CultureNorth America

The mound builders of Louisiana

3,501 BCE

Hunter-gatherers raise monuments without farming

In depth

Watson Brake overturns an old assumption that monumental architecture presupposes farming and a fixed surplus. The complex was raised in stages over several centuries by people who moved with the seasons. It suggests great structures can arise from shared ritual and seasonal gatherings as much as from kingship and granaries.

For children

Beside a river in Louisiana people built eleven earthen mounds in a ring. They farmed nothing — they lived on fish, nuts and game. Even so they moved thousands of tonnes of earth. The mounds are older than the pyramids.

Connects to

Göbekli Tepe9,501 BCE
Caral — the oldest city in the Americas2,601 BCE – 1,801 BCE

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org