Pap. N^o^' 2^lT' TEXARKA.NA RESERVOIR — JELKS 11 



have converged more toward a common mean rather than remaining 

 in the mutually distinct relationship existing at the Gibson Aspect 

 level. Too, such innovations as the promiscuous use of shell particles 

 in tempering pottery swept across both areas during Fulton Aspect 

 times, again suggesting a tendency toward convergence of the two 

 separate streams of ceramic evolution. 



Principal inter-area problems of the moment, then, are concerned 

 with possible alien sources for the Gibson Aspect, chronological aline- 

 ment with the Lower Mississippi sequence, and the nature of re- 

 lationships with neighboring cultures on all sides. 



THE KNIGHT'S BLUFF SITE (41-20D5-8) 



The Knight's Bluff Site is situated on a high bluff overlooking the 

 Sulphur Kiver from the south, some 6 air-line miles northeast of 

 Douglassville in Cass County, Tex. Springs at the foot of the bluff 

 provide a supply of excellent drinking water ample for the needs of 

 dozens of people. Because the Sulphur is easily fordable at a spot 

 beneath the bluff, one of the pioneer roads traversing Cass County 

 in a northwest-southeast direction runs along the top of the bluff, 

 winds down the steep slope at its northern edge, then crosses the 

 Sulphur at the ford and continues toward the northwest. 



The face of the bluff runs almost due north and south, the bluff 

 being approximately 100 feet in height. A low terrace 20 to 40 feet 

 wide and some 15 feet above the water level separates the bluff from 

 the Sulphur River. The surface of the site slopes gently from south 

 to north, with a slight inclination to the east. 



The archeological remains occupy an area which was cleared of 

 timber during the latter half of the 19th century and was cultivated 

 more or less continuously until the 1930's. Since then the old field 

 has been used as a pasture. Surface indications of Indian occupation 

 include potsherds, stone artifacts, bone scraps, flint chips, flecks of 

 charcoal, and a few mussel shells. 



Well known to local amateur archeologists and pot hunters, the 

 Knight's Bluff Site has been subjected to intensive surface collecting 

 for many years. Artifacts from Knight's Bluff were observed by 

 the writer in several local collections, the largest and most repre- 

 sentative series being in possession of Bogie Price, of Atlanta, Tex. 

 His excavation of a shallow burial exposed by plowing in the early 

 1930's is the only digging reported at the site prior to the salvage 

 operations of the River Basin Surveys. 



On September 25, 1949, during a preliminary archeological recon- 

 naissance of the Texarkana Reservoir area for the River Basin Sur- 

 veys, Robert L. Stephenson visited the Knight's Bluff Site with Bogie 

 Price and M. P. Miroir, an amateur archeologist of Texarkana. 



