East-central Louisiana Research Articles

The Gordon Site in Southern Mississippi

The Gordon site has been mentioned previously by Ford (1935, 1936) as site 61, the type site for the Coles Creek ceramic complex originally identified by a surface collection of 175 sherds. In his initial survey of the site, Ford placed it uppermost in the Coles Creek horizon, although the exact relationship of that horizon to other Southeastern cultures was at that time uncertain. Ford states: perhaps this name is a little unfortunate. Neither of the two original sites (the second was the Mazique Plantation Site which was not chosen for type site designation because of historical confusion with the White Apple Village of the Natchez) is quite typical of the many that have been located in southwestern Mississippi and eastcentral Louisiana. They differ in that they each yield a few sherds of the Tunica complex. Despite this fact there is no evidence that any of the Coles Creek sites retained their inhabitants until the time of contact with Europeans. The entire complex may be regarded as prehistoric (1936, p. 172).