406 SOME ABORIGINAL SITES ON MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 
THE Kent PLACE, LEE County, ARK, 
The Kent Place is on the left side of a dead river, going up, about five miles 
above its union with the Mississippi, which is eighteen miles approximately, by 
water, above the St. Francis river. This plantation belongs to Mr. Lem Banks, of 
Memphis, Tenn., whose’ numerous and extensive properties on the Mississippi and 
on the St. Francis rivers have all been placed in the most generous way at the dis- 
posal of the Academy for investigation throughout the last two seasons. 
| There аге various mounds оп the Kent Place, all тоге ог less altered from 
their original shape through cultivation and through wash of rain. This place was 
well known when the dead river on which it now is was the course of the Missis- 
sippi, and doubtless in the subsequent decades great quantities of burials and accom- 
panying artifacts have been plowed up and destroyed. 
About one mile in a northerly direction from the landing on the Kent Place is 
a mound about 18 feet in height, if measured from the general level. North and 
south its diameter of base is 180 feet, and 120 feet east and west. The summit- 
plateau slopes upward from the northern extremity. From the southern end of the 
mound a ridge runs southward and then turning eastward continues to a deep 
depression containing water at the time of our visit, which depression doubtless 
marks the spot whence material for the building of the mound was taken. 
The length of this extension is about 300 feet; its breadth is about 80 feet, though 
it varies considerably. The ridge slopes sharply after leaving the mound, so that 
its height the greater part of the way is inconsiderable. 
From the northern extremity of the mound a similar ridge, 340 feet in length, 
extends in a northerly direction and then turning, continues to the eastward. 
Near the landing are two mounds, one of considerable size but greatly spread 
and cut by roadways, worn by trampling of feet and washed by water, on which are 
several frame buildings. In the smaller mound many burials are said to have been 
made in recent times. 
Some dwelling-site debris lay in places over the cultivated part of the planta- 
tion. A flint chisel, however, was the only object of interest gathered by us from 
the surface, 
As the clay at this place was too tenacious to permit much sounding with rods, 
trial-holes were almost our sole means of finding burials, and these were put down 
in great numbers throughout five and one-half days’ digging by six men. 
The sites more or less successfully dug at the Kent Place were: the ridges at 
both ends of the mound, already referred to; several rises of the ground in a field 
to the north of the mound; other elevations in cultivated ground in a southeasterly 
direction from the mound. One burial (No. 22), which will be particularly described 
later, came from the summit-plateau of the mound itself (in which, however, owing 
to recent burials, our digging was very restricted), and one from pasture land near 
the old river bed. 
Our investigation resulted in the discovery of fifty-four burials, as follows : 
