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Caddo Ceramic Assemblages From Sites In The Ayish And Palo Gaucho Bayou Basins, San Augustine County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In 1939 and 1940, G. E. Arnold recorded a number of archaeological sites in and around San Augustine, in East Texas, as part of a Works Progress Administration-funded (WPA) archaeological survey of East Texas. The eight sites of concern in this article are in either the Ayish Bayou or Palo Gaucho Bayou basins; the former is a southward-flowing tributary to the Angelina River, while the latter is a southeast-flowing tributary to the Sabine River.

In several instances, depending upon the circumstances, Arnold was able to collect substantial numbers of ancestral Caddo ceramic and lithic artifacts from several of these sites. …

The Caddo Archaeology Of The San Pedro Creek Valley, Houston County, In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Leeanna Schniebs, Mark Walters

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Nabedache Caddo that lived on San Pedro Creek in Houston County in the East Texas Pineywoods were a prominent nation during the early years of European contact, from ca. A.D. 1687-1730, if not later. Their villages, hamlets, and farmsteads sat astride an aboriginal Caddo trail that came to be known as El Camino Real de los Tejas, and thus their community was a principal gateway to Europeans and other Native American tribes who came from the west in Spanish Texas to meet with the Tejas or Hasinai Caddo peoples. The first Spanish mission in East Texas was established amidst …

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Assemblage From The Spoonbill Site (41wd109) In The Lake Fork Creek Basin, Wood County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bob D. Skiles

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Ancestral Caddo habitation sites are common in the upper Sabine River basin in East Texas, as well as along tributaries of the Sabine River, including Lake Fork Creek. In this article we discuss the ceramic vessel sherd assemblages from the Spoonbill site (41WD109) that was investigated in the area in the 1970s. The site is in the Lake Fork Creek basin in the immediate vicinity of Lake Fork Reservoir.

Upper Neches River Basin Caddo Ceramic Vessels From Anderson, Cherokee, And Henderson Counties In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (NMNH) has extensive collections of artifacts from ancestral Caddo sites in the Caddo area. This includes 19 ceramic vessels and one distinctive ceramic pipe from several sites in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. The majority of these artifacts were originally collected by noted amateur archaeologist R. King Harris of Dallas, Texas, who sold his collection to the NMNH in 1980, while three of the vessels were originally in Bureau of American Ethnology holdings, and likely are from early archaeological investigations by Dr. J. E. Pearce of The University of …

Radiocarbon Dates From The Pine Snake Site (41ce467), Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Pine Snake site is a late 17th to early 18th century Caddo Indian archaeological site located on private land in the northwestern part of Cherokee County, Texas, in the valley of the westward-flowing Flat Creek, a tributary to the Neches River. This is an area of the Pineywoods of East Texas that contains extensive numbers of Caddo archeological sites along all major and minor streams. Post-A.D. 1400 Frankston phase and post-A.D. 1650 Historic Caddo Allen phase sites, especially cemeteries dating to either phase, are particularly abundant in this part of East Texas. However, not many of these sites in …

Plant Remains From The Washington Square Mound Site (41na49), Nacogdoches, Texas, Leslie L. Bush

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Botanical remains were identified from 27 lots from the Washington Square Mound site (41NA49). The primary occupation at the site is Middle Caddo period in age. The first pooled set of calibrated radiocarbon dates from the site fell into the period A.D. 1268-1302, while a recent set of five calibrated dates from samples of plant remains discussed in this article range from A.D. 1279 + 17; (2) A.D. 1358 + 57; and three dates on charred corn from Features 36, 81, and 86 range from as early as A.D. 1394 to as late as A.D. 1437. These dates as a …

Utility Ware Ceramic Metrics And Hasinai Caddo Archaeology In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The use of ceramic metrics (i.e., ratios of various categories of decorated sherds as well as use of different tempers) has become an important analytical tool in assessing the stylistic similarity of different assemblages of Late Caddo and Historic Caddo ceramic assemblages in East Texas. In this article, I employ recent compilations of ceramic vessel sherd assemblages from sites in the Neches, Angelina, and Sabine River basins that focus on the distinctive character of Caddo utility ware vessel decorations, particularly the common use of brushing as a decorative method, and the ratio of brushed to other wet paste decorated sherds.

Documentation Of Artifacts From Sam Whiteside Collection From Sites In The Sabine And Neches River Basins, Upshur, Smith, And Cherokee Counties, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Sam Whiteside was an active avocational archaeologist in East Texas in the 1950s and early 1960s, and investigated a number of important ancestral Caddo sites in Smith and Upshur counties. Much of his collection of artifacts and notes has been donated to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas, and there have been several published studies of the archaeological findings from these sites. In this article, I document select collections that have recently become available for study from sites in the Sabine and Neches River basin in Upshur, Smith, and Cherokee counties.

