SAU Research Station - Arkansas Archeological Survey

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Important Past Projects

The Ferguson Site: The Rituals of Caddoan Mounds

The Ferguson site--a small, two-mound site located in the Little Missouri drainage in Southwest Arkansas, is the most completely excavated Late Caddo ceremonial center in Arkansas. Excavations were done at Ferguson (state site number 3HE63) in the early 1970s by the Arkansas Archeological Survey with the assistance of the Arkansas Archaeological Society under the direction of Dr. Frank Schambach. The accompanying photographs show some of the extremely well preserved remains of ritually dismantled and burned temples.

Cross-section through the south end of Mound A at the Ferguson site. The black soil at the bottom is a rich Fourche Maline midden that dates long before the construction of the mound. Within the mound various construction stages can be seen. The remains of a burned temple can be seen on the right near the kneeling man. The Caddo capped and sealed the entire mound at the end of its life. Arkansas Archeological Survey photo. Courtesy Pictures of Record. Click on the image to enlarge.

Ferguson was occupied between AD 1300 and AD 1500 and it seems to be typical of Late Caddo centers. It was vacant in the sense that there was no domestic occupation aside from those fond on the mounds, with the population living in small farmsteads scattered around the countryside, like the settlements shown on the 1691 map made by Terán del Rio.

1691 Teran Map. Click on the image to enlarge.

Map of Upper Nasoni settlement on the Red River, produced by the Spanish expedition of 1691-1692, led by Terán del Rio. Original (uncolored) map in the Archivo General de Indias, Seville. Click on the image to enlarge.

Mound A, the temple mound, was built in two stages and was approximately 46 meters long and 21 meters wide at the time of excavation. The two platforms on Mound A had different functions throughout the life of the mound, with the south platform reserved for temples and the north platform reserved for dwellings.

Excavations at Mound A provide us a rare glimpse at the long-term use of these mounds as ritual areas and living spaces. Excavations on the north platform revealed over 10 different buildings that had stood on the platform two at a time. Periodically these buildings burned leaving behind posthole patterns, much burned daub and small amounts of carbonized wood. These buildings seem to have been dwellings as they contained abundant domestic debris.

Cross-section through a temple mound at the Ferguson site. The burned layers near the bottom of the picture are the remains of a small temple that was purposefully burned and intentionally buried. The contrasting layers of earth throughout the mound probably reflect periodic renewal episodes related to the Earth cult. Photograph by Frank Schambach, courtesy of Pictures of Record. Click on the image to enlarge.

Five superimposed square buildings interpreted as temples were excavated on the south platform of Mound A. All of these had extended door passages, thatched roofs,and cane matted walls. All five were represented by great quantities of carbonized logs, cane matting, and some thatch all neatly (and naturally) contained within the wall lines of the structure.

Remains of a burned temple from the Ferguson Site. Click on image for a closer look.

Overview of one of the burned temples at the Ferguson site. This rectangular building was oriented on cardinal directions. Prior to burning, the temple's roof was apparently removed and its walls were dismantled and allowed to fall inward, one at a time much like you might unfold of those clever one-piece cardboard file boxes. The remains of the burned temple were capped with a layer of soil upon which yet another temple was constructed. Arkansas Archeological Survey photo. Courtesy Pictures of Record.

The reason for this remarkable degree of preservation is that these buildings were all burned and buried according to the same careful ritual. First sand was piled around the walls. Then the roof was probably removed as we found few, if any, roof members and very little thatch. Then the building, standing roofless inside a thick wall of sand, was set on fire. As soon as all the walls were burning well, they were pushed in one at a time, and then quickly covered with sand--smothering the fire and producing the remarkably complete carbonized remains.

For the Caddo, one immediate objective of this ritual may have been to produce a great plume of smoke and steam that must have emanated from each burned and buried building for a few days or even weeks.

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