Watson Brake is an
archaeological siteAn archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...
in
Ouachita Parish, Louisiana-National protected areas:* Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge* D'Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 147,250 people, 55,216 households, and 38,319 families residing in the parish. The population density was 241 people per square mile...
from the Archaic period. Dated to about 5400 years ago (approx. 3500 BCE), Watson Brake is considered the earliest mound complex in
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. It is the earliest dated, complex construction in the Americas. It is an arrangement of human-made
moundA mound is a general term for an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. The most common use is in reference to natural earthen formation such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. The term may also be applied to any rounded area of topographically...
s located in the floodplain of the
Ouachita RiverThe Ouachita River is a river that runs south and east through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Louisiana, joining the Tensas River to form the Black River near Jonesville, Louisiana.-Course:...
near
MonroeMonroe is a city in and the parish seat of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,107, making it the eighth largest city in Louisiana. A July 1, 2007, United States Census Bureau estimate placed the population at 51,208, but 51,636...
in northern
LouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Watson Brake consists of an oval formation of eleven mounds from three to 25 feet (7.6 m) in height, connected by ridges to form an oval nearly 900 feet (274.3 m) across.
Watson Brake's dating is 1900 years before the better-known
Poverty PointPoverty Point is a prehistoric earthworks of the Poverty Point culture, now a historic monument located in the Southern United States. It is from the current Mississippi River, and situated on the edge of Maçon Ridge, near the village of Epps in West Carroll Parish, Louisiana.Poverty Point...
in Louisiana, begun about 1500 BCE and previously thought to be the earliest mound site in North America. In the Americas, mound building started at an early date, well before the pyramids of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
were constructed beginning in 2600-2500 BCE.
The discovery and dating of Watson Brake as a Middle Archaic site demonstrate that the pre-agricultural, pre-ceramic,
indigenousIndigenous means: belonging to a certain place.Indigenous may refer to:In Ecology and Geography*Indigenous resources, resources which exist within local geography, that are not imported...
cultures within the territory of the present-day United States were much more complex than previously thought. While primarily hunter-gatherers, they were able to plan and organize large work forces over centuries to accomplish the complex mound and ridge constructions. Monumental constructions has marked the rise of social complexity world-wide. The earthen mounds of Eastern
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
are linked to mankind's monument tradition.
Discovery and dating
Reca Bamburg Jones, a local resident, was long aware of three of the mounds on the overgrown site and, in the early 1980s, she was instrumental in bringing the site to the attention of professional archeologists. In 1981, after logging revealed more of the site, she discerned the pattern of eleven mounds connected by ridges, a complex 280 yards across. In 1983 she and John Belmont published the site in a survey of pre-history in the Ouachita River Valley. She contacted Joe Saunders, then regional archeologist for the state, to show him the site.
The site had been privately controlled since the 1950s. Approximately half the site is still owned by several family members, who have allowed archeological excavations and associated work. With recognition of the site's significance, in 1996
The Archaeological ConservancyThe Archaeological Conservancy is a 5013 non-profit organization that acquires and preserves archaeological sites in the United States. Whereas nearly every other nation protects all archaeological sites within its borders as part of its national patrimony, in the United States archaeological...
purchased half the site and later sold it to the state for preservation.
Since the 1990s, radiocarbon dating by a team from Northeast Louisiana University has established the great antiquity of the site. The team of Joe W. Saunders
et al. published a paper in
ScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
in 1997 that established the age of the mound complex.
The analysis of 27
Radiocarbon DatesRadiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
indicates that the site was initially occupied around 4000 BCE during the Middle Archaic period. Mound construction began at approximately 3500 BCE, and continued for approximately 500 years. During that time period, the mounds were enlarged in several stages. Excavations indicate that there was sufficient time between building episodes for
middenA midden, is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, vermin, shells, sherds, lithics , and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation...
deposits of residents to accumulate on top of the mounds and ridges. In addition, teams from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Washington dated the site by using sand grains and organic acids in the soils.
Saunders believes the evidence of the middens indicate that Watson Brake may have been used as a "base by mobile hunter-gatherers from summer through fall." He and his team suggest that the building episodes at Watson Brake coincide with periods of unpredictable rainfall caused by
El Nino-Southern OscillationEl Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is a quasiperiodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years...
events. They may represent "a communal response to new stresses of droughts and flooding that created a suddenly more unpredictable food base." Midden remains showed population reliance of fish and shellfish, and riverine animals, supplemented by local weedy annuals: goosefoot (
Chenopodium berlandieri), knotweed (
Polygonum spp.), and possibly marshelder (
Iva annua). Over time, there was an increasing consumption of terrestrial animals, such as deer, turkey, raccoon, opossum, squirrel, and rabbits, which was likely related to changing habitat and waterway conditions. The site appears to have been abandoned around 2800 BCE. This may have been caused by a "decline in the main channel, gravel/sand shoal habitats, backwater swamps, and small-stream habitats" near the site.
Together with other Middle Archaic sites in Louisiana and Florida, Watson Brake shows the development of complex societies among hunter-gatherers, who occupied the site seasonally but were capable of planning and organizing complex monumental construction over a period of several hundred years.
In contrast to Poverty Point, where its residents made projectile points with materials traded from distant locations, including Wisconsin and Tennessee, the artifacts of Watson Brake show local materials and production. The projectile points are Middle to Late Archaic in age, and were produced more casually than those at Poverty Point. The people also used local gravel for cooking stones, which they heated to steam some of their food. They created fired earthen objects in a variety of shapes, but researchers have not yet determined their functions.
Ownership and management
Eight members of the Gentry family have owned most of the site since the 1950s. One member refuses to sell property to the state, so the site is not available for public viewing. The family have allowed archaeologists to do research on site.
External links
- Amelie Walker, "Earliest Mound Site", NewsBrief, Archeology', Volume 51 Number 1, January/February 1998
- "Man-made mounds said oldest in North America", 'The Japan Times, September 20, 1997
- "A Mound Complex in Louisiana at 5400-5000 Years Before the Present", Science, 19 September 1997
- OCR Carbon Dating of the Watson Brake Mound Complex PDF