Cover Image Credits

This photo from the article by Ellwood and others entitled “The LSU campus mounds, with construction beginning at ~11,000 BP, are the oldest known extant man-made structures in the Americas” (p. 795–827) shows three man-made structures, all built along the western edge of the Pleistocene Loess Terrace on which most of the LSU campus is built. These include the two LSU Campus Mounds, each built in two stages by indigenous people, and the LSU football stadium on the floodplain below the Pleistocene Loess Terrace, also built in two stages. One core was collected from each LSU Campus Mound, and are labeled core B and core A, and the sediment recovered was analyzed. Found within the cores were abundant ash beds. Thirty-two Carbon 14 dates from these ash beds provided the ages used in interpreting the timing of construction of the LSU Campus Mounds. The base of the LSU Football Stadium was built on the floodplain that extends to the west from the Pleistocene Loess Terrace. Construction of LSU Campus Mound B1 began at ~11,300 BP, and then construction ceased and Mound B1 was abandoned at ~8,200 BP due to the severe 8,200 climate event. Construction of LSU Campus Mound A1 then began at ~9,000 BP and lasted only for ~800 years when construction stopped during the 8200 event. Construction of LSU Campus Mounds A1 and B2 appears to have begun again at ~7,800 BP following the 8200 event. Then, at ~6,000 BP, that the crest-to-crest alignment of the LSU Campus Mounds was created along an azimuth of ~8.5 degrees East of North. At that time, ~6,000 BP, the red star Arcturus was in the night sky at ~8.5 degrees East of North, and we are interpreting that the Mound Builders intentionally produced this ~8.5 degrees East of North to align with Arcturus.