren’t as “required” as education and healthcare and jobs.  But I feel fortunate that they are doing the work that most of us aren’t skilled enough to do and that they are making our lives fuller with their research.

The current budget negotiations in Louisiana are slashing away at all of our basic needs including the possibility of doing away with our regional archaeology program.  This is the same program that made us aware of places like Watson Brake and Hedgepeth and Frenchman’s Bend – some of the oldest civilizations in North America.  (I’d like to say the oldest but I’ll need an archaeologist to tell me if that is correct or not.)  The ancient mounds driving trail is only in existence because of our regional archaeology program.  The notion that these sacred earthworks are something that Louisianians can be proud of is due to the work of the regional archaeology program.

Jeff Girard, regional archaeologist, is currently working at Fish Creek.  Through his study we are finding out that the site is much older than first believed.  What other secrets does it have?  And what other sites are out there that still need to be studied?

I wonder if the ancient moundbuilders left us any other clues … like how to manage a state budget to allow for education, healthcare, jobs AND the arts and the regional archaeology program.  Because I’m not sure our modern-day society is going to be able to figure that out without help.

Clay figure, Poverty Point

So Close

Last fall I visited the Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary as a World Heritage Site.  I stayed awake in my tent at night and thought how wonderful it was to be surrounded by the remains of a culture that was active so many years ago – between 850 and 1250 AD.  I looked up at the same stars they would have seen and ran my hands across the smooth stone that they would have touched.  The remains of a small cliff dwelling were just yards away from my campsite and I wondered about who had stayed there.  Maybe they listened to the ancestors of the same coyotes that broke the silence of my night, their yips bouncing off the canyon walls.

Gallo Campground Cliff Dwelling

Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly and other sites in the southwestern part of the US are widely known and celebrated.  People travel great distances to see them and experience them.  Yet here we are with all these secret places, just as old, some thousands of years older, mostly forgotten and barely studied.

And while it is so inspiring to visit these cultural sites, how lucky are those who own property that contains an ancient mound, one that they can see every day?  To turn out the light at night and feel its presence in the dark.  To drink the morning coffee while listening to the birds singing from its branches.  To watch children play chase up and over its summit.  Day in, day out, knowing the following generations will be able to do the same.

Fish Creek Mound C.

We are so fortunate to have these sacred places among us.  Yet so many of us have traveled all over to see the remains of other great cultures  without ever visiting, or even taking an interest, in our own.

A Nice Set of Pipes

No, I’m not talking about Adele.

I was recently photographing artifacts at Poverty Point and they pulled out these cylindrical objects that I had never seen before.  I had no idea what they were.  The answer … pipes.  Incredible.

I have imagined the Poverty Point people hauling dirt, building mounds, making tools, hunting, fishing but never kicking back in the evening smoking a pipe.  These artifacts really added another dimension to my idea of who these people were.

But what did they smoke?  What grew naturally on the Macon Ridge that was suitable for lighting up?  Or was it something else they imported, like rock?  There’s possibly a small amount of residue left in at least one of the pipes.  Could it be analyzed?  Could it tell us what these ancient people were … rolling in the deep? 

Studying Fish Creek

Unlike all of the other sites that I have visited, Fish Creek hasn’t really been studied.  There is a basic map that shows the locations of five mounds.  And there are bits and pieces of artifacts that have been surface collected.  But that’s about it.

The site is deep in the woods, on land that frequently floods, is teeming with hungry mosquitoes and lies adjacent to dilapidated camps that are waiting to be restored.  In fact, the whole place seems to be waiting, patiently but not expectantly.  As if it is completely content to sit there quietly, unstudied and unknown, forever.

Beneath the layers of molding leaves are small flakes that were possibly leftover from the making of projectile points.  Armadillos dig holes and uncover fragments of pottery which are then left at their doorsteps.  Mixed in with the loose gravel along the washes are sharp slivers of stone, too sharp to be in their natural states.  These are all just hints at the larger answers that await archaeologist Jeff Girard as he begins his study of the site.

Without any useful knowledge to add to the endeavor, I get to observe as modern-day science stirs the ghosts of this ancient site.  It will be so interesting to see what questions get answered … and what new ones crop up.

Jeff Girard strides across the Fish Creek site, GPS in hand.

The Drive to Fish Creek

A few months ago I was invited by Trevor Fry to visit the Fish Creek mounds near Pollock, Louisiana.  The stars finally aligned yesterday and I headed down to watch archaeologist Jeff Girard, Steve Smith, from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and Trevor begin to map the site.

I very rarely drive south on Hwy 165 but as a child we used to do it often.  I had a sister who lived in south Louisiana and we drove the old 2-lane highway frequently to visit her.  As I drove down to Fish Creek I felt myself passing over old memories even though the road is now a 4-lane and so many remembered places are gone.  I couldn’t help but think about the 30+ years that have passed between then and now, how the childhood version of myself could never have imagined my interest in ancient mound sites nor all the directions my life has gone during that time.

