The Lower Mississippi Valley Expeditions of Clarence Bloomfield Moore

Introduction: The Lower Mississippi Valley Expeditions of C. B. Moore

Introduction The Lower Mississippi Valley Expeditions of C. B. Moore Dan F. Morse and Phyllis A. Morse Clarence B. Moore systematically tested major sites on the navigable streams of the southeastern United States from 1892 until 1918. From autumn 1907 until spring 1911 he visited and often excavated sites on the Mississippi River (1907, 1910-1911) and its major tributaries from thirty-five miles north ofMemphis south almost to New Orleans. The major tributaries surveyed for sites as recorded in this volume were the lower Arkansas (1908), the Yazoo and Sunflower (1908), the White and Black (1908, 1909-10), and the St. Francis Rivers (1909-10). Not covered here are the expeditions made on the Red and Ouachita Rivers and their tributaries in Louisiana and Arkansas. In 1916 he completed this survey ofthe Lower Mississippi Valley in that portion ofthe valley between Wilson, Arkansas, and the mouth ofthe Ohio River. Revisits to the Wilson area and northeast Louisiana were reported in 1918. In total almost a full year offieldwork was accomplished. All the results were published almost immediately after fieldwork ceased each season. These publications are still among the most referenced today in archaeological writings concerning the Lower Mississippi Valley. However, the current cost for the two largest publications is $300 if they can be located. Undoubtedly, part of this cost is due to the superb illustrations, which include 28 high-quality color plates. But the popularity ofthese volumes is largely because ofthe early, often excellent, descriptions ofsites that within the next few years would be impacted severely by flooding and modern agriculture. Moore explored the Lower Mississippi River Valley in much the same way that he investigated the other navigable streams in the southeastern United States. Captain J. S. Raybon and a companion first made a preliminary reconnaissance of the regions to be explored in a smaller boat and obtained names oflandowners for Moore to get permission to excavate at locations thought to be fruitful. For instance, the Gazette of Marked Tree, Arkansas, reported on March 25, 1910, that "Capt. J. S. Raymond and Dr. M. G. Miller ofPhiladelphia, Pa., were here one day last week ... hunting Indian relics ... and made an inspection ofthe mounds as they came up St. Francis river" (Hoffman 1997). Raybon's preliminary explorations extended beyond the actual areas visited by Moore. For instance, Raybon searched 812 river miles, whereas Moore only looked at 566 miles in northeasternArkansas. On theArkansas River, there was no preliminary search. Moore viewed his explorations on the Yazoo and Sunflower Rivers as unsuccessful ; that is, his effort was "inadequately rewarded." Almost forty years later the Lower Mississippi Survey's (LMS) involvement in the Yazoo Basin was initiated by the Peabody Museum at Harvard University and culminated in a two-volume work (Phillips 1970) that is an essential reference for anyone working in the Lower Mississippi River Valley today. Moore's emphasis was on burial associations, whereas Harvard's emphasis was on building a solid foundation for cultural history. Ideally, burial associations, representing as they do a single depositional event, could provide a much tighter dating of those events as well as quickly obtained artifacts for the discerning ofgeographical traditions that constituted a major aim ofyesterday's archaeology. Except for noting that some sites had historic artifacts, Moore seems not to have recognized temporal differences in these assemblages. Yet the Moore expedition recovered artifacts representative ofthe Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods. Indeed, in most cases Moore literally "skimmed off the cream" in the form of the best artifacts available from sites in a very short time period. One notable exception was at Trudeau, where his tests produced no graves, despite the knowledge that a brass kettle, a catlinite pipe, and iron or steel objects had been found at one location within the site. IfMoore had found the "Tunica Treasure" there, we would have known a lot more today about the specific associations and a lot of painful litigation would have been avoided (Brain 1979). Other artifacts recovered by Moore would have been scattered in private collections throughout the world with only minimal provenience, if any, had Moore not been so determined to document and donate these objects to a museum. The Moore expeditions were planned with almost military precision. His trial holes were a standard size. At Winterville they were usually six by three feet in extent and four feet deep (Moore 1908:598). "Sometimes, but not often, the holes exceeded the standard size" (Moore 1908:598). Ifdisturbed ground was revealed...