Excavation of Mound C revealed that a circular house (House No. 1) was
built on the south bank of the Harroun Site lake, was occupied for an
unknown period of time, then was burned—perhaps intentionally. After a
thin layer of sand had been strewn over the burned ruins, a second,
smaller house (House No. 2) was erected on the remains of the earlier
house. House No. 2 was likewise destroyed by fire, after which the
remains of both houses were buried under a mound of sand.
Both houses probably had centrally located hearths, and one or both of
them had an entranceway opening to the west. As at Mound B, a low pile
of sandy soil may have been banked around the outside of one or both
houses before they were destroyed. Architecturally the houses at Mound C
were quite similar to the one at Mound B.
The sparse occurrence of artifacts and other cultural refuse suggests
that neither House No. 1 nor House No. 2 was an ordinary domicile. It
appears likely, rather, that both were ceremonial structures of some
sort. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the houses were
considered important enough to be afforded burial beneath a mound,
probably after having been ceremonially “cremated.”
Mound D
This low circular mound was located on the south bank of Cypress Creek
about 150 feet east of Mound A (Fig. 1). It was perched at the very edge
of the floodplain overlooking the creek channel. In recent years the
channel had been migrating laterally and had begun to encroach on the
north edge of the mound. The average diameter of Mound D at the base was
about 60 feet, and its highest point was at a relative elevation of
100.6 feet, or about 2.5 feet above the surface of the surrounding
floodplain (Fig. 9). A shallow depression about 12 feet across in the
top of the mound marked the location of the usual pothole. This pothole
had originally been only 5 to 6 feet in diameter, but had been
considerably enlarged at the surface of the mound by recent erosion.
Excavation of Mound D was begun shortly before the end of the 1958 field
season. It was dug, like the other mounds, by the quadrant method; but,
because there was not enough time for thorough excavation, only the
southwest quadrant was carried down to the sub-mound level in 1958. The
other three quadrants were taken down to the 98-foot level, however,
where a circular zone of dark, organically stained soil, 19.8 feet in
diameter, clearly outlined the location of a house structure (House No.
4) similar to those at Mounds B and C. During the final work at Harroun
in February, 1959, the entire northwest quadrant was exposed, excavated,
and recorded. Only the peripheral ring of post molds was exposed in the
other two quadrants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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