The old, haunting Alan Parsons Project song, Time, came on the radio and I really felt myself drift in and out of the past and present.  Thirty years is such a long time.  So how can I possibly imagine the thousands of years that have passed between my time and the moundbuilders?

Did they ever leave these sites for extended periods and then return to find things so changed?  Trails overgrown.  Lowlands flooded.  Thick woods burned by fire.  Their once pristine homes covered by brush.  Relatives they left behind, gone.  Maybe even newcomers taking their place.

What traces do we leave behind in these tangled places?  Not just physical remnants but what do we leave behind of ourselves that gets resurrected in future generations?  What of those moundbuilders is still alive inside of me?  Anything?  Nothing?  Something  must seep up from the land and enter our souls, if we are still.  And listen for it.

Time, flowing like a river.
Time, beckoning me.
Who knows when we shall meet again
If ever.
But time, keeps flowing like a river.
To the sea.

More on the Fish Creek site … soon.

Boothe Landing in Spring

I returned to Boothe Landing mound a couple of weeks ago.  The last time I was there it was at the end of the summer.  This time it was spring … with flowers blooming, bumblebees hovering and the vegetable garden being planted.  The Gordons, who own the property, were gracious hosts as always and took time from their tilling to visit with me.

The site is so beautiful and is situated right next to the Ouachita River in Catahoula Parish.  Watching them work took me back to the garden we always had when I was growing up.  Tomatoes, butterbeans, green beans, squash.  There’s something about freshly tilled soil.  And the sun heating it up.  And the bees buzzing around.  And just the continuity of things growing, season after season, generation after generation.  From how long ago?  The ancient people of Boothe Landing probably existed on what they could hunt, gather or pull from the Ouachita River.  But somewhere along the line, someone figured out to plant a seed and nourish the soil.

Living off this land has been going on since at least 500-100 BC.  And at Boothe Landing, the dirt shares the marks of both the ancient and the contemporary, right next to each other on the same acre of rich Louisiana soil.

Cultural Vistas

One of the photographs from this series is in the current edition of Cultural Vistas magazine which is published by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.  You can see it online here.

The image is from the Lower Jackson mound which is owned by the Archaeological Conservancy.

There is an error in the text of the article though.  No way I lived in Connecticut for 20 years.  Way too cold up there for that.

Troyville

Long ago and far away there was a fabulous mound site at what is now Jonesville, Louisiana.  It contained nine mounds and a perimeter embankment with the great mound standing at 82 feet high.  Eighty-two feet.  All situated at the confluence of the Ouachita, Tensas and Little Rivers.

The great mound of Troyville was the tallest mound in Louisiana and one of the largest in North America.  This was an extremely elaborate mound site and must have been magnificent in its heyday which would have been around AD 750.  Eight of the mounds were rectangular with a flat top.  The Great Mound had 2 platform layers topped with a conical shaped mound.  Troyville would have been one of the most impressive “towns” in North America when active.

The destruction of this sacred site began during the Civil War when the summit cone of the great mound was cut away to be used as a rifle pit.  But that was only the beginning.  As the town of Jonesville was settled, dirt was removed from the mounds to be used in the foundations of the new structures.  They even used dynamite to hasten the process.  But then in the 1930′s its fate was sealed.  A new bridge was going to be built over the Black River and they needed fill dirt.  And since they had that big mound that needed to go somewhere, they elected to use it.  1930′s recycling.  Turning a major historically significant structure into, well, dirt.

Smithsonian archaeologist Winslow Walker excavated what was left in 1931 and 1932.  He found woven cane matting, palmetto fronds and wooden planks within the mound which showed how complex the engineering of it had been.  During his excavation, he also discovered a mass burial grave.  Before he could study it, looters came in and trashed the site while looking for gold.  Our treatment of Troyville is such a sad tale.

There is a small but wonderful exhibit of Walker’s findings as well as a few of his photographs (!) at the Museum of Natural History at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.  If you live near here, go see it.

So what’s left of the great city of Troyville today?  Not much.  There is a historical marker describing the site of the once Great Mound.

And this is what is there now – St. Gerard’s Catholic Church.

Interestingly enough, the city of Jonesville now realizes what a mistake it was to destroy such an important historical and sacred site.  A replica of the Great Mound is being built …

and advertised.

They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum.  Joni Mitchell, AD 1970.

For more information on this site, used copies of Winslow Walker’s account of the Troyville Mounds are available online.  I’ve got a copy on order.  You can also visit the museum at ULM or the site itself in Catahoula Parish.

Or, as the sign says, visit www.greatmound.com.

Thanks to Dr. Joe Saunders for first introducing me to this site.