Author: Ann M. Early

Publisher:

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13:

At the Hardman site, on the Saline Bayou in the Ouachita River valley of Arkansas, nearly 1,000 features were uncovered: postmold outlines of structures, an encircling compound fence and other facilities, pits, hearths, and human burials. The features and midden contained saltpan and other ceramics, lithic artifcats and debris, floral and faunal remains, and human remains. Analyses show the site had at least five components, including a Mid-Ouachita phase (ca. A.D. 1400-1500) Caddoan farmstead, and a Deceiper phase (ca A.D. 1650-1700) Caddoan habitation and burial site. Occupants of the site evaporated salt from Saline Bayou water, grew maize and other crops, and used a wide array of wild resources, including large amounts of pine timber from the neighboring uplands. Skeletal remains show evidence of a previously unknown disease that may be related to saltmaking, but also show that the Hardman inhabitants had better nutrition and general health than other nearby protohistoric populations, with no evidence of disease or social disruption from contact with Europeans. Saltmaking took place at the site from before A.D. 1400 to the end of the Deceiper phase occupation. Burial practices, skeletal evidence, and information from other sites in the Ouachita and Arkansas valleys indicate salt was made for local consumption in the Mid-Ouachita phase, but became an item of trade with Arkansas valley populations by the Deceiper phase. Trade routes may have included canoe travel down the Ouachita River and up Bayou Bartholomew to the vicinity of the Quapaw communities on the Arkansas River. Saltmaking, however, was probably never more than a part-time activity among farming famillies living along Saline Bayou. The site was abandoned before permanent European settlement in the valley.