The Poverty Point earthworks could be confused for an Ohio Hopewell site, except for two facts: It is located in Louisiana, and it’s more than 1,000 years older than any Hopewell mound.
One of the biggest puzzles in North American archaeology is how the relatively small bands of hunter-gatherers living at that time could have built monumental architecture on this scale without food surpluses provided by farming or the centralized leadership of a king or chief.
One theory is that many small groups of hunter-gatherers came together on a seasonal basis year after year for generations to slowly construct this complex of parallel embankments and mounds.
However, the results of new excavations into the largest of Poverty Point’s mounds refute this theory.
Through a careful examination of the accounts of Daqin ( 大秦 ) – presumably the Roman Empire – and Fulin ( 拂菻 ) – Byzantinum –, we can depict a picture of how the Chinese imagined another ancient empire far away in the West. The Chinese annals not only give information on and the interpretation of the name of that mysterious country but also add details about its geography, administration, economy – including agriculture, domesticated animals and products –, trade and the envoys sent by Daqin ( 大秦 ) people.