TIME, PEOPLE AND MATERIAL CULTURE AT THE KUYKENDALL BRAKE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

PULASKI COUNTY, ARKANSAS

John H. House
Arkansas Archeological Survey
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

with contributions by

Gayle J. Fritz
Department of Anthropology
Washington University
St. Louis, MO

and

Katherine Murray
Department of Anthropology
University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR

ABSTRACT

Excavations at Kuykendall Brake in 1990-1994 revealed the burned remains of a large Native American ceremonial structure buried beneath a small mound. Radiocarbon assays of six samples of charred timbers calibrate to the AD 1469-1617 interval. In the structure interior, excavators encountered dentitions and other skeletal elements from 17 human individuals. The demographic profile of this series, resembling that of a living rather than a cemetery population, suggests a catastrophic mortality event. Cultigens recovered within the structure include maize, beans, sumpweed and sunflower. Thirty four ceramic vessels were found in the structure interior. The preponderance of stylistic attributes in this vessel series indicates affiliation with Caddoan traditions in the Ouachita Basin. Other attributes, however, may be precursors of Menard Complex (formerly "Quapaw phase") ceramic modes. This archeological context represents the yet little-understood transition from prehistoric to protohistoric eras on the lower Arkansas River.

Paper presented at the Fifty-Fourth Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 6 November 1997.

INTRODUCTION

If, on the lower Arkansas River, the Menard-Hodges site and its outliers--the scene of remarkable discoveries in the summer of 1997(House 1997a)--may stand for the end of the protohistoric period then the Kuykendall Brake site in Pulaski County may stand for the beginning of the protohistoric. The Kuykendall Brake site (3PU111) is located on a small, insular terrace remnant in the floodplain of the Arkansas River, only 15 miles from downtown Little Rock. From 1990 through 1994, a team of volunteers and Arkansas Archeological Survey staff under my direction excavated at Kuykendall Brake. The work resulted in a wealth of data pertaining to architecture, chronology, human biology, ceremonial behavior, cultural uses of plants, and material culture patterning from a discrete moment in time some five centuries ago.

The first round of analytical studies at Kuykendall Brake, supported part by a grant from National Science Foundation, are nearing completion (House 1997b). Through the results of the studies we my look both backwards and forwards from the juncture between prehistory and protohistory in the Lower Arkansas River region--and we may view Kuykendall Brake as an almost Pompeii- like context, allowing us to reconstruct--in remarkable detail--a single moment of time at that juncture. This paper is a progress report on the ongoing Kuykendall Brake analysis, emphasizing the archeological contexts and results from chronometric, bioarcheological and paleoethnobotanical studies completed in the past several months and with a preview of the ceramic studies in progress.

PHYSICAL CONTEXTS AND ARCHITECTURAL EVIDENCE

Over four spring and two fall field seasons, we exposed most of the floor interior and posthole pattern of a rectangular structure measuring approximately 7.6 by 9.1 m (Figure 1). In the structure interior, we encountered three--of a presumed four- -large post holes that appear to represent roof support columns. Above the floor level of the structure, architectural evidence was preserved by events connected by the burning of the structure. A compact heap of daub rubble centrally-located on the on the interior floor appears to represent fire-proofing clay applied to the underside of the roof, perhaps around a smokehole. The daub chunks were as much as 12 cm thick and contained abundant molds of parallel grass stems.

A number of charred timbers lay on the burned structure floor just inside the southeast wall of the structure. These timbers could be traced to individual postholes in the southeast wall alignment where they had stood before the burning structure had collapsed toward the northwest. Loading of moundfill atop these blazing timbers immediately after the collapse of the structure preserved both charred and uncharred portions of the timbers.

Looking beneath the charred timbers, we encountered a burial feature. Poorly-preserved human skeletal elements were in the top few centimeters of the sandy fill underlying the structure floor. The only artifact associated with the burial feature was a single fragmentary stemmed arrow point that appears to have been discolored by exposure to heat.

Placement of moundfill preserved most portions of the 70 m2 floor area within the structure. The most conspicuous objects on the floor were an estimated 34 pottery vessels. These vessels, assigned sequence numbers for convenient reference (Figure 2), were found in a loose, arcing array toward the interior of the structure from the burial feature. With one exception, all of the vessels had been broken but, despite displacement of sherds by burrowing gophers, substantial portions of the broken vessels could be reconstructed in the laboratory. The other most conspicuous feature on the interior floor of the structure were concentrations of charred grain (Figure 3).

CHRONOMETRIC DATING

Two chronometric methods, radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic direction dating, were employed at Kuykendall Brake:

In the field, we collected 23 samples of wood charcoal in addition to numerous intact charred timber sections. David Stahle of the Department of Geography, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville evaluated the timber sections for dendrochronological potential. The sections proved to have insufficient consecutive growth rings to support chronological inferences.

From the samples collected in the field, six wood charcoal specimens, each representing a distinct individual architectural element of the structure, were submitted to the Radiocarbon Laboratory, Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, Nevada under the direction of Herbert Haas. The calibrated age ranges of the resulting assays fall generally over the 16th century, with the date intervals (at the 1-sigma level) of individual samples ranging from AD 1416 to the present (Table 1). The averaging routine of the CALIB (Version 3.0, Stuiver and Reimer 1993) program to pool the six assays from six separate charred timbers. This returned the results that (1) the six individual assays are statistically identical at the .05 level, and (2) a pooled radiocarbon age of 380 + 22 yr. This pooled assay falls near a big "wiggle" in the calibration curve. It intercepts the curve only once, at AD 1483, but the range at the 1-sigma level is AD 1469-1617.

