There are 11 sherds, shell tempered and orange to gray in color, with curvilinear incising ([Fig. 10], N, S). This ware was once termed Wilkinson Negative Meander but was never formally described. Another name should be chosen, because the Wilkinson Site, like Smithport, is primarily Alto with transition to Bossier, and has a minimal late (Natchitoches) occupation.
Two sherds have linear punctations on shell tempered ware ([Fig. 10], Q) and two others, untyped, have horizontal incising. There are 14 plain, 4-6 mm. thick, of which nine are shell tempered, two bone, three clay.
Other Pottery Artifacts and Negative Ceramic Traits
A fragment of perforated pottery base, presumably a spindle whorl fragment, was mentioned in the discussion of plain pottery. There were also three fragments of fired daub with grass impressions and one flattened surface. One tiny cone-shaped pottery fragment suggested a figurine or doll leg. No other clay or ceramic artifacts were found. Noticeable by their absence are pipes or pipe stem fragments, animal figurines or heads, clay labrets and ear ornaments, all of which are not unusual in this area.
Other negative ceramic traits are the absence of shell temper, except in the small group of obviously late wares; red filming; pigment impression into the lines of decoration; handles or other vessel appendages; squared bases (not unusual elsewhere in Coles Creek and Alto ceramics); squared or castellated rims (Vessel 105, [Fig. 4], I is the only instance of scalloped rim); vessel effigies, either whole vessel or rim attachments; stamping (one foreign sherd), and cord marking.
Pottery Alignments and Sequences
[Table 1] shows the assignment of burial vessel and sherd types to various ceramic complexes, based on the descriptions of Ford (1951), Ford and Willey (1940), and Quimby (1951) for central Louisiana; Newell and Krieger (1949), and Suhm, Krieger, and Jelks (1954) for east Texas Alto; and the author’s publications (1948; 1959) and collections from northern and central Louisiana. It becomes apparent that neat typing and alignment of sherd collections from this site, true of many other sites in northwestern Louisiana, is a phantasy. This site lies within a broad contact zone, extending into southwestern Arkansas and eastern Texas, between the expanding populations and flowering cultures of the lower Mississippi-Red River confluence in central Louisiana and Mississippi on one side and the four-state Caddoan area on the other, in post-Hopewell-Marksville times.
| TABLE 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pottery Type or Group | |||
| Whole Vessels | No. of Sherds | % | |
| Distinctive Alto Types | |||
| Holly Fine Engraved | 10 | 0.66 | |
| Hickory Fine Engraved | 2 | 9 | 0.60 |
| Holly or Hickory Engraved | 6 | 0.40 | |
| Carmel Engraved | 17 | 1.13 | |
| Davis Incised | 1 | 17 | 1.13 |
| Kiam Incised vessels | 4 | ||
| Pennington Punctated-Incised | 36 | 2.40 | |
| Pennington-Crockett Hybrid | 11 | 0.73 | |
| Weches Fingernail Impressed | 19 | 1.26 | |
| Smithport Plain | 9 | 65 | 4.36 |
| Subtotal | 16 | 190 | 12.67 |
| Distinctive Coles Creek or Troyville Types | |||
| Coles Creek Incised | 8 | 0.53 | |
| Chevalier Stamped | 1 | 0.06 | |
| Mazique Incised | 2 | 0.13 | |
| Subtotal | 11 | 0.72 | |
| Types shared by Alto and Coles Creek | |||
| Wilkinson Punctated | 1 | 153 | 10.20 |
| Triangular punctations between parallel lines | 4 | 0.26 | |
| Subtotal | 1 | 157 | 10.46 |
| Types shared by Alto, Coles Creek, Bossier and Plaquemine | |||
| Kiam-Hardy Incised | 174 | 11.60 | |
| Dunkin-Manchac Incised | 182 | 12.13 | |
| Harrison Bayou Incised | 9 | 0.60 | |
| Sanson Incised | 9 | 0.60 | |
| Free and atypical zoned punctations (Pennington-Rhinehart) | 1 | 38 | 2.53 |
| Small, zoned punctations (Dupree-like) | 6 | 0.40 | |
| Round punctations between lines | 7 | 0.46 | |
| Isolated, semilunar punctations | 1 | 0.06 | |
| Subtotal | 1 | 426 | 28.40 |
| Distinctive Bossier Types | |||
| Pease Brushed-Incised | 38 | 2.53 | |
| Belcher Ridged | 11 | 0.73 | |
| Sinner Linear Punctated | 4 | 0.26 | |
| Maddox Engraved | 3 | 0.20 | |
| Glassell Engraved | 2 | 0.13 | |
| Subtotal | 58 | 3.86 | |
| Types Shared by Bossier and Plaquemine | |||
| Bossier-Plaquemine Brushed | 31 | 2.06 | |
| Karnack Brushed-Incised | 34 | 2.26 | |
| Subtotal | 65 | 4.33 | |
| Uncertain Affiliation or Untyped | |||
| Curvilinear Incised | 2 | 0.13 | |
| Untyped engraved | 1 | 2 | 0.20 |
| Plain body sherds | 579 | 38.60 | |
| Fingernail pinched | 8 | 0.53 | |
| Subtotal | 1 | 591 | 39.46 |
| Subtotal, Early Occupation | 19 | 1498 | 100.00 |
| Late Occupation, Possibly Historic | |||
| Shell tempered curvilinear incised | 11 | ||
| Shell tempered engraved | 7 | ||
| Hodges Engraved | 1 | ||
| Other untyped decorated | 4 | ||
| Late plain | 14 | ||
| Subtotal | 37 | ||
| Grand Total | 1535 | ||
As a result (or as evidence) of this cultural admixture and interchange, we see large groups of sherds from this site, in the punctated and incised categories, which cannot with impunity be assigned to a previously described type in a specific cultural assemblage. They could be as easily assigned to a companion type in one, two or even three other surrounding assemblages. Only by having whole vessels available—from which details of vessel size and shape, and decoration can be determined—or by correlation of sherds with distinctive types, may one draw tentative conclusions about affiliation. I have therefore found it necessary ([Table 1]) to list certain types from this site as possibly deriving from Alto or Coles Creek ceramics, others from Alto, Coles Creek, Bossier or Plaquemine, and yet a third group of brushed and incised which might derive, insofar as characteristics of a given sherd or group of sherds indicate, from Bossier or Plaquemine. The absence of distinctive Plaquemine types eliminates this assemblage from consideration, but distinctive types of Alto, Coles Creek and Bossier are present and give our clues for major alignments. We should be able to work on the assumption that the indeterminate types will derive from the three complexes, Alto, Coles Creek and Bossier, in about the same proportion as these complexes are represented by distinctive types.
It appears, then, that the major complex at this site is Alto; certainly the burial pottery is of this complex. Coles Creek is present to a minor extent and it is probable that some of the uncertain punctated and incised sherds are from Hardy, Manchac, and Rhinehart types. Finally, occupation seems to have lasted into the Alto-Bossier transition to the stage when distinctive Bossier Focus types had developed, so that there is a respectable representation of this period. The brushed wares and some of the incised and punctated also probably relate to the Bossier pottery complex. It is improbable, however, that Bossier occupation lasted very long, certainly not long enough for a transition to late Glendora Focus times when the small group of shell tempered sherds would have been made. The site was probably deserted for a long time, then briefly occupied by late Natchitoches-related people, possibly in the historic period. The Yatasi village mentioned by Marcelo De Soto (D’Antoni, 1961a) is to be considered.