Free punctations made with tools, without zoning or incising, are present on one vessel ([Fig. 4], I) and 19 sherds ([Fig. 8], Q, R). Paste and color are as described above; one is bone tempered, six are soft, chocolate brown in color. Rim and body sherds are represented but shapes of vessels are uncertain. The punctations are triangular in seven instances, comma-shaped in three, square in five, round in three, and crescentic in two. The vessel (V-105) is a semiglobular bowl with plain body and scalloped, everted rim. The lower surface of the rim is covered with free punctations. The relative increase in frequency of triangular punctations in this group is significant, in view of the fact that the Rhinehart Punctated type in central Louisiana features triangular punctations (Ford, 1951: 83), whereas they are infrequent in Pennington Punctated-Incised at the Davis Site (Newell and Krieger, 1949: 106-8). The absence of ring punctations at Smithport is remarkable, in view of their frequency at both the Davis Site and in central Louisiana.
A group of six sherds has minute free or zoned punctations. The sherds are thinner walled than average, 4 to 6 mm., and five of the six have black surfaces and soft pastes. The sixth is buff colored, thin and has a strongly excurvate, narrow rim. Another ([Fig. 8], P) is from an open carinated bowl and has notches along the carina. All of this group may relate to the Bossier ceramics at this site, instead of Alto. They bear some similarity to Dupree Incised of Plaquemine ceramics in central Louisiana (Quimby, 1951: 122-3).
Weches Fingernail Impressed (Suhm and Jelks, 1962: 153, Pl. 77; Newell and Krieger, 1949: 118-20, Fig. 46) is represented by 19 sherds of characteristic design ([Fig. 9], A-E). Nine of these include the lip area, but all appear to be rim sherds. In three instances some of the subjacent body wall is attached; on two of these the body is plain, on the third ([Fig. 9], E) the body has diagonal incised lines suggesting Dunkin-like decoration. These three have globular bodies and outward curving or slanting rims, 4 to 4.5 cm. high. Other vessels seem to be cylindrical with vertical rims, and open carinated bowls are possible. Five of the 19 sherds are chocolate brown in color with clay tempered paste; the others range from tan and buff to dark gray and reddish-brown. Wall thickness is in the range of 4 to 9 mm., the majority 5-7 mm. Typically, the decoration ([Fig. 9], A, B, D, E) is with widely spaced horizontal incised lines with arcs or quarter circles between; the arcs could have been cut with the fingernail and occasionally are fingernail impressed, but in most the arc is too large, 1.8 to 4 cm. (my thumbnail is 1.6 cm. wide). Four of the sherds have the arcs without intervening lines ([Fig. 9], C).
Fig. 9. Nail Impressed and Punctated Sherds. A-E, Weches Fingernail Impressed. F, Weches Variant with tool punctations. G, H, Sinner Linear Punctated. I-K, M-P, Wilkinson Punctated. L, Ridge pinched, similar to Killough Pinched. Q, Wilkinson Punctated body, Kiam Incised rim. R, S, U, Narrow bands with round or oval punctations. T, Single row of semilunar punctations.
Four sherds are identical with this group except that the spaces between the horizontal lines have triangular instead of semilunar punctations ([Fig. 9], F). Seven other sherds have round or oval punctations in single rows between incised lines ([Fig. 9], R, S, U). I have not included these with type Pennington Punctated-Incised, as Krieger did with some reservation (Newell and Krieger, 1949: 106). Neither have I assigned them to Coles Creek Incised, Hardy Incised or Rhinehart Punctated, as Ford did, also probably with some reservation (Ford, 1951: Pls. 16, L; 17, 20, H), but have preferred to describe them separately as interesting examples of regional variations and typing difficulties in eastern Texas, and northern and central Louisiana.
One sherd ([Fig. 9], T) has a single row of semilunar punctations and otherwise plain surface. It is thick, clay-grit tempered, and buff colored.
Wilkinson Fingernail Punctated type is represented by one vessel and 153 sherds. This was described as a minor type in central Louisiana (Ford and Willey, 1940: 50; Ford, 1951: 88-89) to include clay tempered vessels with fingernail punctations scattered over the vessel surface, arranged in irregular rows, or pinched in vertical rows. In that area it is rarely combined with incising and usually covers the entire vessel. Ford (1951: 88) thought it occurred at the latter part of the Coles Creek period and reached maximum popularity in the succeeding Plaquemine Period or later, but it was missing in Plaquemine context at Bayou Goula (Quimby, 1957) and Medora (Quimby, 1951) sites. In the Davis Site report (Newell and Krieger, 1949) it was not established as a type, as Krieger considered fingernail punctations to be a body treatment present in several types (Kiam, Weches, Dunkin, and Duren Neck Banded); he reported 20,000 body sherds with fingernail roughening from a total of 96,000 sherds. The difference in attitude toward this type on the part of these investigators is understandable when we consider the differences in frequency and use of the decoration method in the two areas, also that Ford and his co-workers used all sherds in typing, whereas Krieger translated sherds to vessels and used rim decoration as the determinant.
In northwestern Louisiana I have found Wilkinson Punctated a useful type in sherd collection studies because of its great frequency in Alto wares, its rarity in Coles Creek, and the rapid shift from nail roughening to ridging and brushing as body treatments concurrent with the development of Bossier, Belcher, and other later Caddoan ceramics. Wilkinson Punctated is therefore a good indicator of early (Alto) Caddoan occupation at a given site. At Smithport Landing there were 153 sherds ([Fig. 9], I-K, M-P) and one burial vessel, a pinched toy jar ([Fig. 4], Q), of this type. The vessel is 6 cm. high, 5 cm. wide, made of thick clay-tempered paste, roughly finished and decorated with three horizontal rows of nail pinching. The sherds include only four rims ([Fig. 9], I, O, P), showing how rarely this decoration, in northern Louisiana, covers the vessel. Most of the other sherds are recognizably body sherds, and in eight instances (as in [Fig. 9], Q) the body-rim juncture is present. The latter sherds have Kiam Incised decoration on the rim and appear to have come from a modified globular body shape with directly or mildly everted rim. Nine of the 153 sherds are bone tempered, the remainder are clay-grit or ground sherd, rather granular and coarse. The walls are thick in many instances, the range 4 to 10 mm. with the majority 7 to 8 mm. Many of the sherds are large ([Fig. 9], I, J) indicating large, heavy jar forms. Surface colors range from tan and buff to dark grays and a few reddish-browns, with more tendency to darker colors than in other types. The majority have irregular fingernail gouges ([Fig. 9], I, J), but some are pinched ([Fig. 9], K, M, N) and others impressed more delicately and regularly ([Fig. 9], O-Q).
Eight sherds have distinctly pinched-up ridges ([Fig. 9], L) which are circular or curvilinear in six instances, vertical in two. The burial vessel ([Fig. 4], Q) may belong with this group, although it has been tentatively classed as Wilkinson Punctated. The group with pinched ridges bears considerable resemblance to the type Killough Pinched (Suhm and Jelks, 1962: 91, Pl. 46) of Frankston and Titus foci, but, in the absence of other types characteristic of these assemblages, will not be so assigned.