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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Early Americans’ huge earthworks show off their engineering might

Analysis of mysterious earth mounds reveals their rapid construction and sophisticated composition.
A square hole dug into earth, showing layers of different colours.

Excavation of one of the mammoth ridges at the Poverty Point site in Louisiana revealed discrete layers of earth. Credit: T.R. Kidder

On the banks of a Louisiana bayou, the Native American earthwork complex called Poverty Point includes one of the largest earthen mounds in North America, and other enormous monuments: a feat of construction that was unrivalled for more than 2,000 years. Analysis of one structure now shows that it was built with speed, perhaps even in only a few weeks.

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Nature 597, 307 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02439-0

References

  1. Kidder, T., Kai, S., Henry, E. R., Grooms, S. B. & Ervin, K. Southeast. Archaeol. https://doi.org/10.1080/0734578X.2021.1958445 (2021).

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