Hidden deep in Kisatchie National Forest sits the parts of Louisiana's history that have yet to be written.
Thousands of years worth of stories of people who came before us have remained buried since the earliest people started arriving in this area.
Mark Rees, the director of the Public Archaeology Lab of Louisiana, says that the story of this region is mostly unknown but sites like the one in Kisatchie may slowly be starting to shed light on centuries worth of settlement.
"Generations and generations and generations have been building up cultural deposits. It has what we call multiple components or living surfaces that really showcase the deep history of Louisiana." said Rees.
Discoveries at the site such as a clovis point, a pre-historic projectile point, could indicate that the settlement goes back 13 thousand years and may be one of the oldest sites in North America.
While that possibility exists Mark Rees did caution that there's a little more work to be done in order to be sure.
The site gives us more than just some artifacts to be studied in a lab, but clues hidden in the soil give us a glimpse at how the site was used by people through the centuries.
"We have postmolds which are the staining of soil from decomposing wooden posts, which in this context suggests prehistoric structures," said Gray Tarry, and archaeological tech working on the site.
Evidence of hearths used for fires existed alongside the postmolds and the enormous size of the site, which is one of the largest in the forest, means that there's plenty more to be discovered.
Something Tarry says keeps the team excited, "We're excited to see what we can find, and help unravel some of the mysteries in the past, especially in this area."
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