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1.000	and 10,000 people and densities between
1.0	and 20.0 persons per square kilometer; (2) a spatial organization consisting of definable provinces, scattered villages and a large center; (3) economic redistribution; (4) a ranked social hierarchy based on proximity to the chiefly line; and (5) a surplus-producing subsistence base characterized by the familial mode of production, a division of labor based on age and sex, a specialization based on ecological condition and/or communal construction projects as well as craft specialization.
In terms of demographic criteria, the Poverty Point data are consistent with the chiefdom model. Population reconstructions for the Poverty Point sites and the surrounding interaction basin in northeastern Louisiana—reconstructions which are based on the densities of artifacts, the expenditure of labor and the amount of occupied living space—indicate a population of between
5.000	and 10,600 people. Of these, probably between 4,000 and 5,000 people resided at the principal center, with the remainder living in small clusters of 35 to 60 in surrounding villages. Population density ranges from 6.0 to 11.0 people per square kilometer. Similar calculations have not been made for other chiefdoms of the Poverty Point period, but none appears to have had as large or as concentrated a population as the Poverty Point site and its adjoining community.
The settlement details of Poverty Point culture correspond feature for feature with the chiefdom model. Four clusters of Poverty Point sites are known in the lower Mississippi Valley, and undoubtedly more will emerge as intensive research proceeds. Each of these clusters occur in regions with sharp natural boundaries marked by large rivers, extensive swamps and/or broad expanses of poor uplands. Settlement patterns indicate that a relatively stable rural population resided in small villages outside large provincial centers. Civic construction in the form of conical earth mounds and/or semicircular embankments predominate in the regional centers and upland edge villages; lowland villages usually lack public constructions.
Each of the Poverty Point interaction basins (or site nexuses) has a relatively large site that is quite distinctive from its surrounding support villages. The Poverty Point site itself furnishes the most striking example of a provincial center; it appears to have been not only the nucleus of its province but of the entire Poverty Point cultural domain.
Upland and lowland villages of the Poverty Point site chiefdom. Head, Neeley, Motley, Poverty Point, Lower Jackson, Insley and Mott are located along the edge of the high Macon Ridge. Aaron, Ray Brake, Panther Lake and Terral Lewis are down in the floodplain along Joes Bayou.
Located on the bluff edge of the Macon Ridge overlooking the Mississippi flood plain, the Poverty Point site incorporates earthen mounds and embankments in a geometric design oriented according to the cardinal directions. Six concentrically nested semicircular embankments with a maximum diameter of 1,200 meters, occupy the central area of the town. These embankments are broken by four aisles or interstices which radiate out from the interior “plaza” at irregularly spaced azimuths of 336°, 285°, 242° and 184°. Attached to the outer western ridge is Mound A, a large
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