Povert Point: Preservation of a Prehistoric World Heritage Site

Aerial Photo of Poverty Point.
Image Courtesy of Susan Guice and the NEH.

August 7, 2014.

Ralph Canevali, of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has written an informative article about the history, preservation, and future of Poverty Point State Historic Site, located in northeastern Louisiana. Poverty Point was recently added to the UNESCO World Heritage List and marks the 22nd World Heritage site in the U.S.

"Poverty Point was part of a larger cultural complex of mound builders that extended throughout the lower Mississippi River valley. Despite excavations that have uncovered stone tools, pottery, and other artifacts at Poverty Point, relatively little is known about the people who built the mounds. They were not farmers, but rather subsisted through hunting, gathering, and fishing. However, they also obtained goods from as far afield as the southern Appalachians and the upper Midwest."

-Ralph Canevali, The National Endowment for the Humanities.

To read the full article, click here.

For more information about 

Poverty Point or World Heritage,

Visit:

• Poverty Point, Louisiana Tourism
• Poverty Point- A Terminal Archaic Culture of the Lower Mississippi Valley
• Poverty Point Earthworks: Evolutionary Milestones of the Americas
• Office of State Parks: Louisiana, The Archaeology Channel
• Poverty Point World Heritage Initiative
• Poverty Point UNESCO World Heritage Nomination
• Poverty Point World Heritage Justification
• UNESCO World Heritage
• National Park Service World Heritage Page
• New World Heritage Inscribed Properties (2014)
• Poverty Point UNESCO World Heritage Debate
• July 16, 2014.
• Poverty Point Now an UNESCO World Heritage Site!
• June 25, 2014.
• Archaeologist Discovers New Mound at Poverty Point.
• May 30, 2014.