Video
by History with Kayleigh
published on 04 May 2021
#WatsonBrake #OuachitaRiverLouisiana #MiddleArchaicLouisiana
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Fisher-hunter-gatherers in the middle archaic period in Louisiana have built a large enclosure containing 11 earthen mounds connected by ridges.
These fisher-hunter-gatherers were part of the Evans culture who lived in the area from between 6000 BCE until 2000 BCE.
The locations of these earthen mounds is in North-east Louisiana and the site is called Watson Brake.
Long thought to have been a part of the later poverty point culture it wasn’t until the 1990’s that the remarkable antiquity of Watson Brake was recognized.
Older than the pyramids of Egypt and older than Stonehenge, this unique site is contemporary to Newgrange and Knowth in Ireland.
Radiocarbon dates have indicated occupation of Watson Brake around 4000 BCE before the construction of the mounds took place, although this occupation was sporadic.
The construction of the mounds started somewhere around 3500 BCE and lasted for approximately 600 years until somewhere in 2800 BCE.
Many mounds at the site show multiple stages of construction, and extended periods of occupation on each stage.
Mound A is the largest with a height of 7,6 meters, the base of the mound is approximately 70 meters in diameter.
They’ve discovered 7 stages of construction of Mound A.
Mound E is the second largest mound with a height of almost 4 meters, the main difference between these 2 mounds is that mound E was constructed in one continuous flow.
There are 9 more mounds, ranging between 50 centimeters in height up to 3,4 meters in height.
The diet of the Watson Brake mound builders consisted of Fish, this included catfish, freshwater drum and sunfish, this was approximately 80% of the meat they ate.
But they ate deer as well, and small mammals such as rabbit, squirrel, beaver, otter and raccoon.
Turtles, mussels, ducks, geese, water snakes and snails were important parts of the diet as well.
Acorn, hickory nuts, grape and sugarberry were gathered as well.
This basic diet continued in Louisiana until at least 1200 AD.
Watson Brake is the most extensively researched middle Archaic earthwork in North-America, but as you have noticed from this video, there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
Not only at Watson Brake but other Earthworks in the area as well, I am having a hard time believing that there aren’t many more in the entirety of North-America.
What triggered the mound building tradition at Watson Brake and other sites along the Mississippi valley remains unclear, their first built stages are too small to have been motivated by aggrandizement of any nature.
They aren’t burial mounds like the contemporary mounds we see in Ireland.
Music: Adrian von Ziegler - Native American Music – Totem & Relaxing South American Music - Kay Pacha
Footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-J6VhzXuwA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqSv0BcjUWQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYOe13IXO80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itCWu-m-23E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yetwTLHmRq8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CORELvN0mpI
Sources:
https://64parishes.org/entry/watson-brake-archaeological-site
https://64parishes.org/entry/evans-culture
Watson Brake, a Middle Archaic Mound Complex in Northeast Louisiana. American Antiquity, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Oct., 2005), pp. 631-668Published
CLIMATIC VARIABILITY AT MODOC ROCK SHELTER (ILLINOIS) AND WATSON BRAKE (LOUISIANA): BIOMETRIC AND ISOTOPIC EVIDENCE FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL FRESHWATER MUSSEL SHELL By Sarah Mistak Caughron
http://reddingnewsreview.com/newspages/2009newspages/watson_brake_public_091000100.htm
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Original video by History with Kayleigh. Embedded by Joshua J. Mark, published on 04 May 2021. Please check the original source(s) for copyright information. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
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