Venable Mound is an archaeological site

Archaeological site

An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...

 in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana

Morehouse Parish, Louisiana

Morehouse Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Bastrop. In 2000, the parish population was 31,021....

 with a single mound with components from the Troyville

Troyville culture

The Troyville culture is an archaeological culture in areas of Louisiana and Arkansas in the Lower Mississippi valley in the southern United States. It was a Baytown Period culture and lasted from 400 to 700 CE during the Late Woodland period...

, Coles Creek

Coles Creek culture

Coles Creek culture is a Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi valley in the southern United States. It followed the Troyville culture. The period marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area...

 and Plaquemine period

Plaquemine culture

The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Good examples of this culture are the Medora Site in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and the Anna, Emerald Mound, Winterville and Holly Bluff sites located...

.

Description

The site formerly had three mounds and was a group known as the McTheney Mounds site. It is situated on a natural levee on the east bank of Bayou Bartholomew

Bayou Bartholomew

Bayou Bartholomew is the longest bayou in the world meandering approximately between two states. It contains over 100 aquatic species making it the second most diverse stream in North America. Known for its excellent bream, catfish, and crappie fishing, portions of the bayou are considered some of...

. The site has been under cultivation since about the 1850s. In the 1870s Benjamin Brodnax of the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 visited the site when it still had three of its mounds. By the time Clarence Bloomfield Moore

Clarence Bloomfield Moore

Clarence Bloomfield Moore was an American archaeologist and writer...

 came in 1908 it only had two. The one remaining platform mound

Platform mound

A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...

 is approximately 22 feet (6.7 m) in height, with a base 140 feet (42.7 m) by 140 feet (42.7 m) square and a summit platform measuring 50 feet (15.2 m) square. Excavations have shown that the site was first occupied from 400 and 700 CE during the Troyville period. Construction of the mound is dated to 700 to 1200 CE during the Coles Creek period. Analysis of ceramics from the site date have been dated other occupations of the site to 1200 to 1541 during the Plaquemine/Mississippian period.

See also

• Culture, phase, and chronological table for the Mississippi Valley