Although there are many ceremonial sites in the Caddo area of northwestern Louisiana, eastern Texas and Oklahoma, and southwestern Arkansas, surprisingly few have been investigated in detail. Battle Mound, located along the Red River in southwest Arkansas, is the largest Caddo mound and one of the largest earthworks in the southeastern United States, yet prior to recent research by Duncan McKinnon, only sporadic investigations have taken place at the site, and the results were not published. McKinnon studied records of fieldwork conducted in 1948, examined pots extracted from the site in the 1930s and 1940s, analyzed artifacts collected by the Arkansas Archeological Survey in the 1980s, and conducted geophysical surveys in the early 2000s. The results of these endeavors are reported in this well-organized and clearly written report.
In the first chapter, McKinnon employs a map drawn during the 1691 Spanish entrada led by Terán de los Rios into the Kadohadacho territory in the Great Bend region of the Red River as a model to formulate expectations regarding site patterning across what is known as the Spirit Lake locality, a portion of the region that includes Battle Mound. He is particularly interested in the juxtaposition of sacred and residential zones at the site and how each was spatially configured. Chapter 2 presents succinct summaries of regional physiography, ecology, and geomorphological processes affecting this landscape. McKinnon then provides a culture history background with emphasis on the period between approximately AD 1200 and 1700 (the Haley and Belcher phases), the interval when the primary occupation and mound building at the site took place.
Chapter 3 describes the mound and its setting and summarizes various field projects, beginning with excavations on the mound directed by Lynn E. Howard working under a 1948 Viking Fund (Wenner-Gren Foundation) grant to Alex D. Krieger of the University of Texas. Previously, this undertaking was reported only in an edited, typed version of Howard's field book and a short summary by Krieger. More recently, the Arkansas Archeological Survey salvaged artifacts after a drainage ditch was machine-excavated at the south end of the mound in 1980. Between 2007 and 2012, McKinnon supervised a series of geophysical surveys (principally using magnetic gradiometry supplemented by resistivity, electromagnetic induction, and ground-penetrating radar) across more than 14 hectares surrounding the mound.
McKinnon details the results of these investigations in Chapters 4 through 6 and provides numerous interpretations about how Caddo people constructed and utilized the mound and organized its surrounding space. The mound is composed of a central rise flanked by platforms extending to the north and south. Howard's excavations demonstrated that cultural activity took place on each successive platform. Identified on the south side were at least one structure containing abundant corncobs, faunal remains, and two large fire pits. McKinnon suggests that food preparation associated with ritual feasting took place in that area. In contrast, two structures identified on the northern platform included no large cooking vessels and considerably fewer food remains, suggesting domestic use. As in several other Caddo ceremonial sites, the mound profiles indicated a sequence of periodic burning of structures, burying the remains beneath a platform or layer of earth, and rebuilding of new structures. Magnetic anomalies likely representing both rectangular and circular houses were found throughout the area surrounding the mound. Three clusters of isolated monopolar magnetic anomalies are suspected to represent cemeteries. Possible compound fences, perhaps similar to those depicted on the Terán map, also were identified.
McKinnon argues that the Battle Mound site was clearly not a “vacant” ceremonial center, and he discusses the implications of varying approaches toward interpreting spatial scale when using models such as the Terán map. The Battle Mound site likely was occupied for several centuries, but given the nature of the available data, the chronological resolution is poor. Only three radiocarbon dates, all from the mound area, have been obtained, and the limited excavations inhibit conclusions about the sequences and timing of changes in use of space. In the final chapter, McKinnon recommends that future work concentrate on investigating the nature of the geophysical anomalies to verify the hypothesized residential and cemetery areas and on the recovery of datable materials to understand the timing of construction and use of this extensive site.
This report is a superb example of combining previously unpublished field research carried out more than a half century ago with up-to-date geophysical techniques to produce a body of information that will be fundamentally important in future research in the Caddo area and the U.S. Southeast. It is an excellent addition to the high-quality volumes in the Arkansas Archeological Survey's Research Series.
