Poverty Point World Heritage Site

Poverty Point World Heritage Site at 6859 Louisiana Highway 577 near Epps in northeastern Louisiana is one of the most significant archaeological sites in North America and the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Louisiana. The site preserves the remnants of a massive earthwork complex built by a prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture between approximately 1700 and 1100 BCE — a remarkable achievement predating the peak of Greek civilization and more than 1,000 years before the appearance of intensive agriculture in the region. The earthworks consist of six concentric C-shaped ridges arranged in a half-circle approximately three-quarters of a mile in diameter, along with a large mound known as Poverty Point Mound A, which at approximately 72 feet in height and 700 feet in length is one of the largest earthen mounds constructed by pre-Columbian peoples in North America. A second large mound, Motley Mound, stands at the northern edge of the site. The scale of the earthworks — estimated to represent 35 million basketfuls of soil moved by hand over centuries — indicates substantial organized labor by a complex society whose full social and political structure remains a subject of active archaeological research. The on-site museum provides context for the earthworks with displays of the distinctive clay cooking balls (Poverty Point Objects) unique to this culture, as well as carved stone figurines, ornaments made from non-local stone obtained through long-distance trade networks, and scale models of the earthwork complex. A tram tour of the mounds is the most efficient way to grasp the spatial scale of the site, departing on a schedule throughout the day with the last run at 3:30 PM. Walking the full site independently from the museum is approximately 2 miles. The site is located 200 miles north of New Orleans, requiring a car and approximately 3.5 hours of driving each way.