AKT. 32 INDIAN VILLAGE SITE IN MISSISSIPPI COLLINS 19 



In describing the incised ware from Deasonville, mention was 

 made of the fact that some of the lines encircling the rims of vessels 

 otherwise undecorated were applied in such a way as to have an 

 " overhanging " appearance ; that is, the lines were deeper at the top 

 than at the bottom. (PI. 4, a-c, g-4.) This is a style of decoration 

 which Ford and Chambers have found to be characteristic of certain 

 prehistoric sites in western Mississippi as distinguished from near-by 

 historic sites of the Natchez and Tunica. The presence of this type 

 at Deasonville is therefore of interest, although its full significance 

 can not be understood until its entire range and the relative positon 

 it occupies elsewhere is known. 



In this same connection it should also be noted that the Deason- 

 ville sherds contained no examples of historic Choctaw ware, which 

 is characterized by straight or curving bands of very fine lines ap- 

 plied with a comblike implement ; ^^ or of Tunica ware in which the 

 decoration consists of somewhat enlarged rims bearing indentations 

 or scallops together with a single encircling line along the top. 

 Typical Natchez pottery with its usually polished surface and scroll 

 or meander decoration is also absent at Deasonville, although some 

 of the incised ware of the second variety (rough surfaced, shell 

 tempered, and sometimes soft and porous) bears a curved line orna- 

 mentation of this general type. (PI. 5.) 



The Deasonville collection includes three sherds, which despite 

 their small number are of especial interest. These bear a decoration 

 consisting of finely stamped or rouletted bands outlined by deeply 

 and broadly incised lines. (PI. 5, n.) I have found this style of 

 decoration at Pecan Island, in southwestern Louisiana, and Moore 

 has found it in Sharkey County, Miss., on the Mississippi River.^' 

 It is also a design which occurs typically on the pottery of the highly 

 developed Hopewell culture of Ohio. 



Study of the potsherds from Deasonville fails to reveal any clues 

 which might be of value as showing the chronological position of the 

 site beyond the mere fact that it is prehistoric. Thus the absence of 

 pottery types definitely attributable to the historic Choctaw, Tunica, 

 or Natchez (as well as the absence of metal or other European ma- 

 terial), and the presence of another type which at other Mississippi 

 sites appears just as definitely prehistoric, places the Deasonville 

 site in the latter category. This is a conclusion which might have 

 been expected in view of the fact that Deasonville is in an area not 

 known to have been inhabited by any historic tribe but lies between 

 the territories formerly occupied by the Choctaw on the east and 

 the Tunica and Yazoo on the west. 



" Collins, Henry B., jr., op. cit. 



"Moore, Clarence B., Certain Mounds of Arkansas and Mississippi, p. 587. 



