Examining the Ceramic Assemblage from Washington Mounds: An Early to Middle Caddo Site in Southwestern Arkansas

Summary

The Washington Mounds site is an Early to Middle Caddo period (A.D. 800-1300) mound site with 11 mounds, some of which contain burials; two village areas are associated with the site surrounding the mounds. It is located in southwest Arkansas between the Red River and Little Missouri River Basins. Some level of ritual activity occurred at the site, but what types or scale of ritual is unknown. Two excavations have been done at the site: one in the early 20th century by M. R. Harrington, and a second in 1981 by the Arkansas Archaeological Society and the Arkansas Archaeological Survey. Whole pots and potsherds from both documented excavations are considered in the analysis. This study is a thorough analysis of the ceramic assemblage through the theoretical perspective of ceramic ecology. As this is the first ceramic analysis done on artifacts from this site, the goals of the research include establishing information on life, status, and ritual activities of the people who occupied this site as well as contextualizing these findings within the broader geographical and cultural regions.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage