Article: Ancient mound builders get cultured. (complex culture of hunter-gatherers)

Clusters of earthen mounds containing evidence of human occupation and activity occur at more than 2 dozen locations in the eastern United States. Archaeologists generally assume that Native Americans inhabited these sites no more than 3,500 years ago.

A new investigation indicates that an oval grouping of 11 mounds in northern Louisiana, known as Watson Brake, took shape around 5,400 years ago as a base camp for the spring and summer activities of hunter-gatherers. If this dating estimate holds up, it will undermine the influential theory that major construction projects and other aspects of complex culture arose only in farming societies that had strict power ...

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