Flowery Mound is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...
in
Tensas Parish, Louisiana
Tensas Parish () is a List of parishes in Louisiana, parish located in the northeastern section of the U.S. state, State of Louisiana; its eastern border is the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population ...
with components from the
Late Coles Creek and
Plaquemine-
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a collection of Native American societies that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building la ...
which dates from approximately 950–1541.
Description
The site is located on
Andrews Bayou. The mound itself is a very well preserved
platform mound
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. It typically refers to a flat-topped mound, whose sides may be pyramidal.
In Eastern North America
The indigenous peoples of North America built substru ...
measuring in height and by at its base and a summit measuring square. Core samples taken during investigations at the site have revealed the mound was built in a single stage and because the fill types can still be differentiated it suggests the mound is relatively young. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found in a
midden
A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...
under the mound reveals that the site was occupied from 996–1162 during the
Coles Creek period. The mound was built over the midden between 1200–1541 during the Plaquemine/Mississippian period. This was further confirmed by stylistic analysis of
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
found at the site.
[
]
See also
* Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley
* Balmoral Mounds
* Ghost Site Mounds
The Ghost site ( 16 TE 18), or Ghost site mounds is an archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana, with an early to middle Coles Creek culture component (700–1200 AD) and a Late Coles Creek to Plaquemine culture component (1200 to 1541 AD) ...
* Routh Mounds
Routh Mounds is a Plaquemine culture archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. It is the type site for the ''Routh Phase(1200 to 1350 CE)'' of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology. It is located approximately northwest of t ...
* Sundown Mounds
Sundown Mounds is a multimound archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana from the Early Coles Creek culture.
It is the type site
In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) is the site used to define a p ...
References
{{Pre-Columbian North America
Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture
Plaquemine Mississippian culture
Mounds in Louisiana
Geography of Tensas Parish, Louisiana