MSUM receives national grant for archaeological research at Poverty Point World Heritage Site
Minnesota State University Moorhead has been awarded a 2019 Preservation Technology and Training Grant for $29,577 from the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
The grant will fund a project which involves an international technology transfer of cutting-edge 3D ultra-high resolution ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology integrated with other surface and downhole geophysical methods, coring and soil analyses at the Poverty Point World Heritage Site (WHS) in northeastern Louisiana. Work will take place between August 2019 and August 2020.
A vast, integrated complex of earthen monuments constructed some 3,700 to 3,100 years ago, Poverty Point is one of only four prehistoric archaeological sites that has earned the WHS designation in the United States. Work will focus on a broad topographic high in the plaza known as the West Plaza Rise, whose origins are not well understood.
The project will be directed by Dr. Rinita Dalan, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Dr. Diana Greenlee, University of Louisiana Monroe, Poverty Point Station Archaeologist. Other team members include Dr. Arne Anderson Stamnes and Dr. Carmen Cuenca-Garcia from the Terrestrial, Marine and Aeria Remote sensing for archaeology research group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Thurman Allen, Morehouse Parish Soil and Water Conservation District; Dr. Michael Hargrave, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory; and Dr. R. Berle Clay.