Everyone, outside of this room, knows about it.

I had to borrow Dr. C's line...for one thing, it actually fits in the Title... And for another thing, This is about one of the most important archealogical sites in North America - that hardly anyone in Louisiana knows about, Poverty Point. The NewsStar had a story about some new research going on there. They are trying to lock down the construction time line. An archeologist believes that the site was started about 2000 years before commonly accepted. Which would make it contemporary - more or less - with other mound building cultures in North America - like Frenchman's Bend. Oh, for anyone reading this (other than Ann ;) ) who is not familar with Poverty Point here what my friends at Wikipedia have to tell you.

I have always been appalled at the lack of knowledge, or even apathy, about the site in Louisiana. I agree with the person in the NewsStar article that said something to the effect of if the site had been made of stone, and not earth, there would be more interest. Earthworks just doesn't sound has "sexy" as "ancent stone pyramid". But if you've ever been to the site, the scale of it is amazing. And yeah, if it had been stone, it would have been f---ing incredibile. Especially since Louisiana doesn't have any large stones.... we got ya' covered on clay, mud, and trees.... but we don't do rock.

Aside from the actual construction, is the size of trade area covered. It would have been basically the area drained by the Mississippi River. I've been there a couple of times, and they evidence of trade goods from the Great Lake Region to the Appalachians. Pretty darned impressive, considering that it would have been around 2000 years before Christ.

As I recall (and this is based on my memory of what the guides had to say) there has also been some evidence that points to trade which central american cultures. It's not outside the realm of possiblity that large dugout canoes could have skirted the Gulf and made it up various estuaries and river systems. This would have brought not only an exchange of trade goods, but of culture and ideas.

So, there sits Poverty Point, the first great city of North America in an old cotton Plantation in North Louisiana. A center of trade for what is now the continental U.S.... The New York or Paris of its day. And the vast majority of the population has no knowledge or no interest in it.