Poverty Point: Archaic Anomaly?

Poverty Point is the earliest city in North America the largest for centuries. What made such an impressive city possible at a time with no equal. Find out how and why Poverty Point was the anomaly of North America's Archaic period.

Sources and Bibliography:

[johnrobinson]

The early Japanese are also said to have subsisted on hunting-gathering for an extended period of time because their natural environment was so rich they didn't need to take up farming in order to sustain substantial communities. So, it is very believable to me that you can have a 'town' that includes no farming, if there is enough fish, fowl, berries, roots, etc. to live on. And the Japanese didn't need to build mounds to keep above the water; their land is naturally hilly.

[kesorangutan]

People think hunter-gatherers are primitives but this was never the case. Here in Turkey, we have the oldest known temple in the world. It is called Göbeklitepe and it was built by hunter-gatherers. Both Poverty Point and Göbeklitepe are the proof of human ingenuity. We gotta create stuff. Man, I love being human 😎

[quinndawsonosgood]

Uncomplicated might be a better euphemism than "easy" when describing mound building. Moving that much material is never easy

[gordonstewart]

We tend to think of the lives of hunter-gatherers as "nasty, solitary, brutish and short, " but that is only because in historic times, they have been forced into marginal environments. In a rich environment, food can be provided with very little expenditure of time and effort (much less than early agriculture). Plenty of scope for developing complex activities such as mound building.

[catahoula]

I live near Poverty Point and have been there numerous times. As an amateur archaeologist I've found lots of poverty point type artifacts many miles away from the actual site, most of them being cooking ball's. Their influence in the surrounding parishes is evident, and shows just how many people it took to supply and feed such a large population.

[friendlyone]

"clay eating?"
Hot clay balls, raked out of the fire pit, thrown into a stew pot will heat it up rapidly. Surprised the 19th century explorer did not consider that use.

[Farmboy_Habibi]

Hey! I worked here for field school back in 2011 under Dr Ortmann. The most recent dig I remember was on mound c, where we managed to get a really good look at the stratigraphy. It seems that mound C was definitely a major fixture of the mound complex. Dozens (if not hundreds) of small fires had been set over the scope of the occupation, and then covered with thin layers of clay, implying a ritualistic purpose

[fancyflautist]

This channel is everything I have ever wanted but am too mentally ill at the moment to make happen myself. I literally cannot thank you enough. There is so little North American content on youtube and as somecome who holds it so near and dear to my heart... this is magical.

[moshpitjo]

your videos are way too well-researched and high quality for their view count. I hope your channel takes off! I am an archaeology and linguistics student considering studying the Classic Maya and Zapotec civilizations for graduate school.

[thomasjaggers]

It is very difficult to believe that the bayou mentioned ran the same coarse 3 to 4 thousand years ago or even existed at all. The banks of the mississippi delta are not static.

[egretion]

Thank you so much for your channel and also this video. I am an over-the-road truck driver. I go back and forth on I-20 all the time passed exit 153, signs for poverty point that I have wondered about but never investigated until... yesterday when I drove the truck and parked it at a little corner store a mile from the site and rode my bicycle all around paved paths and trails through the woods. Thank you so much for making me aware of this amazing place

[octaviacoquus]

I think it's possible that Poverty point was a meeting place for the tribes and chiefdoms of the south. It seems like it was a trade city, central to everywhere, right on the river, and lots of different artifacts can be found there. It would make sense that intertribal politics would be conducted in the plaza or something. The large and numerous ovens may be indicative of seasonal feasting, or feasting to commemorate or celebrate relations between neighbors. This isn't my area of expertise, so I'm not certain how much cultural overlap the natives of the south at this time had with the people of the early modern great lakes, but these sorts of meeting places (usually in the form of longhouses, up there) were extremely common, important, and showed a large degree of exchange and plenty between the polities of the area. I'm sure we all know about the Haudenosaunee and how they came to be.

[mekon]

Actually visited Poverty Point - pretty cool museum there. The rock arrowheads and etc. came from as far away as Illinois.

[michaelfisher]

Very nice presentation. These very old sites in North America are sorely underappreciated and known to few outside the ranks of archeology. Thanks for a well produced, informative video! New subscriber, hope to see much more!

[Aswaguespack]

I live in SE Louisiana and have always had a trip to Poverty Point on my Bucket List. A visit there has just moved up the list to the Top because of this excellent presentation. Thanks

[JosephKulik]

Your "Sources and Bibliography" pages are quite impressive.
Your scholarship is impeccable.
Each of your videos have more information than a 3 semester unit college class.
If you really aren't a college professor, then you have many people fooled.
It's refreshing to find a YT Channel that assumes that the viewer actually has a brain.

[robertm]

I live along the San Joaquin river in central California, and have been researching the Yokut tribes that once lived on high ground along the river. They were hunter gatherers, but apparently they grew tobacco, and in a way, cultivated oak groves for acorns.

[MikeyDreadzzz]

This video was incredibly interesting. I had never heard of this place, speaking as a Brit, and I am so glad that I have now. Your attention to detail, and lack thereof where the details are missing, is highly engrossing. I'm very glad the algorithm decided to grace me with a link to one of your other videos. Please keep up the great work while I enjoy the rest of your back catalogue!

[chazdomingo]

I don't hear it talked about much but the forests of the Southern US are incredibly fruitful. From March to November, there is almost always something in season there. And in the winter, there is plenty of game. Just the right latitude for rampant diversity and long growing seasons, but none of the problems that come with full-on tropical jungle conditions. I'm not sure a biome like it exists anywhere else on Earth. If you told me a civilization could exist there just on the bounty of the woods, I'd believe you. And I'd imagine a primitive people would have little incentive to do all the hard work of agriculture when the forests around them were so generous.

[christopheb]

how much has the river's course changed in the centuries so why the mounts could be "randomly" placed. The areas definitely prone to flooding; there is much less today due to dams and levees. if there were buildings on them seems like it would be to keep them safe from flooding. And the circles are just a way to organize. I think there is an overlap/transition between hunter gatherers and farmers