Developments in radiocarbon dating and analysis provide new opportunities to develop high-resolution chronologies to explore changes through time. We explore the temporality of what has been called the Poverty Point culture of the lower Mississippi Valley circa 4200 to 3200 cal BP, especially the chronology of the type site, Poverty Point. Because of its complicated material culture elaboration without evidence of agriculture, Poverty Point has been identified as the political and economic center of a complex archaeological culture. The duration of site occupation and the historical relationship between the type site and those assumed to be contemporary are critical variables for explaining the emergence of complexity at this time. Most interpretations require political or evolutionary processes that accumulate gradually over hundreds of years. Our data show, however, that there is no temporal coherence among so-called Poverty Point culture sites; among such sites, Poverty Point was occupied for a relatively short period, and it is younger than many sites thought to be derived from it. Using explicit radiometric hygiene and Bayesian analyses of dates, we reject the idea of a unified Poverty Point culture and argue instead that the Poverty Point site earthworks developed through rapid, punctuated events occurring circa 3300 to 3200 cal BP.

放射性碳测年和分析的发展为开发高分辨率年代学以探索时间变化提供了新的机会。我们探索了密西西比河下游大约距今 4200 至 3200 年的贫困点文化的时间性，特别是典型地点贫困点的年代顺序。由于其复杂的物质文化阐述而没有农业证据，贫困点被认为是复杂考古文化的政治和经济中心。遗址占用的持续时间以及典型遗址与假定的当代遗址之间的历史关系是解释此时复杂性出现的关键变量。大多数解释都需要数百年逐渐积累的政治或进化过程。然而，我们的数据表明，所谓的贫困点文化遗址之间不存在时间一致性；在这些地点中，Poverty Point 被占用的时间相对较短，而且它比许多被认为源自它的地点都要年轻。使用明确的辐射卫生和日期的贝叶斯分析，我们拒绝了统一的贫困点文化的想法，并认为贫困点遗址的土方工程是通过大约 3300 至 3200 cal BP 发生的快速、间断的事件而发展起来的。