At the close of the 1994 season, George Sabo of the Arkansas Archeological Survey collected an archaeomagnetic dating sample from a portion of the baked structure floor along the northwest wall of the structure. The sample was submitted to the Archaeomagnetic Dating Laboratory, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe for dating under the direction of Jeffrey Cox. Results from measurement of this sample, however, did not warrant chronological inferences.

THE PEOPLE

Two contexts within the excavation yielded human skeletal material: The burial feature in the structure interior floor and a grave intrusive into the mound fill overlying the structure. The hum an skeletal tissues at Kuykendall Brake were very poorly preserved. Most of the individuals were represented by paired arcs of tooth enamel caps.

The recovered human remains were studied by Katherine Murray (1996) of the Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Murray's study followed a standard bioarcheological research program addressing the interaction of biology, culture and environment. Her observations, derived almost entirely from dentitions, offer numerous insights pertaining to diet, adaptive efficiency and genetic affinities in the Kuykendall Brake people. Here, however, I want to highlight only one particular intriguing--not to say disturbing--facet of her results, evidence for the mortality profile of the 17 people in the burial feature.

The distribution of absolute and relative ages at death, based on a combination of tooth eruption sequences and attrition observations (Table 2), indicates a comparatively young age mean at death and suggests a "flat" profile consistent with a catastrophic mortality event. It is tempting to speculate about the causes of such an event, but there would appear to be little potential for corroborating any proposed scenario. It may be significant, however, that the arrow point from the burial feature was the only such artifact recovered from the entire excavation. The demographic evidence further underscores the seemingly unusual character of the Kuykendall Brake context.

PLANTS

Gayle J. Fritz of the Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis conducted the study of the plant specimens from the Kuykendall Brake excavations (Fritz 1997). Fritz's goals included observing plants placed in ceremonial or mortuary context. In the structure interior, Features 7 and 16 were concentrations of charred beans and maize kernels that also contained small amounts of domesticated sumpweed and sunflower and pieces of cane that may be remnants of a storage chest or interior granary-like structure.

Here, I want to highlight two facets of the botanical data developed by Fritz and her co-workers: Measurements of the 81 domesticated sumpweed (Iva annua var. macrocarpa) indicated that they are among the largest known, a surprising discovery in light of a previous consensus that sumpweed had declined to insignificance as a crop by late prehistoric times. "Sumpweed does, in fact, appear to have thrived in undiminished splendor in some fields at a time and place very close to the De Soto entrada," Fritz remarked.

From the very large assemblage of beans recovered, Fritz and her coworkers measured 917 whole specimens or cotyledons. They found that the Kuykendall Brake beans are smaller and rounder than their counterparts from other late pre-contact or Historic period sites. Fritz suggested that the beans at Kuykendall Brake represent deliberate deposition of a small variety, comparing the specimens to "the 'Navy Pea'... one of the smallest varieties of eastern North American Phaseolus vulgaris described by Hedrick (1931:79), who calls it a 'very old variety' cultivated by Indians in New York State and 'the principal field variety of the United States.'" "The fact that they are white," Fritz continued, "may also be significant, since a variety of bean (or other seed type) deposited in a special context--such as inside the structure at Kuykendall Brake--could have been selected on the bases of color rather than size."

CERAMICS

The ceramic specimens from Kuykendall Brake fall into two categories, ceramic refuse from an old topsoil and the 34 vessels from the structure interior. This vessel series (Table 3) is highly diverse in vessel form; it includes large jars (these had been resting orifice-downward at the time they were crushed by the collapsing, burning structure), small jars, bottles (including a Belcher Engraved var. Manchester [Early 19 93:86] example), bowls, and 1 large globular seed jar. Nine of the jars may be assigned to a single type, Foster Trailed Incised, but this series also exhibits stunning stylistic diversity. Visitors to my laboratory in recent years have expressed amazement that series of 34 vessels could be the synchronic assemblage that it evidently is.

A few preliminary observations: This assemblage shows a surprisingly strong connection to the Caddoan region and the Ouachita Basin. Most typical Menard Complex ceramic modes (see Hoffman 1997:35), thought characteristic of the seventeenth century, are lacking; e.g., painting, helmet bowls. One vessel, however, is a clear precursor of the globular hourglass-neck bottles characteristic of Menard Complex mortuary assemblages.

CONCLUSION

The structure at Kuykendall Brake is obviously a ceremonial, as opposed to domestic structure. It was preserved by burning and burial beneath a small mound.

The burning of the structure and burial of the still burning debris appears to have been part of a ceremony connected with the placement of an estimated 17 individuals in the burial feature in the structure interior. The demographic profile of the individuals in the burial feature and the attributes of the artifact assemblage point to a very unusual character of the Kuykendall Brake context--but we cannot say how unusual it is until data from additional excavated contexts in the region are available for comparison.

Considered diachronically, Kuykendall Brake seems to represent a local population who contributed culturally to the later Menard Complex. Synchronically, the component seems to represent a dispersed community that was part of a far-flung network of social interaction and exchange. Chemical characterization and attempts to source the stylistically diverse vessels from the structure interior may tell us much about the geographical shape of that network.

The Lower Arkansas River region has long attracted archeologists because of its notable protohistoric record and the presence of the Quapaw people who played an important role in Colonial and Early American history. The protohistoric record in the region, however, has been a perennial source of puzzles and paradoxes for archeologists (Hoffman 1990). Ongoing analytical studies of the Kuykendall Brake site are offering some new answers to our old questions about the region--and some new questions as well.

Figure 1. Plan of burned Native American ceremonial structure.

Figure 2. Location of 34 vessels in structure interior, by Vessel Sequence Number; see Table 3.

Figure 3. Charred grain features in the structure interior.

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