Pottery from the Ozark Bluff Shelters

Abstract

The Ozark Uplift of northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri has been a fertile field for archaeological investigation. Natural conditions have greatly facilitated research here, for despite the humidity of the region, there are numerous dry shelters or caves formed by the weathering of shale beds beneath limestone strata in bluffs along White River, its tributaries, and the Cowskin River. Debris, burials, and pictographs show that the Indians had used the shelters as combined homes, cemeteries, and places for ceremonials. In contrast to village sites in the lowlands of Arkansas, the bluff shelters afford more than a fragmentary picture of Indian life. Here, the burials are complemented by remains fortuitously preserved through absence of moisture, and the entire cave floor is comparable to the middens of the lowlands. The archaeological materials illustrate the complete life cycle of the aborigines. Cradleboards and burial wrappings, foodstuff and human feces all contribute to a reconstruction of Bluff-Dweller life.

Implications of Vegetal Remains from an Illinois Hopewell Site

“…Willey and Phillips (1958: 124) and others before them have noted a broad demarcation between a preceramic and a pottery horizon in many Bluff Dweller sites. Dellinger and Dickinson (1942) find that Marksville and Coles Creek ceramic types are predominant, stating that "most pot-sherds in our collections from the final stage of the Bluff Dweller culture are Marksville. "…”