Marsden Mounds


Marsden Mounds is an archaeological site with components from the Poverty Point culture and the Troyville-Coles Creek period. It is located in Richland Parish, Louisiana, near Delhi. It was added to the NRHP on August 4, 2004, as NRIS number 04000803. It is the type site for the Marsden Phase of the Tensas Basin and Natchez Bluff regions local chronology.

Site description

The earthworks at the site include a group of five platform mounds and two portions of an earthen embankment. Mounds A, B, C and D are located along the eastern edge of Maçon Ridge with a section of the embankment connecting three of them. The largest mound at the site, Mound E, measures in height, with the base being by and a summit of by. It and another portion of embankment are located across a large plaza to the southwest of the other mounds.
During investigations at the site, artifacts from the Poverty Point culture were found under some of the mounds, showing that people occupied this at least as early as 1500 BC during the Archaic period. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples from one of the smaller mounds have been dated 400 and 1200 CE, during the Late Woodland Troyville-Coles Creek period.
The site is part of the Poverty Point Reservoir State Park. It is open to the public and accessible by foot.