Jaketown Site | |
 Roadside view of the site | |
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| Nearest city | Belzoni, Mississippi |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 33°14′13.542″N90°29′13.2936″W / 33.23709500°N 90.487026000°W /33.23709500; -90.487026000 |
| Area | 200 acres (81 ha) |
| NRHP reference No. | 73001017 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | June 19, 1973[2] |
| Designated NHL | December 14, 1990[3] |
| Designated USMS | December 6, 1985[1] |
Jaketown Site (22 HU 505) is anarchaeological site with twoprehistoricearthwork mounds inHumphreys County,Mississippi,United States.[2] While the mounds have not been excavated, distinctivepottery shards found in the area lead scholars to date the mounds' construction and use to theMississippian culture period, roughly 1100 CE to 1500 CE.
The site was a complex regional trade center that developed and was inhabited much earlier, from 2000 to 600BCE, during thePoverty Point culture within the LateArchaic period of the United States.[4] This culture is seen in more than 100 sites on both sides of the Mississippi River, from present-day Louisiana to Mississippi; it also was linked to more distant areas through a trading network. The site has evidence of trade in raw materials and manufacture of finished items that were distributed through the network throughout the Eastern United States. The largest and most elaborate earthwork complex of the period is atPoverty Point,Louisiana.
The mounds were constructed as part of a later, succeeding culture, built to mark the political and religious center of achiefdom. There would have been numerous elite residences nearby, as well as structures to support certain crafts. Because of its importance of a regional trade center of the Poverty Point culture in the Archaic period, and long human occupation, the site was declared aNational Historic Landmark in 1990.[3] The mounds are listed on theMississippi Mound Trail.[5] It is managed by the state of Mississippi.Mississippi Highway 7 is routed near the site, which is approximately seven miles north ofBelzoni.[4]
Artifacts found in the area near the site are featured on display in the Jaketown Museum inBelzoni.[6] Dating of the artifacts has demonstrated that the Jaketown site was occupied byindigenous peoples from 1750 BCE to 1500CE, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the region.[7]
Archeological investigations have found that the smaller mounds nearby were hundreds of years older than the surviving two; they were built by peoples of a preceding culture. They were destroyed by plowing and being razed for use as fill for road construction in the early 20th century. The largestplatform mound at the site, Mound B, is 23 feet (7.0 m) in height with a base of 150 feet (46 m) by 200 feet (61 m). It has a projection on its eastern side that is thought to have been a ramp once used as a stairway. To its northwest is Mound C, another platform mound with a height of 15 feet (4.6 m).[4]
| Middle Mississippian |
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| South Appalachian Mississippian |
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| Fort Walton culture | |||||||||||
| Pensacola culture | |||||||||||
| Plaquemine Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Caddoan Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Upper Mississippian cultures |
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| Culture |
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