pip. >^o^' 2^]"*' TEXARKANA RESERVOIR — JELKS 13 



They collected a number of artifacts from the surface and sank a 

 small test pit in a midden near the edge of the bluff. Results of the 

 testing and surface collecting ^Yere encouraging, and Stephenson 

 recommended in his official report on the survey that one excavation 

 unit ($26,000) be allotted to investigation of Knight's Bluff. No 

 such sum was appropriated, but excavation of the Ejiight's Bluff 

 Site was begun on April 28, 1952, and continued until May 26. Prior 

 to excavation a grid reference system (fig. 2) was superimposed in the 

 following mamier: 



A datum point was established at arbitrary elevation 10 feet, and 

 a magnetic north-south line was run through that point. Stakes 

 were placed at 100-foot intervals along the line. A second line, 

 similarly staked at 100-foot intervals, was projected to the east from 

 datum, and a third line was imposed 100 feet east of — and parallel 

 to — the first north-south line. This resulted in a series of reference 

 stakes 100 feet apart. In all portions of the site actually excavated, 

 the 100-foot squares were further broken down into 5-foot squares. 

 With the stake at its southeast corner as reference, each 5 -foot square 

 was assigned a designation derived from the distance (in feet) of 

 its coordinates from datum. For example, a 6-foot square whose 

 southeast corner was formed by coordinate lines 50 feet south and 

 100 feet east of datum would be labeled S50-E100. 



In excavating the 5-foot squares, each was taken down by arbitrary 

 6-inch levels, the digging being done with small trowels, and all 

 specimens from each 6-inch level were put into a separate sack that 

 was sealed and labeled according to square and level. The surface 

 elevation at the southeast corner of each square was used as reference 

 in measuring the 6-inch levels of that particular square. 



In order to determine which parts of the site were most promising, 

 5-foot test squares were dug at each 100-foot stake on the line ex- 

 tending due north from datum and at the two 100- foot stakes on the 

 line rumiing east from datum. Along line ElOO (i.e., the north- 

 south line passing 100 feet east of datum) six similar test squares 

 were also excavated. As a result of these tests it soon became evident 

 that cultural material decreased in quantity down the slope to the 

 north of datum, and a similar decrease was noted, beginning about 

 60 feet south of datum, in the test squares leading up the slope of 

 the hill to the south. The greatest concentration of cultural mate- 

 rial, including 10 burials and 1 house pattern, was found in an area 

 from 50 to 200 feet east of datmn in the 100-foot strip lying between 

 lines N50 and S50. 



Three geological strata (fig. 3) were present over most of the 

 Knight's Bluff Site: Stratum 1, a reddish-clay member lying 6 to 

 32 inches below the surface and extending to unknown depth; 



526583—61 3 



