72 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BulL 179 



fore or after the Lower Mississippi occupation; (2) material acquired 

 by the Lower Mississippi people from neighboring Caddoan peoples ; 

 (3) accretions actually manufactured by the Lower Mississippi 

 people, in which event inspiration would certainly have been derived 

 from neighboring Caddoans. 



The latter of the three possibilities can be eliminated with little 

 danger of error. The differences between Caddoan and Lower Mis- 

 sissippi pottery are sharp, and it is hardly credible that adoption of 

 Caddoan techniques of pottery manufacture by aliens would have 

 resulted in perfect duplication of the Caddoan styles. And the 

 Caddoan sherds at Snipes are duplicates of styles in Caddoan com- 

 ponents elsewhere. There is little evidence for deciding wliich of 

 the first two possibilities is more likely. The four burials with 

 mortuary offerings contained only Lower Mississippi pottery, which 

 suggests that there may have been separate occupations. Certainly, 

 however, such negative data cannot be considered as conclusive evi- 

 dence. Most of the Caddoan sherds seem to be of Fulton Aspect 

 styles, which should be too late, by all estimates, for direct associa- 

 tion with period E-D. But being in a marginal position with 

 respect to the distribution of the Troyville complex, there could well 

 be a considerable time lag between the Snipes component and Troy- 

 ville manifestations to the east; consequently, contemporaneity of 

 Troyville survivals and the Fulton Aspect in the Texarkana region 

 cannot be definitely ruled out. Contemporaneity of Gibson Aspect 

 and Troyville is compatible with Krieger's concepts but would be 

 out of phase with Ford's, 



If the Caddoan material at Snipes was actually acquired from 

 neighboring Caddoan peoples, it would seem probable that there 

 should be indications of reciprocal trade of Lower Mississippi ceram- 

 ics to the Caddoan peoples. There is some evidence of such trade 

 at Kjiight's Bluff and, to a lesser extent, at Sherwin in the form of 

 sherds which cannot be distinguished from the predominant plain 

 ware at Snipes, termed Baytown-like. There is a notable absence 

 of Coles Creek Incised sherds at Sherwin and Knight's Bluff, but 

 Coles Creek Incised was scarce at Snipes — only 21 of the 1,135 sherds 

 being of that type. Therefore it is conceivable that the absence of 

 Coles Creek Incised at the two Caddoan sites could be a purely 

 fortuitous circumstance and does not necessarily negate the possi- 

 bility that the Baytown-like sherds were actually derived directly 

 or indirectly from Lower Mississippi peoples. There is one sherd 

 from Knight's Bluff that has been tentatively identified as Marks- 

 ville Stamped. If that identification be correct, this might be an- 

 other indication of contacts between Lower Mississippi and Caddoan 

 peoples. Two sherds of Coles Creek Incised were found during 

 excavation of the Hatchel Site, type site of the Texarkana Focus, 



