Archæological and Anthropological Investigations in Arkansas and Louisiana ¹

Abstract

MR. CLARENCE B. MOORE in 1908–9 investigated the mounds and cemeteries of the valley of the Ouachita, a river that rises in central western Arkansas and flows south-easterly into the State of Louisiana; its lower course is the Black River, which joins the Red River, a tributary of the Mississippi. The more striking remains are earthenware vessels of very varied forms and different colours. The most common form of decoration consists of the original surface of the vessel being left in scroll bands and round or oval discs, the interspaces being generally filled up with parallel lines or cross-hatching. The accompanying figure illustrates a superb bottle, 81/4 inches in height, which has a coating of red pigment of superior quality, through which is incised a beautiful combination of discs and running scrolls in a field of parallel lines which emphasise the design; possibly the incised lines were accentuated with white pigment, but no trace of this remains. The technique of some of the vessels from Glendora is superior to anything of the kind hitherto met with outside the Lower Mississippi region.