The View from Jaketown: Considering Variation in the Poverty Point Culture of the Lower Mississippi Valley

Abstract

Recent research at Jaketown, a Late Archaic earthwork site in the Lower Mississippi Valley, suggests that the culture-historical framework used to interpret Jaketown and contemporary sites in the region obscures differences in practices across sites. As an alternative, we propose a framework focused on variation in material culture, architecture, and foodways between Jaketown and Poverty Point, the regional type site. Our analysis indicates that people used Poverty Point Objects and imported lithics at Jaketown by 4525–4100 cal BP—earlier than elsewhere in the region. By 3450–3350 cal BP, people intensively occupied Jaketown, harvesting a consistent suite of wild plants. Between 3445 and 3270 cal BP, prior to the apex of earthwork construction at Poverty Point, the community at Jaketown built at least two earthworks and multiple post structures before catastrophic flooding sometime after 3300 cal BP buried the Late Archaic landscape under alluvium. These new data lead us to conclude that the archaeological record of the Late Archaic Lower Mississippi Valley does not reflect a uniform regional culture. Rather, relationships between Jaketown and Poverty Point indicate a multipolar history in which communities selectively participated in larger social phenomena—such as exchange networks and architectural traditions—while maintaining diverse, localized practices.

Two Types of Ritual Space at the Poverty Point Site 16WC5

“…By contrast, other Poverty Point sites, notably Jaketown, continued in use throughout the Woodland period after a flood episode ended its Poverty Point occupation (Ward et al 2022:10–11). Period activity at Jaketown, indeed all Poverty Point Period sites, did not mirror what went on at the Louisiana-type site (Ward et al 2022).…”

“…By contrast, other Poverty Point sites, notably Jaketown, continued in use throughout the Woodland period after a flood episode ended its Poverty Point occupation (Ward et al 2022:10–11). Period activity at Jaketown, indeed all Poverty Point Period sites, did not mirror what went on at the Louisiana-type site (Ward et al 2022). This prompts the question of the intent of the notable elements of the larger site: Just what was it that its users sought to project ahead in time with their earthwork constructions?…”

“…The "ritual" nature of the Poverty Point timber circles is possibly reinforced by data from Jaketown, a far less monumental Poverty Point site in Mississippi (Ford et al 1955;Phillips et al 1951;Ward et al 2022) where two structures of markedly different form and hypothetical use were identified (Figure 4). The first was a roughly 3.5 m square structure with rounded corners and walls that was constructed of multiple light poles, probably using "flexed pole, bent pole, curved pole" construction techniques (Ford et al 1955:Figure 10;Kennedy and Carter 2015:343).…”

“…Identified in “Trench 1,” this post circle originated at the surface of a “brown silt” stratum stratigraphically above the house (Ford et al 1955: Figure 39a:30–34). Poverty Point materials were identified at this surface, and subsequent excavation recovered additional portions of the circle (Ward et al 2022:8) that are firmly associated with an intensive Poverty Point period occupation.…”

Convergence at Poverty Point: a revised chronology of the Late Archaic Lower Mississippi Valley

“…In a recent article, we argued that differences in material culture, architecture and foodways between Jaketown and the Poverty Point site indicate the two sites’ related but distinct histories (Ward et al . 2022), a theme that we explore further here, focusing on the chronological implications. Recent geoarchaeological and geophysical data from the Poverty Point site reveal a complex construction history and they document architectural features and a material assemblage not fully replicated elsewhere (Hargrave et al 2021; Kidder et al 2021).…”