SOME ABORIGINAL SITES ON MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 447 
Pecan Point, MississiPPi County, ARK. 
Pecan Point, on Mississippi river, forms the southeastern corner of Mississippi 
County, which is the northernmost county of the State of Arkansas, bordering 
Mississippi river. | 
Pecan Point has been celebrated for many years for the number of aboriginal 
antiquities found there during the building of levees and in cultivation. In addi- 
tion, much successful work was done at this place for the Bureau of American 
Ethnology, and for the Davenport Academy of Natural Science, of Davenport, Iowa, 
the results of which are described in various reports' of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology. It was at this place that the first of the interesting class of head ves- 
sels was found. 
The warm thanks of the Academy of Natural Sciences are tendered Mr. R. 
W. Friend, of Pecan Point, who cordially put his large plantations there at the 
disposal of the Academy for investigation, in the most unreserved way. 
About one mile above the main settlement at Pecan Point, though still in its 
outskirts, a short distance from the river, isa mound which has been used as a 
cemetery in recent times. This mound, which has suffered some in shape in the 
lapse of years, is about 12 feet in height and is approximately square with rounded 
corners, its sides nearly facing the cardinal points. The basal diameter is about 
110 feet; that of the summit-plateau, 50 feet, approximately. Apparently a cause- 
way connected the mound with the level ground in former times. 
A short distance from this mound (which probably was domiciliary and was 
not dug into by us) is the northwestern corner of a large field which has been long 
under cultivation, and part of which, judging from the quantity of aboriginal debris 
scattered over the surface, must have been a dwelling-site for a considerable period 
in early times. This field, we were told by Mr. Friend, was where the digging 
previous to our own had been carried on. Since then, however, that part of the 
field in which aboriginal burials are found has been curtailed by the building of 
new levees. 
Although so much former investigation had been carried on at Pecan Point, 
we felt the place still offered an excellent opportunity to the archeologist, since it 
is plain that neither by digging trial-holes nor by the use of sounding-rods can an 
aboriginal site of any size be entirely cleared of relics, and those using only rods 
for the discovery of vessels (as did those who preceded us, we were told), of neces- 
sity leave behind the vessels that are deeply buried and all those over which are 
fire-places of hardened clay, through which rods cannot pass. 
1 William Н. Holmes. “Illustrated Catalogue of a Portion of the Ethnologie and’ A rehzeologic 
Collections Made by the Bureau of Ethnology during the year 1881,” p. 469 et seg. Third An. Rep. 
Ж William H. Holmes. “Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi Valley,” passim. Fourth An. Rep. . 
ту ON Thomas. “Mound Explorations,” p. 219 et seg. Twelfth An. Rep. Bur. Ethn. This 
account contains a plan of the aboriginal mound and site at Pecan Point. 5 
William H. Holmes. “Aboriginal Pottery of Eastern United States,” p. 98 et al. Twentieth 
Ал. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethn. 
