OCCUPATIONAL FEATURES
The only occupational features discovered at Mound C were the two house patterns.
House No. 1
The lower house floor at Mound C, designated House No. 1, rested directly on the old surface of the floodplain ([Fig. 7]). The floor zone was a circular lens of dark gray—almost black—sand with a greasy texture. It averaged 0.4 feet in thickness and measured some 18 feet across. This floor zone contained numerous bits of charcoal and burned clay daub, a few stone chips, mussel shells and garbage bones, and a small number of artifacts.
Around the perimeter of the floor was a ring of post molds representing the exterior house wall ([Fig. 8]). Average diameter of the ring was 18 feet. Each post mold extended downward below the floor level into the sub-mound floodplain. The individual molds ranged from 0.35 to 0.75 feet in diameter, the bottoms being from 1.3 to 2.0 feet below the floor level. There was a total of 29 definite molds plus one probable mold in the peripheral ring, and disturbances on the west and south sides of the house appeared to have obliterated at least five others. The posts had been set about 1.5 to 2.0 feet apart on an average. Time did not permit vertical sectioning of all the molds, but several were carefully sectioned and studied to determine the level from which they had been dug. All began at the floor of House No. 1, none extending above that level.
The large pothole observed in the top of the mound continued downward entirely through the floor of House No. 1, although it had narrowed to a diameter of less than four feet where it intercepted the floor ([Fig. 8]). Unfortunately the pothole had destroyed the major portion of a centrally located hearth that must have been associated either with House No. 1 or the overlying House No. 2. Actually, there was probably a hearth for each house, the later one constructed directly above the earlier one. But since only a narrow segment of burned soil remained to mark the eastern margin of the hearth (or hearths), the structural details could not be ascertained. As nearly as could be estimated by the surviving portion of the hearth, it must have been approximately three feet in diameter.
Fig. 8
HARROUN SITE
41 UR 10
PLAN OF HOUSES NO. 1 & 2
MOUND C
post mold, House No. 1
post mold, House No. 2
post mold, House No. 1 or House No. 2
probable post mold
remnant of central fire pit
ash lens
disturbance
disturbance
pothole
Beneath the pothole—which luckily terminated a foot or so below the floor of House No. 1—were the bottom portions of two post molds ([Fig. 7]). These were undoubtedly from the center posts used during construction of Houses No. 1 and 2. Although the exact circumstances could not be reconstructed because of disturbance, the center posts presumably were removed when the houses were completed and the hearths placed over the molds.
In addition to the two center molds, there were two other post molds within the interior of the houses at Mound C. One was just east of the hearth area, the other was northwest of the hearth ([Fig. 8]). Both were exposed in the excavation floor at the level of House No. 1, and since they were not encountered above that level both probably relate to the earlier house.
An extended entranceway on the west side of the houses was delineated by an elongated area of organically stained soil and by two parallel rows of post molds ([Fig. 8]). The stained area was clearly discernible in the mound fill above both house floors. Despite extremely careful excavation of this stained area, however, only the bottom portions of the post molds—well below the floor level of House No. 1—could be seen. Consequently the level from which the entranceway post holes were dug could not be determined and it is uncertain to which of the two houses they belonged. House No. 2 must have had its entranceway on the west side because the organically stained outline showed clearly in the mound fill well above the House 2 floor level. Possibly both houses had their entranceways in this same area.
House No. 2
House No. 2 was represented by a distinct floor zone and by a circle of post molds. The floor zone ([Fig. 8]) consisted of a lens of brownish sand averaging about 15.5 feet in diameter, with a maximum thickness near the center of almost a foot. It lay directly above the floor of House No. 1, but was separated from it by a thin layer of clean, sterile sand 0.1 to 0.3 feet thick. The sterile sand layer was possibly placed over the burned ruins of House No. 1 in order to provide a clean floor for House No. 2.
The peripheral ring of post molds ([Fig. 8]) averaged a little less than 14 feet in diameter (or almost four feet less than that of the underlying House No. 1) and lay entirely inside the exterior wall of House No. 1. The two rings were not quite concentric, however, the center point of House No. 2 being slightly to the west of the center point of House No. 1. The post molds of House No. 2 were from 0.45 to 0.85 feet in diameter, and they extended from 1.6 to 2.0 feet below the level of the related house floor. Several of the molds were sectioned vertically to determine the level from which they had been dug. They could be clearly traced from the floor of House No. 2 down through the floor of House No. 1 into the sub-mound floodplain.
As was pointed out above in the description of House No. 1, there was probably a circular, centrally located hearth associated with House No. 2, and one of the two center posts whose molds were found beneath the hearth area must have been used in the construction of the later house. There appeared to be no other interior post molds associated with House No. 2. The entranceway was probably on the west side.