Tchefuncte site
 Location within Louisiana today
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| Location |
Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana USA
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| Coordinates | 30°19′55.56″N 90°1′33.38″W / 30.3321000°N 90.0259389°W |
| History | |
| Founded | 500 BCE |
| Abandoned | 1 CE |
| Periods | Tchula period |
| Cultures | Tchefuncte culture |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1938, 1941, 1986 |
| Archaeologists |
Clarence Johnson, Edwin Doran, Richard Weinstein, Charles Pearson, Dave Davis Civilian Conservation Corps, Coastal Environments, Inc., Tulane University |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural styles | |
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Tchefuncte Site
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| Area | less than one acre |
| NRHP Reference # | 00000717 |
| Added to NRHP | June 22, 2000 |
| Responsible body: State of Louisiana | |
Clarence Johnson, Edwin Doran, Richard Weinstein, Charles Pearson, Dave Davis
The Tchefuncte Site (16ST1) is an archaeological site that is a type site for the prehistoric Tchefuncte culture period. The name is pronounced Che-funk'tuh. It is located in the southeast section of Fontainebleau State Park near Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.
The site was inhabited from 500 BCE to 1 CE during the Tchula period. Major excavations were directed by Clarence Johnson in 1938 and Edwin Doran in 1941.
The Tchefuncte Site is located in the marsh a half-mile north of Lake Pontchartrain in extreme eastern Louisiana. The Tchefuncte Site originally contained two oval-shaped shell middens, designated Midden A and Midden B. Midden A is about 52 meters long, 15 m wide, and 1.5 m thick. Midden B was approximately 46 m (151 ft) long and 33 m (108 ft) wide, but it is no longer in existence. The middens were composed mainly of shells of the brackish-water clam Rangia cuneata. At the time of the occupation just to the east of the site was a large bayou of fresh water emptying into the lake, and shortly after the occupation it shifted its course to a point about three quarters of a mile farther east.
The site was partially destroyed by commercial dredging before 1938. In 1938 construction crews wanted to use shell from the middens for road construction. Before this was done, Clarence Johnson, a historian for the Civilian Conservation Corps directed excavation of the north half of Midden B. The south half had already been destroyed by the commercial dredging. Johnson then turned his material and notes over to the Louisiana Archaeological Survey in Baton Rouge.
In 1941 further excavations of Midden B and Midden A were under the direction of Edwin B. Doran, Jr. The results of these investigations were published in 1945 by James A. Ford and George I. Quimby, entitled "The Tchefuncte Culture: An Early Occupation of the Lower Mississippi Valley". This monograph used information from the Tchefuncte Site and other Tchefuncte culture sites (e.g., Little Woods (16OR1), Big Oak Island(16OR6), Copell (16VM102), and the Lafayette Mounds(16SM17)), and demonstrated that the site was occupied primarily by Tchefuncte cultural groups (c. 500 BCE to 1 CE) and helped establish Tchefuncte as the type site for the culture.
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