Mounds yield anomaly

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Apr 16, 2009 - Page: 1B

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While studying the ancient LSU Mounds with his geo-archaeology class last semester, LSU professor Brooks Ellwood discovered an “anomaly” deep inside.

That discovery led to a team of the state’s top archaeologists on Wednesday taking core samples more than 5 meters — about 17 feet — deep into the 5,000-year-old mounds built by early American Indians. It was the first deep sampling since the mounds were first dated in 1982.

“This was a big surprise, this huge anomaly,” Ellwood said Wednesday after preliminarily analyzing a “charcoal horizon” detected in the core samples that might have caused the anomaly.

“It’s a localized burn, so it could be a pit barbecue,” Ellwood said, “or it could be — although it’s never been seen — they cremated someone there.”

The hope is to learn more about the exact age of the mounds, how they were built and, how long it took and why, he said. Pollen also will be studied to learn clues about the climate back then, he said.

The mounds, commonly called the Indian Mounds, are believed to have been used for ceremonial and marking point purposes, said Rebecca Saunders, archaeology professor and associate curator of the LSU Museum of Natural Science.

“I don’t think people really understand these are our pyramids,” Saunders said. “The only thing is they don’t have stones.”

Less than three decades ago, no one believed mounds were built 5,000 years ago in North America, she said. The belief was that everyone was more nomadic  hunters and gatherers and that agriculture and tribal chiefs were needed before structures would be built.

Louisiana is home to hundreds of prehistoric American Indian mounds that are among the oldest in the continent. The two LSU Mounds are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In trail guides, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu touts many of the mounds as far older than the Egyptian pyramids or Stonehenge.

Heather McKillop, geography professor and Louisiana Archaeological Survey and Antiquities Commission chairwoman, said the mounds are often taken for granted.

“These mounds are here, and we walk past them all the time,” McKillop said. “But they’re incredibly important historically to the state. Getting everybody together here is a real exciting opportunity.”

T.R. Kidder, mounds researcher and anthropology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, has described Louisiana as “New York, London and Tokyo all rolled into one” for North America prior to 1,000 B.C.

The Lower Mississippi delta region was much of the continent’s foundation for early human life, Saunders said.