In view of the foregoing factors, it is concluded that Mounds B, C, and D at the Harroun Site were purposely erected over the ruins of the burned houses.
It appears certain that the four houses at the Harroun Site were typical Caddoan houses. Perhaps they were of the traditional “beehive” shape, or possibly they had wattle-and-daub walls and thatched roofs like those photographed by Soule about 1870 and pictured in Webb (1940: Pl. 8, 1).
Historical descriptions and sketches of Caddoan houses indicate that they did not usually have extended, covered entranceways as do a majority of the prehistoric houses that have been excavated in the Caddoan Area. This suggests that the extended entranceway was used at a relatively early period but was abandoned prior to the 17th century. However, Caddoan houses of the early historic period will have to be excavated before a definite statement can be made in this regard.
Ceramics at the Harroun Site consisted mainly of brushed, incised, engraved, and appliquéd styles, including types Ripley Engraved, Taylor Engraved, Bullard Brushed, Pease Brushed-Incised, and Maydelle Incised. One sherd of Crockett Curvilinear Incised was also found, and two other sherds are similar to the types Coles Creek Incised (or Chase Incised) and Beldeau Incised. Ripley, Taylor, Bullard, and Maydelle are all indigenous types of the Titus Focus (Suhm et al., 1954: 192), Ripley in particular being considered diagnostic of the focus. Beldeau Incised and Coles Creek Incised are Lower Mississippi types and they are surely intrusive in the site. Both were buried between 2.5 and 4.0 feet deep in the floodplain (but at different locations) and they may pre-date the mounds. The sherd of Crockett Curvilinear Incised came from a disturbed area at Mound B, but four sherds from a Gibson Aspect engraved bottle are anomalies that are apparently associated with the mound period at Harroun.
The most common type in the small sample of arrow points is Perdiz, generally considered to equate in time (in East Texas) with the Fulton Aspect, but usually thought of as a trait of the Frankston Focus—not the Titus Focus. Dart point types Cary, Ellis, and Wells—all found at the Harroun Site—are widely distributed in East Texas, and any or all of these types could be affiliates of the Titus Focus or related complexes, although such associations have not been previously demonstrated. The few miscellaneous stone artifacts are relatively non-distinctive in form.
The Titus Focus has been defined on the basis of data derived almost entirely from burials (Suhm et al., 1954: 191). As pointed out by Davis (1958: 67) there is a possibility that mortuary offerings of pottery, arrow points, and other objects may represent selected items and do not necessarily provide a complete catalog of traits actually used by the Titus Focus people. Trait lists compiled from burial data include the arrow point type Talco and the pottery types Ripley Engraved and Harleton Appliquéd as focus diagnostics. Other types listed as Titus Focus traits are shared with other foci.
Davis (1958: 67-68) has noted that Talco points are reported by local collectors to occur only in burials. If this is so, the absence of Talco points in the occupation zones at Harroun does not necessarily negate Titus Focus affiliation for the site. The Perdiz arrow point associated with the burial, however, does seem out of character for Titus Focus as it has been defined.
By and large, the ceramics at the Harroun Site are typical forms and styles of the Titus Focus. However, the absence of diagnostic pottery type Harleton Appliquéd and the presence of Pease Brushed-Incised are incongruous with previous concepts of the Titus Focus.[2] At the Whelan Site, on Cypress Creek 15 miles below the Harroun Site, Davis (1958) has recently reported a series of superimposed houses within a small mound, associated with an assemblage of artifacts remarkably similar to those at Harroun. Ripley Engraved and Pease Brushed-Incised were both present in significant quantities at Whelan, while Harleton Appliquéd was totally absent. No Talco arrow points were found, but six arrow points with expanding stems and one Perdiz point were recovered. Since more than 15,000 artifacts were collected from the Whelan Site, it adds considerable substance to the inventory of artifacts from Harroun, and virtually eliminates any possibility that the Harroun inventory, because of the smallness of the sample, is not truly representative.
On a low ridge near the edge of the Cypress Creek valley, about a half mile west of the Harroun Site, R. R. Nicholas and E. M. German (personal communication) recently excavated several burials. They reported finding vessels of Ripley Engraved and Pease Brushed-Incised associated in the same graves. This spot may be the location of the main village occupation related to the Harroun mounds; in any event the burials there confirm the association of Titus Focus and Bossier Focus ceramic types found at the Harroun and Whelan Sites.
The traits observed at the Harroun Site indicate affiliation with the Titus Focus, but with the following notable deviations from previous conceptions of the focus: