UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN—CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A study of ancient mound builders who lived hundreds of years ago on the Mississippi River Delta near present-day New Orleans offers new insights into how Native peoples selected the landforms that supported their villages and earthen mounds – and why these sites were
The study, reported in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, also offers a timeline of the natural and human events that shaped one particular site, said University of Illinois anthropology professor Jayur Mehta, who conducted the work with Vanderbilt University postdoctoral researcher Elizabeth Chamberlain while both were at Tulane University in New Orleans.
The site, now known as Grand Caillou, is one of hundreds of mound sites in coastal Louisiana, Mehta said. (Watch a video about the research and history of the site.)
“Louisiana is incredibly important in the history of ancient mound-building cultures,” he said. “In what is now the United States, earthen monument and mound construction began on the Louisiana coast.”
This undated photo released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, shows parts of a huge red brick building dating back to the Greco-Roman period, in the San El-Hagar archaeological site in Gharbia province, north of Cairo, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities via AP)
This undated photo released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, shows parts of a huge red brick building dating back to the Greco-Roman period, in the San El-Hagar archaeological site in Gharbia province, north of Cairo, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities via AP)
