Locus V

Locus V was located between Mounds 3 and 6, and included Mound 5 and the surrounding field.  Based on the shovel test data, Mound 5 featured some of the highest subsurface artifact concentrations.  Unfortunately, due to time constraints, relatively little excavation took place at Locus V.  However, what was done was very productive. At Mound 5 itself an exploratory unit encountered an adult and a child burial.  Because they were similarly aligned and about the same depth, it is inferred that these were part of the same mortuary context. 

To the west of Mound 5 was an area that the shovel testing indicated as nearly sterile, with very few artifacts below the surface.  However, while the landowner was planting banana trees he encountered a complete bowl not far below the surface.  He informed us as we were excavating at Mound 6, and we dug a small exploratory pit, where we encountered a shoe-shaped urn.  In the process of expanding that excavation we encountered several more, totalling five burial urns.