Mound X

     It is hard to tell what Mound X looked like when American Indians first built it. Sadly, the mound has been greatly altered by development and farming. Today, it is triangular in shape and just over 3 feet tall.

     All of the other mounds have numeric designations (i.e., Mounds 2, 3, 4, etc.). Why is this mound different? As it so happens, an early researcher counted 27 mounds in the Marksville area when he did a survey of the site in 1926. However, because Mound X is so low and has an odd shape, archaeologists did not identify it as made by people until 2000. By then, giving the mound a number (Mound 28) would have caused too much confusion.

Sometimes, important archaeological discoveries are hidden in plain view. Mound X, indicated by the arrow in the image above, went unnoticed by archaeologists for nearly 80 years!