The Mound-Builders

Chapter XVII: The Lower Mississippi Area: II, Louisana, Mississippi, and Alabama

CHAPTER XVII THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI AREA: II, LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI AND ALABAMA The State of Louisiana-The State of Mississippi-The Moundville culture of Alabama-Other sites in Alabama. ARCHlEOLOGICAL interest in Louisiana centers in the valley of the Ouachita River and in the narrow strip of land between the Ouachita and the Mississippi drained by the Tensas and Boeuf rivers and Bayou Bartholomew , the two latter streams, like the Ouachita, extending well into Arkansas and carrying with them the major aspects of the culture centering about the lower portions of their courses in Louisiana. THE STATE OF LOUISIANA Emphasizing Moore's distinction between the pottery north of the Arkansas River and that to the south, incised decoration combined with the use of pigment, generally covering the entire vessel in a solid color, reached a high degree of excellence in the Ouachita valley. On the Glendora Plantation, near the union of Bayou Bartholomew with the Ouachita, in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, there was a center of ceramic culture where incised decorations were executed by experts. While much of the pottery found here is ordinary, as is true of all aboriginal sites, a few pieces exceed in beauty anything else of the kind in aboriginal North America. The water bottle shown at the left in Figure 231 has a beauty of form and embellishment which, if we can for the moment free ourselves of the prejudice of artistic tradition, compares favorably with anything to be found in the art stores of the present day. The swelling at the neck of this vessel, a very common feature of 371 372 THE MOUND-BUILDERS the water bottles of Glendora, was probably derived from a compound form in which one bowl or bottle was superimposed upon another. In the Glendora cemetery human remains were encountered by Moore at 121 different places, though it was impossible to estimate the exact number of individuals represented. The FIG. 232. COLORED WATER BOTTLE FROM KENO PLACE, ARKANSAS Body color is olive-green with incised lines colored brick red. Height, 70 inches. After Moore. greater part of the 322 earthenware vessels found on the site were with human remains in groups of from one to five. The pot, bottle, and bowl forms predominated, and many of the latter, covered from rim to base with incised designs and coated with red pigment, are of very graceful appearance. The pottery forms from three Arkansas cemeteries bear a remarkable resemblance to those of Glendora; namely, at Keno THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI AREA 373 Place, on Bayou Bartholomew five miles north of Glendora; Haley Place in Miller County; and Battle Place in Lafayette County, the two latter on opposite sides of the Red River. One of the more unusual types of water bottle from the Keno site is superior in its proportions and in the simplicity of the colored design (Figure 232). Another unique vessel from the same site, an effigy vessel with four legs, has a rudimentary tail and a neck in place of the head of the animal and is incised with a combination of scrolls, disks, and the crosshatch pattern. A similar vessel from Glendora is shown in Figure 233. FIG. 233. EFFIGY POTTERY VESSEL WITH INCISED DECORATION FROM GLENDORA PLANTATION, LOUISIANA Height, 40 inches. After Moore. In view of the proximity of the Keno and Glendora sites and the fact that both were occupied in early historic times, it is possible that one represents a new settlement after the other had been abandoned. Features of the Keno site not found at Glendora were water bottles with extremely long necks and eleven earthenware elbow pipes. Other objects placed with burials in these two cemeteries were chert knives, arrowpoints, chisels, and flakes; a ceremonial axe of sandstone; a small stone hatchet perforated for attachment to a handle; shell beads; plummets of hematite; stone celts; and irregular masses 374 THE MOUND-BUILDERS of galena and hematite. Traces of human remains, badly decayed like those at Glendora, were found by Moore at Keno Place in 224 places. Most of the 485 earthenware vessels were placed near the heads of skeletons, singly or in groups of from two to four. The pottery of two other neighboring cemeteries, one at Sycamore Landing, about a mile distant from Keno Place and the other at Bray Landing, eighteen miles northward, resembles that of Keno and Glendora only remotely. Surface modelings in rather high relief on the vessels from...