70 ABORIGINAL SITES IN LOUISIANA AND IN ARKANSAS. 
mets" of hematite; almost innumerable small objeets of earthenware, broken 
and whole, to be described later; immense quantities of what is known as gravel, 
by the inhabitants. This material which, to some extent, has the appearance 
of gravel and small pebbles, and might seem to be such at first sight, proves 
on closer inspection to be baked clay from fireplaces of aboriginal dwelling-sites, 
which constant plowing has reduced to small fragments. No traces of human 
bones were anywhere visible on the surface. 
One feature in connection with these sites impressed us greatly. Almost 
no fragments of earthenware vessels were in evidence. With the exception of 
one place in which eight bits of pottery were found, sherds were practically 
absent not only from the surface but from the soil thrown out in digging. It 
is difficult to surmise what took the place of pottery during the long time this 
site was inhabited; possibly vessels of wood were used. Two or three fragments 
of soapstone pots were found, but had such vessels been in general use, pre- 
sumably more parts of them would have been discovered. 
Professor Lockett’s statement as to the great abundance of fragments of 
pottery, it must be remembered, was made in a general way, applying to three 
sites, and, if exact, probably had reference to the Jackson Place or to the Motley 
Place; for had pottery fragments been abundant at the Poverty Point Plantation 
in his time, it is impossible that the sherds alone should have disappeared from 
there, and that the great variety of other débris should still remain on the 
surface, as it has done. 
From the surface at this place came more than two hundred entire knives, 
arrowpoints, and spearheads, of flint, of which thirty-one (selected by us from a 
much larger number) were acquired from a colored man who cultivated part of 
the property. No lancehead exceeded 4.25 inches in length, though fragments 
found in the fields indicated that some of the points must have had a length of 
8 ог 9 inches. A few spearheads and projectile points were found fashioned with 
but a single barb, such as those which have been described as coming from 
Catahoula Parish, La., and elsewhere. Certain of the arrowpoints show cur- 
vature on the end of the stem, which on examination proves to be the curve of 
the surface of the pebbles from which the arrowheads were made. Secondary 
work on a few of the points was noted, where apparently broken points had been 
resharpened or the side of a broken arrowhead had been chipped possibly to 
serve as a knife. 
The workmanship on these implements is not above the average; serration 
is almost absent. The small, delicate, barbed arrowheads found in numbers 
farther down Bayou Macon are represented at this place by a single example. 
Of four small celts from the surface of this plantation (which were given to 
Mr. Redmond) one shows marked excellence of workmanship, being slender and 
graceful; one is of about average appearance; and two are of rude manufacture. 
That the aborigines who inhabited this great site had considerable skill in 
working of hard stone, however, is shown by a bead of red jasper (obtained by 
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