POVERTY POINT CULTURE: A DEFINITION
Poverty Point culture was a widespread pattern of life followed by certain Indian peoples in the Lower Mississippi Valley between 2000 and 700 B.C. This general lifeway stretched roughly from a northerly point near the junction of the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers, (above the present-day town of Greenville, Mississippi) down the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf Coast ([Figure 1]). It covered parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and its influences reached as far as Florida along the eastern coast and as far up valley as Tennessee and Missouri.
One should not get the idea that Poverty Point peoples from one end of this large region to the other were exactly alike. They did not comprise a single body of kinfolks or a nation. They almost certainly spoke different languages. It is likely that Poverty Point peoples were divided into a number of socially, politically, and ethnically separate groups.
What these people did have in common was participation, to varying degrees, in a far-reaching system of trade and manufacture or use of certain artifacts. Recognition of these artifacts is how archaeologists differentiate between Poverty Point sites and sites of different cultures. Some of these characteristic artifacts include clay cooking balls, clay figurines, small stone tools called microflints, plummets, and finely-crafted stone beads and pendants ([Figure 2]). Several things distinguish Poverty Point artifacts. One is the decided preference for materials imported from other regions. The other is the emphasis on ground and polished stone artifacts, especially ornaments and other status insignias.
Radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates show that Poverty Point culture developed over a long period of time. By 3000 B.C., many of the typical artifacts were already in use. A few items had appeared even earlier. During the next thousand years, new artifacts and new styles were added, and by 2000-1800 B.C., an early stage of Poverty Point culture had evolved in some areas. However, the period between 1500 and 700 B.C. was the most climactic, because that was the span dominated by the giant Poverty Point site.
Figure 1. How the Lower Mississippi Valley Might Have Looked in 1000 B.C. Shows Courses of Major Rivers and Locations of Poverty Point Territories.
AREAS OF SETTLEMENT SITES POVERTY POINT Jaketown Cowpen Slough Claiborne Ouachita River Arkansas River Joe’s Bayou West Fork Mississippi River East Fork Mississippi River Vermilion River Teche-Red River Louisiana boundaries and modern Mississippi River shown as dotted lines
Figure 2. Artifacts Characteristic of Poverty Point Culture. a-c, Plummets; d-f, Miniature Stone Carvings; g-j, Poverty Point Objects; k-l, Human Figurines; m-o, Projectile Points. Photographs courtesy of Brian Cockerham.