 Map of the Caddoan Mississippian culture and some important sites, including the Gahagan Mound Site | |
  Location within Louisiana today | |
| Location | Harmon, Louisiana, Red River Parish, Louisiana,  USA |
|---|---|
| Region | Red River Parish, Louisiana |
| Coordinates | 32°2′25″N93°24′19″W / 32.04028°N 93.40528°W /32.04028; -93.40528 |
| History | |
| Founded | 900 CE |
| Cultures | Caddoan Mississippian culture |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1912, 1939, |
| Archaeologists | Clarence Bloomfield Moore,Clarence H. Webb |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural styles | Platform mounds,Burial mound,Plaza |
| Responsible body: private | |
TheGahagan Mounds Site (16RR1) is an EarlyCaddoan Mississippian culturearchaeological site inRed River Parish, Louisiana.[1][2] It is located in theRed River Valley. The site is famous for the threeshaft burials and exoticgrave goods excavated there in the early twentieth century.[3]
The Gahagan Site is located on the western side of the Red River, about halfway betweenNatchitoches andShreveport. It was once located on an old river channel, but much of the site has been destroyed by the meandering of the river.[4] The site was occupied between 900 and 1200 CE.[1] It consisted of aplatform mound, a cone shapedburial mound, and a habitation area surrounding a centrally locatedplaza, with another small mound located about a quarter mile away.[4]
The burial mound at the site has been excavated twice, in 1912 byClarence Bloomfield Moore and in 1939 byClarence H. Webb. Between the two excavations, three burial shafts with a total of fourteen burials and more than five hundred grave goods were discovered. The first shaft, found by Moore, was 11 feet (3.4 m) in depth and 13 feet (4.0 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m) in width and height. The other two, found in the 1939 excavations, were 19 feet (5.8 m) by 15 feet (4.6 m) and 12 feet (3.7 m) by 11 feet (3.4 m) in dimensions.[4] The grave goods found during the excavations included intricately flaked flint knives, known since asGahagan blades, a matched pair oflong-nosed god maskette earrings made of sheet copper,[5] Missouriflint claystatues and pipes,[3] copper ear ornaments,embossed copper plates,[6]greenstonecelts and spuds, and caches of beads and arrow heads. Many of the grave goods were exotic imports from such distant places as theGulf Coast, theCentral Texas plateau,Tennessee,Kentucky, and theGreat Lakes,[4] and may be indicative of involvement in continent wide trade and religious networks such as theSoutheastern Ceremonial Complex. Many of the disinterred remains and grave goods were donated toLouisiana State University Museum of Natural Science by thePeabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology atHarvard University, and few more later by Dr. Webb.[1]
The burial offerings at Gahagan contained particularly beautifully flaked stone knives which have since become known as Gahagan blades.[4] The knives have been found at other Caddoan sites, including theCaddoan Mounds State Historic Site, but are thought to originate to the west of the Caddo territory in central Texas. They were made fromchert from this area and archaeologists believe they were produced as a trade export by groups there.[7]
| Middle Mississippian |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Appalachian Mississippian |
| ||||||||||
| Fort Walton culture | |||||||||||
| Pensacola culture | |||||||||||
| Plaquemine Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Caddoan Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Upper Mississippian cultures |
| ||||||||||
| Culture |
| ||||||||||
