2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 79 



Half a mile to the north of the village site is a small mound and 

 half a mile beyond it five other mounds. Several of these had been 

 dug into by treasure seekers and some were further tested by us. 

 However, they proved to have been constructed of unstratified clay 

 and no artifact of any kind, not even a potsherd, was found. The 

 land on which the mounds are located is low and subject to over- 

 flow, so that if village-site material occurred about them it has long 

 since been covered over by alluvial deposits. It is not known, 

 therefore, what relation, if any, the mounds had to the village site 

 in Mr. Pepper's field. 



The site of the old village is now a cotton field, in which at 

 intervals young pecan trees have been set out. Excavations were 

 confined to the section of the field where potsherds and flint imple- 

 ments were most plentiful, about 150 feet south of the road and 

 100 to 200 feet west of a 6-foot bank which marks the dividing line 

 between the slightly higher land on which the village was located 

 and the lower land bordering a small near-by stream known as 

 Ellison's Creek. At the first place we dug, the village refuse did 

 not extend below the plowed ground, although a veritable maze of 

 post holes was found sunk into the undisturbed yellow clay subsoil. 

 Some of these post holes were arranged in lines but the ground was 

 so honeycombed with others seemingly placed at random in every 

 possible position that we were not able in the short time at our 

 disposal to extend the excavation sufficiently to see what had been 

 the outline of the structures represented. 



HOUSE RING NO. 1 



A few yards to the eastward, however, we found an accumulation 

 consisting of rich black earth containing potsherds, animal bones, 

 and other refuse extending to an average depth of 2^ feet. A 

 little digging showed that the accumulation was held in a trench, 

 averaging 19 inches wide, sunk into the clay subsoil. Following this 

 along by shoveling off the plowed surface soil it was seen that the 

 trench curved regularly and took the shape of an almost perfect 

 circle slightly more than 60 feet in diameter. A mule team and 

 scraper were then obtained and all of the loose plowed earth was 

 removed from within and around the circle. When the surface of 

 the undisturbed subsoil had been exposed in this way it was found 

 that instead of one circle there were three, and in addition a number 

 of post holes, the circles and post holes all being filled with the 

 rich black earth and refuse of the village site. As at the first place 

 we had dug, many of the post holes here were also irregularly placed, 

 but some, at about the center of the outer circle, were seen to be 

 definitely arranged in a square. In addition there were numerous 



