368 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



EXCAVATION'S IN OKLAHOMA AND GEORGIA 



At the Tenkiller Ferry Eeservoir on the Illinois River in Oklahoma 

 a River Basin Surveys party excavated in a village area called the 

 Cookson site. Two stages of occupation were found there. One 

 was characterized by rectangular houses with four center posts and 

 trench entrances. The other also had rectangular houses but with 

 only two center posts and no evidence of entranceways. The second 

 houses also appeared to have had some form of bench or similar 

 feature along the north wall. The artifacts associated with the 

 first type of house, which apparently was the older, consisted of 

 thick, heavy, single-faced hand grinding stones made from water- 

 worn cobbles ; pitted stones which seemed to have been used as a kind 

 of muller; slate hoes; chipped double-bitted axes; and large and 

 heavy projectile points. A small number of potsherds from a thick 

 clay-tempered ware was associated with the artifact complex. 

 The materials found in and associated with the other form of house 

 consisted of thin, two-faced hand grinding stones; the same type of 

 muller as occurred in the first instance ; and small, light arrow points. 

 Slate hoes and double-bitted axes were missing from the later horizon. 

 The potsherds accompanying the other artifacts were from a shell-tem- 

 pered type of ware which for the most part was undecorated. The 

 first stage represents a complex that culturally is probably fairly 

 early. The stone artifacts attributed to it fall within the range that 

 is considered typical of the so-called Archaic and early Woodland 

 remains in the Southeast. They also are common in sites in north- 

 eastern Oklahoma that represent a prepottery culture and have been 

 designated the Grove Focus. The second stage is thought to correlate 

 with what has been termed the Fort Coffee Focus but certain of its 

 traits indicate that it probably would warrant being set up as a 

 separate focus. 



The first type of house corresponds to that which is considered 

 typical of the early Spiro component in the area of the famous 

 Spiro Mounds which were located on the Arkansas River southeast 

 from the Tenkiller Ferry area, and the second type of house is 

 considered similar to one of those in the late Spiro component. 

 Four graves were found in the village area, and all apparently 

 belonged to the early period. The cemetery for the later horizon 

 was not located. The University of Oklahoma carried on a series 

 of excavations at other sites in the Tenkiller Ferry area subsequent 

 to the digging done by the River Basin Surveys party, and when all 

 the results have been correlated there should be considerable infor- 

 mation about aboriginal developments in that district. The Univer- 

 sity of Oklahoma also excavated in village remains in the Fort Gibson 

 and Eufaula Reservoir areas and salvaged considerable material at 

 both locations. 



