8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol, 79 



Near the center of the circle were a few post holes as shown on 

 the plan. 



PROBABLE NATURE OF THE HOUSES REPRESENTED 



Having described the trenches and post holes of the three house 

 rings as they appear at the present time, it will be in order to at- 

 tempt an interpretation or reconstruction of the dwellings of which 

 the}' are the remains. 



In one important respect the Deasonville house circles are unique, 

 the posts being set up in the bottom of trenches instead of on the 

 level surface. Trenches of this kind have not been reported arche- 

 ologically from the region, nor are they referred to in any de- 

 scriptions of historic Indian structures. Especially remarkable is 

 the fact that the large outer trench C of House Ring No. 1 seems 

 to have remained open and only gradually became filled with 

 refuse. It is difficult to see what purpose could have been served by 

 such an arrangement. The possibility that this trench with its 

 row of posts might have been a stockade seems unlikely for the 

 reason that the posts were spaced too far apart. 



The two smaller house rings, Nos. 2 and 3, are apparently the 

 remains of simple circular habitations, the floors of which, above 

 the clay subsoil, had been destroyed by plowing. The fact that 

 an inner square was not found in No. 3 suggests the possibility 

 that the square in No. 2 did not form part of the circular house 

 but might represent a separate small rectangular structure built 

 before or after the other. Still, its position within the circle was 

 such that it might easily have held posts which served as inner 

 roof supports for the circular house. The small sections of inner 

 trenches in Nos. 2 and 3 would appear to be the remains of earlier 

 house circles. 



In the larger and more complex House Ring No. 1 we are faced 

 with a more difficult problem. Does this represent a single struc- 

 ture with walls or roof supports arranged in concentric circles 

 around an inner square, or do the three rows of trenches and the 

 inner square represent the remains of buildings constructed at dif- 

 ferent periods? It is not a question to be decided offhand, for there 

 are facts which seem to favor both explanations. As far as histori- 

 cal evidence goes we might have either four separate structures 

 or a single large structure, for among the Southeastern Indians 

 there were single-walled houses both square and round in outline — 

 both forms being used sometimes in the same villages — and also 

 larger round houses with walls arranged in concentric circles not 

 unlike those belonging to House Ring No. 1. 



