Table 1 shows the assignment of burial vessel and sherd types to various
ceramic complexes, based on the descriptions of Ford (1951), Ford and
Willey (1940), and Quimby (1951) for central Louisiana; Newell and
Krieger (1949), and Suhm, Krieger, and Jelks (1954) for east Texas Alto;
and the author’s publications (1948; 1959) and collections from northern
and central Louisiana. It becomes apparent that neat typing and
alignment of sherd collections from this site, true of many other sites
in northwestern Louisiana, is a phantasy. This site lies within a broad
contact zone, extending into southwestern Arkansas and eastern Texas,
between the expanding populations and flowering cultures of the lower
Mississippi-Red River confluence in central Louisiana and Mississippi on
one side and the four-state Caddoan area on the other, in
post-Hopewell-Marksville times.
TABLE 1
Pottery Type or Group
_Whole _No. of %
Vessels_ Sherds_
Distinctive Alto Types
_Holly Fine Engraved_ 10 0.66
_Hickory Fine Engraved_ 2 9 0.60
_Holly or Hickory 6 0.40
Engraved_
_Carmel Engraved_ 17 1.13
_Davis Incised_ 1 17 1.13
_Kiam Incised_ vessels 4
_Pennington 36 2.40
Punctated-Incised_
_Pennington-Crockett_ 11 0.73
Hybrid
_Weches Fingernail 19 1.26
Impressed_
_Smithport Plain_ 9 65 4.36
Subtotal 16 190 12.67
Distinctive Coles Creek or Troyville Types
_Coles Creek Incised_ 8 0.53
_Chevalier Stamped_ 1 0.06
_Mazique Incised_ 2 0.13
Subtotal 11 0.72
Types shared by Alto and Coles Creek
_Wilkinson Punctated_ 1 153 10.20
Triangular punctations 4 0.26
between parallel lines
Subtotal 1 157 10.46
Types shared by Alto, Coles Creek, Bossier and Plaquemine
_Kiam-Hardy Incised_ 174 11.60
_Dunkin-Manchac Incised_ 182 12.13
_Harrison Bayou Incised_ 9 0.60
_Sanson Incised_ 9 0.60
Free and atypical zoned 1 38 2.53
punctations
(_Pennington-Rhinehart_)
Small, zoned punctations 6 0.40
(_Dupree_-like)
Round punctations between 7 0.46
lines
Isolated, semilunar 1 0.06
punctations
Subtotal 1 426 28.40
Distinctive Bossier Types
_Pease Brushed-Incised_ 38 2.53
_Belcher Ridged_ 11 0.73
_Sinner Linear Punctated_ 4 0.26
_Maddox Engraved_ 3 0.20
_Glassell Engraved_ 2 0.13
Subtotal 58 3.86
Types Shared by Bossier and Plaquemine
_Bossier-Plaquemine 31 2.06
Brushed_
_Karnack Brushed-Incised_ 34 2.26
Subtotal 65 4.33
Uncertain Affiliation or Untyped
Curvilinear Incised 2 0.13
Untyped engraved 1 2 0.20
Plain body sherds 579 38.60
Fingernail pinched 8 0.53
Subtotal 1 591 39.46
Subtotal, Early Occupation 19 1498 100.00
Late Occupation, Possibly Historic
Shell tempered 11
curvilinear incised
Shell tempered engraved 7
_Hodges Engraved_ 1
Other untyped decorated 4
Late plain 14
Subtotal 37
Grand Total 1535
As a result (or as evidence) of this cultural admixture and interchange,
we see large groups of sherds from this site, in the punctated and
incised categories, which cannot with impunity be assigned to a
previously described type in a specific cultural assemblage. They could
be as easily assigned to a companion type in one, two or even three
other surrounding assemblages. Only by having whole vessels
available—from which details of vessel size and shape, and decoration
can be determined—or by correlation of sherds with distinctive types,
may one draw tentative conclusions about affiliation. I have therefore
found it necessary (Table 1) to list certain types from this site as
possibly deriving from Alto or Coles Creek ceramics, others from Alto,
Coles Creek, Bossier or Plaquemine, and yet a third group of brushed and
incised which might derive, insofar as characteristics of a given sherd
or group of sherds indicate, from Bossier or Plaquemine. The absence of
distinctive Plaquemine types eliminates this assemblage from
consideration, but distinctive types of Alto, Coles Creek and Bossier
are present and give our clues for major alignments. We should be able
to work on the assumption that the indeterminate types will derive from
the three complexes, Alto, Coles Creek and Bossier, in about the same
proportion as these complexes are represented by distinctive types.
It appears, then, that the major complex at this site is Alto; certainly
the burial pottery is of this complex. Coles Creek is present to a minor
extent and it is probable that some of the uncertain punctated and
incised sherds are from _Hardy_, _Manchac_, and _Rhinehart_ types.
Finally, occupation seems to have lasted into the Alto-Bossier
transition to the stage when distinctive Bossier Focus types had
developed, so that there is a respectable representation of this period.
The brushed wares and some of the incised and punctated also probably
relate to the Bossier pottery complex. It is improbable, however, that
Bossier occupation lasted very long, certainly not long enough for a
transition to late Glendora Focus times when the small group of shell
tempered sherds would have been made. The site was probably deserted for
a long time, then briefly occupied by late Natchitoches-related people,
possibly in the historic period. The Yatasi village mentioned by Marcelo
De Soto (D’Antoni, 1961a) is to be considered.