Measurements were made on three intact skulls. That of Burial 6, adult female, had a circumference of 47 cm., glabella to occipital protuberance 27 cm., and zygoma to zygoma 30 cm. The skull of Burial 10, adult female, had circumference of 46.8 cm., glabella to occipital protuberance 28.5 cm., and zygoma to zygoma 31 cm. That of Burial 14, adult male, had circumference of 49.5 cm., glabella to occipital protuberance 29.2 cm., and zygoma to zygoma 30.5 cm.
DESCRIPTION OF ARTIFACTS
Ceramics
There are available for study of pottery from this site 19 whole vessels from the burials, of which 10 are decorated and nine plain; 1533 sherds from surface collections and the several test pits, of which 875 are decorated and 658 plain. Among the sherds there is a group of 37 which have paste and decoration characteristics of late wares, historic or protohistoric, which will be described in a separate section. Consequently there are 19 whole vessels and 1496 sherds which relate to the earlier occupation. Most of these are assignable to existing types which have been described elsewhere and type descriptions will not be repeated, although local or regional variations will be indicated. Reference should be made to the Davis Site report (Newell and Krieger, 1949) and T. A. S. handbooks (Suhm, et al., 1954; Suhm and Jelks, 1962) for descriptions of Alto types; to the Bossier Focus report (Webb, 1948) and the handbooks for the Bossier types; and to the Crooks (Ford and Willey, 1940), Greenhouse (Ford, 1951), and Medora (Quimby, 1951) Site reports for Coles Creek and Plaquemine types. One new type of the Alto period, Carmel Engraved, will be described herein.
Certain characteristics of paste, temper, surface and core colors, and sherd thickness extend throughout the earlier wares from this site. The paste is generally uniform and compact, rarely lumpy or porous. The range of hardness is 2 to 3 (Moh’s Scale), the sherds are broken with difficulty and seldom can be scored with a fingernail; the majority of the sherds give a metallic ring when dropped on a hard surface (except for the dark chocolate to black wares). Tempering is clay-grit in most instances, sometimes with finely ground sherds, and a few with enough grit to feel slightly sandy (none is fully sand tempered). Bone temper occurs in 31 of the 1496 sherds (2%) and shell is totally missing.
Surface colors are predominantly light, showing oxidizing firing conditions, and fire clouds are frequent ([Fig. 4], A-C), indicating incomplete control of firing. The majority of sherds have light interiors and cores, but some of the interiors are darker gray or smudged and some of the cores are dark brown to black, even though the surfaces are light. Surface colors are varying shades of gray, some buff or tan, a few orange or reddish-brown; in every type there will be varying percentages of dark brown (often chocolate or reddish-brown) to black, although these are never as numerous as in the Alto wares of the Davis Site, even in the engraved types. The sherds with chocolate brown to black exteriors usually have uniform darkness through the core and on interior surfaces; the paste is usually softer and the sherds seldom give a metallic ring when dropped. Their surfaces tend to be smoothed but rarely polished.
Fig. 4. Pottery From Burials. A, B, Smithport Plain bottles, V-104, 95. C, Hickory Fine Engraved, V-96. D-G, Kiam Incised jars, V-106, 133, 94, 134 (note plain body on D, vertical incising on E, fingernail punctating of F, G). H, Davis Incised, V-130. I, Untyped, V-105 (plain body, scalloped rim with free punctations on lower surface). J, Smithport Plain bowl from Allen Site. K-N, Smithport Plain bowls, V-99, 667, 668, 100. O-P, Smithport Plain miniatures, V-97, 152. Q, Wilkinson Punctated (pinched miniature), V-669. R, Smithport Plain carinated bowl, V-101.
Sherd thickness varies from 4 to 10 mm., averaging 6 to 7 mm. in most types. Variations will be noted.
In general, this early ware is thicker and lighter in color than the later Caddoan wares of the Belcher and late Bossier periods. It is about the same thickness as the Alto wares of the Davis Site and the Coles Creek-Early Plaquemine of central Louisiana, but differs from Davis Alto in having less of the reddish and chocolate to black polished pottery and more buff to light gray. It shares bone tempering with Texas (Davis) Alto. In other respects of hardness and coloration, it more nearly approaches Coles Creek ceramics, although seldom having the orange tints and never the greenish tints of Coles Creek. It tends to be thicker, harder, and lighter in color than Plaquemine pottery, although some of the shapes and designs are similar to Plaquemine types.