Many of the postulated connections between the Issaquena phase and the preceding, contemporary, and succeeding phases in the Lower Mississippi Valley have already been mentioned in the foregoing portion of this work, but now we shall try to integrate these observations into a coherent summary. As we have seen, our present picture of the culture history of the region in question is primarily based upon inferences drawn from intensive analyses of the ceramic remains of these prehistoric people.

In the Lower Mississippi Valley there is a distinctive ceramic tradition which consists of a combination of at least three modes that are constant from the earliest known pottery of the Tchefuncte and Tchula phases down to the historic phases. These modes are found in the claytempered fabric, the coiling method of forming pots, and a tendency to embellish vessels by incision and punctation.