The identification of human graves in situations where there is little or no evidence of skeletal material or coffins has been a problem for archaeologists. In the spring of 1998, the Arkansas Archaeological Survey was hired to find the location of the "lost" Anderson family slave cemetery on property slated for a new airport. Field methods included front end loader blading and hand excavated units. The location of the slave cemetery on a low knoll in an agricultural floodplain was only identifiable by three features of disturbed soil thought to be grave-fill and the chemical remains of human burials. One feature contained a light colored stain identified as the archaeological phenomenon referred to variously as a ghost, silhouette, shadow, or degraded burial. In an attempt to confirm human burial by soil analysis, chemical tests were run on a limited number of samples for total digestion and exchangeable levels of elements present in human bodies. This study examines several elements that previous investigators have suggested as reliable indicators for silhouette burials. Because of frequent inundation and the addition of phosphorus to the field as a fertilizer, only the ratio of Zn/Cu is indicative of possible human burial. Zn/Cu ratios show clearly elevated levels at burial depth in the suspected cemetery features relative to control samples. 323

Indian rock art is distributed across a portion of the east-flowing Arkansas RiverValley in a distinctive spatial pattern in which motifs and compositions referencing spirit world subject matter predominate along the north side of the river, in contrast to imagery depicting the observable world on the south. This pattern accords with cosmological components of the belief systems of Dhegiha Siouan-speaking tribes, as expressed in the spatial elements of other cultural phenomena, including village layouts and ritual choreographies, among such groups as the Osage and Quapaw, who occupied the region during later historic times. One sandstone prominence also located south of the river attracted the attention of Precolumbian artists, who decorated its exposed surfaces with an intriguing depiction of a mask, partly obscured by lichen, exhibiting the telltale eyes and other characteristics of the Mesoamerican rain god Tlaloc. Examination of this image, along with a second possible Mesoamerican-or Southwestern-inspired image located north of the river, serves to enlarge our understanding of the wider distributional pattern, especially on the topic of how local communities incorporated exotic ideas into the fabric of their cosmological landscapes.

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