EXCAVATIONS AT A PREHISTORIC INDIAN VILLAGE 

 SITE IN MISSISSIPPI 



By Henry B. Collins, Jr. 



Assistant Curator, Division of Ethnologi/, United States National Museum 



Archeological work in the Southern States has in the past been 

 confined almost exclusively to the excavation of Indian mounds. As 

 these are the most imposing aboriginal remains of the region, it 

 is natural that they should have received first attention. But there 

 are other remains — Indian village sites — which promise to yield data 

 that will be of considerable value when Southeastern archeology 

 comes finally to be synthesized and interpreted. Due to the obliter- 

 ating effects of white civilization there is little left to mark the site 

 of the average prehistoric Indian village in the Southeast; usually 

 only a scattering of pottery fragments and stone implements on 

 the surface of the ground. It happens, however, that pottery is the 

 most valuable single criterion for determining the relationships of 

 tribal or regional groups ; when, in addition, there is also the possi- 

 bility of finding traces of ancient habitations, the importance of such 

 village sites is apparent. 



In December, 1929, at the request of Dr. Dunbar Rowland, direc- 

 tor of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, I was 

 detailed by the Bureau of American Ethnology to cooperate with 

 the department in the excavation of an old Indian village site in 

 Yazoo County. The site had been located by Dr. Rowland's repre- 

 sentatives, Messrs. Moreau B. Chambers and James A. Ford, with 

 whom I became associated in the work which is outlined below. 



Owing to an unusual snowstorm, which left the ground in a soggy 

 condition, we were unable to work longer than a week, but late in 

 the following December we returned and spent three days in further 

 excavation. The site is 1 mile west of Deasonville on the Yazoo City 

 Highway and is located on the property of Mr. Claude H. Pepper 

 in the SE. l^, sec. 17, T. 11, R. 2 E. We are indebted to Mr. Pepper 

 for granting us full permission to excavate and also to Mr. Homer 

 Beall, of Deasonville, who rendered valuable assistance. 



No. 2898.-PROCEEDINGS U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, VOL. 79, ART. 32. 

 67125—32 1 1 



