SAU Research Station - Arkansas Archeological Survey

Brass pocket knife cover from Van Winkle's Mill

• General Information
• What Do We Do?
• Station Staff
• Station Location
• Station History
• Press & Media
• Classes

• Current Projects
• Grandview Prairie
• Gateway Texarkana
• Battle Mound
• Sulfur Fork Factory
• Van Winkle's Mill

• Important Past Projects
• Crenshaw Mounds
• Cedar Grove
• Old Washington
• Shallow Lake
• Ferguson

• Other AAS Stations

Current Projects

Battle Mound:
Archeogeophysical Research at a Caddo Mound Center

Located in Lafayette County, Battle Mound is the largest extant Caddo mound in the entire Caddo Homeland. The site is significant and considered a premier mound center most notably because of the large platform mound constructed and used there by Red River Caddo groups. In 1948, investigations headed by Dr. Alex Krieger measured and recorded the mound at 672 feet in length by 320 feet in width, with a maximum height of 34 feet. Additionally, the mound is composed of at least three platform levels and a large slope that ascends the eastern side of the mound, a construction that is considered unique among Caddo mound sites.

An inquisitive turkey poses before the large mound at Battle. Photo taken during the Caddo Conference, March 2007.

The archaeogeophysical survey at Battle Mound currently covers an area of 7.70 hectares (18.48 acres) of a large and expansive section around the large mound. The results of these investigations have produced an informative palimpsest of numerous anomalies attributed to both archaeological (prehistoric, historic, and recent cultural origin) and geological sources. Findings include convincing evidence for burned rectangular and circular structures, a possible community cemetery, a farmstead with a compound fence, the extent of an historic occupation, and natural phenomena that include lighting strikes and palaeochannels of the Red River. The magnetic gradiometry survey not only has demonstrated the usefulness of archaeogeophysics as a primary dataset in archaeological interpretation, but has also provided a unique data set regarding the cultural and natural history at the Battle Mound.

Further Reading

McKinnon, Duncan P.
2008 An Archaeogeophysical Analysis of Central Caddo Settlement Patterning at Battle Mound (3LA1). Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.