ABSTRACT

This is a belated description of the Smithport Landing Site, one of several knownAlto Focus components in northwestern Louisiana. This large village site, on thewestern margin of the Red River flood plain, covers portions of several low hillswhich front on a former lake.

Nineteen pottery vessels, all but two identifiable as Alto Focus types, were foundwith fourteen burials. Included are Hickory Fine Engraved, Davis Incised, KiamIncised, Wilkinson Punctated, and Smithport Plain (virtually identical with BowlesCreek Plain) types.

Surface materials comprise 1553 sherds, 61 dart and 55 arrow points, and a modestnumber of chipped and polished stone tools or ornaments. The stone tool assemblageseems to be basically late Archaic with the addition of small arrow points.

Although the sherds as well as whole vessels are predominantly derived fromAlto Focus ceramics, a small percentage of Coles Creek, a somewhat larger representationof Bossier Focus, and a few late Caddoan pottery types are identified.Similarities and differences between the ceramics of this site, the Davis (Alto) Sitein eastern Texas, and the central Louisiana sequence of pottery, are pointed out.Possible relationships between Coles Creek, Alto, Bossier, and Plaquemine ceramicsare developed. It is postulated that Caddoan (Alto) and Coles Creek peoples orinfluences entered northwestern Louisiana almost simultaneously, and that BossierFocus developed out of the amalgamation of these two previous cultures. A fewvery late Caddoan sherds indicate a late occupation at Smithport Landing, possiblyduring historic times.

INTRODUCTION

The Smithport Landing Site was initially explored by Monroe Dodd,Jr., and the author between 1934 and 1940.[1] It was the first site atwhich we found burials and whole pottery; it was also the first site inLouisiana which was identified as an Alto Focus component (Webb,1948) and was recognized as such in the Davis Site report (Newelland Krieger, 1949: 195, 197, Fig. 62). In describing the Bossier Focus,Smithport Landing was one of 15 sites used for comparison and discussionof the relative incidence of Bossier Focus pottery types, and ofseveral pottery complexes. First suggested in my 1948 paper, andelaborated in a more recent study (Webb, 1961) of 20 sites in northwesternLouisiana, is the thesis that the Bossier Focus developed outof a simultaneous spread of Alto and Coles Creek peoples or influencesacross this area in post-Marksville times. Smithport Landing was oneof the key sites in this study, because of the admixture of Alto and ColesCreek pottery types and the presence of a minor Bossier Focus manifestation.

It therefore seems appropriate to publish the available informationabout this site, despite the limited excavations conducted nearly 30years ago. The criticism has been made that too many foci in theCaddoan area have been based on excavation of a single site and thatthe Alto Focus, for example, is based on the Davis Site alone. The informationpresented herein concerning Smithport Landing and otherAl

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