Sundown Mounds is a multimound
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 ...
from the Early
Coles Creek culture
Coles Creek culture is a Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi valley in the Southeastern Woodlands. It followed the Troyville culture. The period marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area. Population ...
.
It is the
type site
In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and H ...
for the ''Sundown Phase (600-800 CE)'' of the Tensas Basin and Natchez Bluff Coles Creek chronology.
Description
The site is located on the western bank of
Little Choctaw Bayou and has three
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 ...
s that form a triangle surrounding a
plaza
A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rela ...
, a typical Coles Creek arrangement.
Mound A, the largest mound, is an in height and its base measures by and a summit measuring by . Mound B, the second largest, is located to the northwest of Mound A. It is in height with base measurements of by and its summit by . Mound C is with base measurements of by with a dome-shaped summit.
[ Mounds A and B had ramps from their summits down to the plaza. The mounds were constructed sometime between 750 and 800 CE,][ but the site was occupied during most of the Coles Creek period from 700 to 1200.][
]
See also
* Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley
* Balmoral Mounds
Balmoral Mounds ( 16 TE 12) is an archaeological site of the Coles Creek culture in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. The site has components located both on the east and west sides of US 65 near Bayou Rousset.
Description
The site consists of 3 platform ...
* Flowery Mound
Flowery Mound is an archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana with components from the Late Coles Creek and Plaquemine-Mississippian culture which dates from approximately 950–1541.
Description
The site is located on Andrews Bayou. The ...
* 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 ...
References
External links
Sundown Mounds: Ancient Mounds Trail - Louisiana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com
{{Pre-Columbian North America
Archaeological sites of the Coles Creek culture
Mounds in Louisiana
Geography of Tensas Parish, Louisiana
7th-century establishments in Coles Creek culture
12th-century disestablishments in Coles Creek culture
Former Native American populated places in the United States