| Ghost Site Mounds | |
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Ghost Site Mounds
Location within Louisiana today
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| Coordinates: | |
| Location | |
| Country: | USA |
| Region: | Tensas Parish, Louisiana |
| Nearest town: | Newellton, Louisiana |
| History | |
| Culture: | Coles Creek culture, Plaquemine culture |
| First occupied: | 700 CE |
| Abandoned: | 1541 |
| Excavation and maintenance | |
| Responsible body: | private |
| Architecture | |
Ghost Site Mounds is an archaeological site in Tensas Parish, Louisiana with an Early to Middle Coles Creek culture component (700–1200 CE) and a Late Coles Creek to Plaquemine culture component (1200 to 1541 CE).[1]
Contents |
The site has three surviving mounds and could have had as many as five. Mound A, the largest mound, is a 11 feet (3.4 m) in height and 118 feet (36 m) by 92 feet (28 m) platform mound. The mound has been used historically as a cemetery. Since 1990 considerable erosion has damaged the mound, after portions of it were removed to build a dam across a nearby bayou. The other two remaining mounds are small dome-shaped mounds less than 2 feet (0.61 m) tall and about 60 feet (18 m) by 90 feet (27 m) at their bases. Mound B was also partially removed for the dam project, but Mound C is still intact. Two other small rises still exist (Mound D and Mound E), but it is unclear if they were mounds or natural features.[1]
Limited archaeological testing has been done at the site. Bone, shell, ceramics, and charcoal were found underneath Mounds A and B, and based on decorative elements on the pottery they are dated 700–1200 during the Early to Middle Coles Creek period. Other examples were found in Mounds B and C that have been dated to 1200 to 1541 during the Plaquemine period.[1]
The site is located on La 4 0.4 miles (0.64 km) east from its junction with La 128. It is on a bayou that flows into the Tensas River.[1]
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