by Gerry Everding St. Louis MO (SPX) Feb 12, 2013 Nominated
early this year for recognition on the UNESCO World Heritage
List, which includes such famous cultural sites as the Taj
Mahal, Machu Picchu and Stonehenge, the earthen works at Poverty
Point, La., have been described as one of the world's greatest
feats of construction by an archaic civilization of hunters and
gatherers. Now, new research in the current issue of the journal
Geoarchaeology, offers compelling evidence that one of the
massive earthen mounds at Poverty Point was constructed in less
than 90 days, and perhaps as quickly as 30 days - an incredible
accomplishment for what was thought to be a loosely organized
society consisting of small, widely scattered bands of foragers.
"What's extraordinary about these findings is that it provides
some of the first evidence that early American hunter-gatherers
were not as simplistic as we've tended to imagine," says study
co-author T.R. Kidder, PhD, professor and chair of anthropology
in Arts and Science