griffin] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORRIS BASIN 287 



more than half are straight, 41 percent are slightly flaring, and the re- 

 mainder are flaring. 



Fifty-nine percent of the sherds can be scratched with gypsum 

 and the rest can be scratched with the fingernail. The texture is 

 medium fine. The lip shape is flattened and rounded on exactly 

 half of the sherds, rounded on 37 percent, and narrowed and rounded 

 on the remainder. The rim pieces show the effects of smoke dis- 

 coloration on approximately one-fourth of the exteriors or interiors. 

 Those sherds that have flattened and rounded lips are usually thicker 

 by 1 or 2 mm at the lip than at the rims. Otherwise the lips are 

 thinner, by about the same measurements, than the rim. The 

 measurements for the lip and rim thickness are given in Chart 

 XXXI. 



The width of the lips ranged from 0.4 cm to 1 cm, with 72 percent 

 being between 0.5 cm and 0.9 cm. The narrowed and rounded lips 

 were 0.4 cm or 0.5 cm thick, while 90 percent of the flattened lips 

 with rounded edges were 0.6 cm to 1 cm. The majority of the rounded 

 lips were from 0.5 cm to 0.8 cm. Eighty-five percent of the rims were 

 between 0.6 cm and 0.9 cm and 72 percent were either 0.6 cm or 0.7 

 cm in thickness. Seven of the sherds have an added outer rim strip 

 that was not smoothed into the outer rim surface. Sherd No. 76, 

 Chart XXXI, is identical in the shaping of its upper rim segment 

 into a horizontal plane to the sherds representing jar shape A 

 at Site No. 11. The following three sherds on the same chart have 

 their upper rim angled outward at 45°, so that this portion of the 

 rim is horizontal. 



The estimated lip diameters are: Sherd No. 1, 12.5 inches; No. 2, 

 9.5 inches; No. 5, 14 inches; No. 7, 10 inches; No. 65, 5 inches; No. 73, 

 11 inches ; No. 78, 10 inches. 



The exterior surface of almost all of these rims is smoothed and 

 the smoothing appears to continue well onto the shoulder area. Al- 

 most half of the sherds were hole tempered, which at this site, as in 

 practically all of the sites from the Norris Basin where this occurs, 

 was caused by the disintegration or leeching out of the shell which 

 formed the tempering material. The same cause probably accounts 

 for the softness of the sherds. See last four sherds on plate 150, a. 



Handles 



All of the handles in the study collection and those illustrated in 

 plate 32, Z>, are of the loop variety. Most of them, of rather large 

 size, as shown in the above mentioned illustration, were attached to 

 vessels of the jar shape described in Chart XXXI. There are none 

 of the small loop handles found in the Middle Mississippi wares. 

 Curiously enough, there were no lug handles or strap handles found 



