It is possible that the sand tempered wares represented in the early component on the site are a middle Woodland type and the evidence for this is the fact that the Cairo Lowland area to the north, Williams (1956, in his table 2, page 32) places Barnes Ridge where the Barnes Series of Sand tempered types occur after Burkett and Hoecake and prior to Black Bayou. This places it in a Middle Woodland position. Furthermore on page 29 in Williams Table I he places the Barnes Ridge component at LaPlant after the Hoecake. The Hoecake equates with Woodland. Barnes Ridge, in his Table 3 page 38, is noted as Middle Baytown. This would equate with Middle Woodland in the central Mississippi valley.
If the situation here in the Malden Plain area is similar to that in the Cairo Lowland and the sequence that Williams has suggested is correct, this would explain why no clay tempered Baytown material occurred on the site for this would be a component of the Middle Baytown period and would be preceded and perhaps followed by the clay tempered Baytown series.
The late component on the site, or the Mississippian component, is not easily placed in either its cultural position or the time period in which it existed. The pottery is rather distinctive and is wholly a Neeley’s Ferry Plain and a few associated decorated types. The Neeley’s Ferry Plain vessel shapes consist of water bottles of two types, the long necked and the short necked and an unusual amphora water bottle; plates with undifferentiated rims and undecorated with the exception of red filming; shallow bowls; moderately deep, straight sided bowls; and deep bowls both straight sided and those with an incurvate side similar to some of the Caddo wares; and a usual jar form with strap handles and relatively low rim. A few of the jars are decorated and the most prominent decorated type is Wallace Incised or something very similar. Another minor decorated type is Matthews Incised and there are sherds of incised decoration which were not classified. These may possibly be Barton or Kent Incised but the number of sherds having the decoration on them and their small size was such that it was not considered desirable to try to classify them. Painted wares were all under the general term Avenue Painted and consisted of Old Town Red, Carson Red on Buff and at least one sherd of Nodena Red and White.
The water bottles had a sub-globular shape in most instances and had a fillet around the base of the neck. They either had a flat base or an annular ring base that was perforated. The shape in general compared favorably with other vessels from the general St. Francis River area and to some extent with water bottles from the Caddoan area to the southwest. The steep sided bowls and the one incurvate sided bowl are similar to some of the Caddo shapes but these shapes in the Caddo area are associated with engraved wares and are upon much different paste.
The appendages on the vessels, both effigies and lugs and handles are of aid in determining the relationship of the site to other areas. The handles were perhaps the best guide since they seem to be copies of the typical handles at Crosno, at Kinkaid and in the general lower Ohio River valley. The handles have nodes at the top and in some instances have a groove down the center or have two raised ridges on either side of the strap handle. The strap handle is the most prominent on the site although a very few loop handles do occur.
Judging from the pottery, the site is typically St. Francis River Mississippian of the late B period (Phillips, et. al., 1951), and it has some slight relationship to the Cairo Lowland area to the north and to the Lower White River Basin to the south. Both of these relationships might be expected due to the physical or geographical location of the site between the two areas.
The other more diagnostic artifacts that were used in determining the relationship of the Lawhorn site to surrounding areas were the projectile points. The typical projectile point type is a small corner notched arrowhead which has been named the Scallorn point in Oklahoma and Texas and is supposed to date between 700 and 1500 A.D. It is also very similar to the Table Rock Corner Notched arrowhead in southwestern Missouri on the White River which is associated with a Shell tempered pottery complex—the latest occupation in the area. Furthermore, the arrowhead appears to be rather similar to the corner notched arrowheads associated with the Matthews site and with the Mississippi cultures in the Cairo Lowland area. Other important arrowhead types that might aid in the association of the site elsewhere is the Bonham point which supposedly dates between 800 and 1200 A.D. and which is found in the Caddo area to the southwest. This point occurs only about a third as frequently as the Scallorn point which seems to be similar to the relationship expressed by the pottery from the site. Also occurring are triangular points that are similar to the rough, ovoid triangular points found at the Campbell site in the Little River Lowland of the Memphis cultural sub-area, and to the triangular points that are common on Mississippi sites throughout the central Mississippi Valley. One of these triangular points, the Fresno, is supposed to date from 800 or 900 to 1600 A.D. Another, the Maude point, is noted to date from 1200 to 1500 A.D. These dates compare favorably with those for the ovoid points, the Young, which date from 1200 to 1500 A.D. and the Catan, which dates from 500 to 1800 A.D. Another triangular point that may be important is one that can be classified readily as a Fort Ancient point and dates from 1200 to 1600 A.D. All of these points tend to run through the period 1200 to 1500 A.D., which is the general period that was considered probable as the date of the site by analysis and interpretation of the pottery. Therefore, the projectile point types from the Late component appeared to verify the dating of the site in the latter part of the B period as it has been established in the lower alluvial valley by Phillips, Ford and Griffin (1951).
There are other items that are associated with the complex that might aid in establishing its position and its relationship elsewhere. The one pipe hints at relationships toward the Caddo area for it is similar to those found at Spiro. The thumbnail scraper is similar to the ones found on the Campbell site and other late sites in the Mississippi Valley, but the small number of these suggest an earlier time period. These miscellaneous items strengthen, rather than weaken the conclusions drawn from the pottery and projectile points.
It is premature to suggest the sequence in this Malden Plain area of the St. Francis River basin, but it might be helpful to present the sequence here that will show the position of the Lawhorn components to the probable sequence of the general area. The Southeast Missouri Area Chronology Chart of Williams (1956, p. 38, Table 3) has been used, and the probable position of the Lawhorn components are indicated and underlined. The sequence is Williams (1956, Table 3) with the addition of the underlined items.