Watson Brake
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Archaic period | |
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Responsible body: private |
Watson Brake is an
The arrangement of human-made mounds at Watson Brake was constructed over centuries by members of a hunter-gatherer society. It is located near Watson Bayou in the floodplain of the Ouachita River, near present-day Monroe in northern Louisiana, United States. Watson Brake consists of an oval formation of eleven earthwork mounds from three to 25 feet (7.6 m) in height, connected by ridges to form an oval nearly 900 feet (270 m) across.[1]
Watson Brake is dated to 1,900 years before the better-known
The discovery and dating of Watson Brake as a
Discovery and dating
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Watson_Brake_Mounds_-_Map.png/175px-Watson_Brake_Mounds_-_Map.png)
In the early 1980s, Reca Bamburg Jones, a local resident, brought this site to the attention of professional archaeologists. By 1981, after logging had revealed more of the site, Jones identified the pattern of eleven mounds connected by ridges, a complex that was 280 yards across. In 1983, Jones and John Belmont published the site in a survey of pre-history in the Ouachita River Valley. Around this time Joe W. Saunders, then regional archaeologist for the state, was shown the site.[2]
The site had been privately controlled since the 1950s. Approximately half the site is still owned by several family members, who have allowed archaeological excavations and associated work, but do not permit public viewing.[1] Recognizing the site's significance, in 1996 The Archaeological Conservancy purchased half the site and later sold it to the state for preservation.[2]
Since the 1990s, radiocarbon dating by a team from
The analysis of 27
Evidence of the middens indicate that Watson Brake may have been used as a "base by mobile hunter-gatherers from summer through fall."
Together with other Middle Archaic sites in Louisiana and Florida, Watson Brake shows the development of complex societies among hunter-gatherer peoples. They occupied the site only on a seasonal basis, but were capable of planning and organizing complex monumental construction over a period of several hundred years.[3]
In contrast to Poverty Point, where 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 heated local gravel for cooking stones to steam some of their food. They created and fired earthenware items in a variety of shapes, but researchers have not yet determined their functions.[3]
Ownership and management
Eight members of the Gentry family have owned most of the site since the 1950s. One member declines to sell property to the state, so the site is not available for public viewing. The family has granted specific permission to individual archaeologists to conduct research on site.[5]
See also
References
- ^ S2CID 162372990
- ^ a b Lori Tucker, "Ouachita River Mounds: A Five Millennium Mystery", Louisiana Folklife, 2000, accessed 26 October 2011
- ^ .
- ^ a b c Amélie A. Walker, "Earliest Mound Site", Archaeology Magazine, Volume 51 Number 1, January/February 1998
- ^ Robert "Rob" Redding Jr., "Why the Public May Never See Watson Brake", Redding News Review, 3 May 2009, accessed 26 Oct 2009
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- 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
- Ancient Earthworks of Eastern North America