Pap. n"o^' 2^lY' '' TEXARKAN^ mi>SERVOIR — JELKS 51 



are Baytown-like, Coles Creek Incised, and possibly Marksville In- 

 cised and Evansville Punctated. Caddoan ceramics include the types 

 Barkman Engraved, Simms Engraved, Pease Bruslied-Incised, Cass 

 Appliqued, Pennington Punctated-Incised, Crockett Curvilinear In- 

 cised, and Holly (or Spiro) Fine Engraved. 



Temporal alinement of the Snipes component with the Lower 

 Mississippi chronology will be attempted, partly by comparisons with 

 Ford's seriation graphs (Ford, 1951 and 1952). Reference to fig- 

 ure 7, which shows the Lower Mississippi chronology as it is now 

 envisioned, will be of help in following the discussion. 



Baytown Plain is the basic type of the Lower ISIississippi Period 

 G-C. Principal means of differentiating the various complexes of 

 that period is through decorated pottery types, many of which are 

 made of Baytown paste. Unfortunately, most of these decorated 

 types are entirely absent from the Snipes Site, which makes aline- 

 ment with the Lower Mississippi Area especially difficult. Baytown 

 Plain, being a generalized type occurring over a large area and 

 through a long span of time, includes — or is very closely related to — 

 the types Tchefuncte Plain, Marksville Plain, Troyville Plain, and 

 Coles Creek Plain. Comparison of those types with Baytown-like 

 from the Snipes Site should help determine the closest Lower Mis- 

 sissippi counterparts of Baytown-like and therefore tie it into the 

 Lower Mississippi chronology. 



First of all, Tchefuncte Plain can be eliminated as a possible 

 counterpart since sand tempering and legged vessel forms, which are 

 almost invariable features of Tchefuncte pottery, are not present at 

 Snipes. This leaves Marksville Plain, Troyville Plain, and Coles 

 Creek Plain as possibilities. Strictly on the basis of typology, differ- 

 ences among those three types are principally of vessel form. Shapes 

 of the Snipes vessels, as indicated by four complete vessels and 

 numerous sherds, are of generalized styles occurring in all three of 

 the Lower Mississippi Valley periods concerned. Hardness and wall 

 thickness, however, are considered by Ford (1951) to be of diagnostic 

 value in distinguishing between Troyville Plain and Coles Creek 

 Plain. "Wall thiclmess of Troyville Plain ranges from 7 to 11 mm., 

 witli an average of 9 mm.; thickness of Coles Creek Plain is not 

 specified, but is said to be noticeably less than that of Troyville 

 Plain (Ford, 1951, pp. G7-68). Coles Creek Plain is harder than 

 Troyville Plain. The Baytown-like pottery from Snipes ranges in 

 wall thickness from 6 to 13 mm,, with an average of approximately 

 9 mm. This compares favorably with Ford's description of Troy- 

 ville Plain, but appears too thick for Coles Creek Plain. Average 

 hardness of Baytown-like is slightly over 2.0, almost identical to the 

 average for Troyville Plain, but too soft for Coles Creek Plain. 

 Wall thickness and hardness, then, relate Baytown-like to Troyville 



