The Smithport Landing Site: An Alto Focus Component in De Soto Parish, Louisiana

CLARENCE H. WEBB
Reprint from Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Vol. 34, 1963.
This is a belated description of the Smithport Landing Site, one of several known Alto Focus components in northwestern Louisiana. This large village site, on the western margin of the Red River flood plain, covers portions of several low hills which front on a former lake.
Nineteen pottery vessels, all but two identifiable as Alto Focus types, were found with fourteen burials. Included are Hickory Fine Engraved , Davis Incised , Kiam Incised , Wilkinson Punctated , and Smithport Plain (virtually identical with Bowles Creek Plain ) types.
Surface materials comprise 1553 sherds, 61 dart and 55 arrow points, and a modest number of chipped and polished stone tools or ornaments. The stone tool assemblage seems to be basically late Archaic with the addition of small arrow points.
Although the sherds as well as whole vessels are predominantly derived from Alto Focus ceramics, a small percentage of Coles Creek, a somewhat larger representation of Bossier Focus, and a few late Caddoan pottery types are identified. Similarities and differences between the ceramics of this site, the Davis (Alto) Site in eastern Texas, and the central Louisiana sequence of pottery, are pointed out. Possible relationships between Coles Creek, Alto, Bossier, and Plaquemine ceramics are developed. It is postulated that Caddoan (Alto) and Coles Creek peoples or influences entered northwestern Louisiana almost simultaneously, and that Bossier Focus developed out of the amalgamation of these two previous cultures. A few very late Caddoan sherds indicate a late occupation at Smithport Landing, possibly during historic times.
It therefore seems appropriate to publish the available information about this site, despite the limited excavations conducted nearly 30 years ago. The criticism has been made that too many foci in the Caddoan area have been based on excavation of a single site and that the Alto Focus, for example, is based on the Davis Site alone. The information presented herein concerning Smithport Landing and other Alto Focus manifestations in Louisiana was available to, and used by, Krieger as indicated in the Davis report. The details should have been published for other students, however, especially since burials of the Alto period are limited in number.