Analysis Of The Recovered Artifacts From The Controlled Surface Collection At The Peach Orchard Site (41ce477), Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Kevin Stingley

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Peach Orchard site is one of several historic Caddo archaeological sites recently recorded by Kevin Stingley in the Bowles Creek drainage in the middle Neches River basin in Cherokee County, Texas. The Peach Orchard site had been exposed in erosion along a county road that bisects the southern end of the upland landform, while the remainder of the landform was primarily grass-covered when it was first recorded earlier in 2015. In November 2015, the landowner decided to shallowly plow the site area to improve its grass cover, and this plowing provided an opportunity to complete a surface collection of …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Sam Kaufman Site (41rr16) In The R. K. Harris Collection At The National Museum Of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Over the years, R. King Harris and his Dallas Archeological Society colleagues excavated a number of ancestral Caddo burials (Burials 1-19) from cemeteries exposed along the eroding bank of the Red River at the Sam Kaufman site (41RR16) and have published their findings. These burials are from upper and lower cemeteries of McCurtain phase and Historic Caddo age both north and east of the principal mound at the Sam Kaufman site on the Red River.

During a 2005 documentation visit to the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution (NMNH), I had the opportunity, along with Bo Nelson, …

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Wright Plantation (41rr7) And Rowland Clark (41rr77) Sites In The Harris Collection At The National Museum Of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The collection of R. King Harris at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) at the Smithsonian Institution has ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from the Wright Plantation (41RR7) and Rowland Clark (41RR77) sites along the Red River in East Texas. Other than the site provenience and the burial number of two of the vessels at the Rowland Clark site, there is no more detailed documentation available on when or where within the sites that Harris obtained the ceramic vessels. Nevertheless, it is important as part of the broader study of the history of Caddo ceramic vessel forms and decorative motifs …

Comparing Caddo And Coles Creek Pottery Using Petrographic Analysis, Jeffery S. Girard, Leslie G. Cecil

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Pottery classified as “Coles Creek Incised” is common both to the earliest Caddo sites along the Red River and to contemporary sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Although it often is suggested that Coles Creek pottery from the two regions can be distinguished by differences in paste, no detailed comparative studies have been carried out. An initial attempt to identify variation through the use of petrographic analysis was carried out by comparing 50 samples drawn from sites in northwest and central Louisiana. Although no sharp dichotomy was noted between the regions, the study identified distinctions that support the notion that …

How The Ji’Kmaqn Came To Spiro: Possible Additions To The Inventory Of Sound-Making Instruments Depicted In The Spiro Engravings, James A. Rees Jr.

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

While doing research on turtle shell rattles the author stumbled onto a photograph of a rare and unusual idiophone whose exact likeness appears twice in one of the engraved shell images from Spiro. This paper describes the instrument and the Spiro image and discusses how an instrument currently found only in the Maritime Provinces of Canada may have come to be portrayed on a marine shell cup found at Spiro.

Syntheses Of The Caddo Archaeological Record, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The pursuit of Caddo archaeological research over the last 100+ years has led to considerable gains during that time in the understanding of such research issues as settlement patterning, subsistence change and diet, health and adaptive efficiency, sociopolitical organization, ceremony and ritual, iconography, and exchange networks among the Caddo peoples and their past communities. Much of this has been the result of intensive cultural resource management investigations in southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, eastern Oklahoma, and East Texas, along with focused archaeological research projects conducted by university archaeological programs and state and regional archaeological societies. The years ahead promise to continue …

Distribution Of Design: The Rayed Circle, Duncan P. Mckinnon

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The importance of the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) in archaeological applications has been demonstrated previously. The value of using a GIS approach is an ability to conduct multivariate spatial analyses in order to visualize complex social relationships, interactions, and distributions across a broad cultural landscape. Within Caddo archaeology, the utilization of GIS functionality to explore spatial phenomenon has been employed in a variety of ways, such as site organization and interaction, material distribution and exchange, and environmental modeling and landscape reconstruction, to name a few. The following report adds to the growing list of GIS-based case studies …

Ouachita Mountains Foodways: Preliminary Results From 2013-2014 Excavations At 3mn298, Mary Beth D. Trubitt, Leslie L. Bush, Lucretia S. Kelly, Katie Leslie

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

New excavations in the Ouachita National Forest in west-central Arkansas, co-directed by Meeks Etchieson and Mary Beth Trubitt, are resulting in significant information about foodways of ancestral Caddo Indians living in the Ouachita Mountains region. This work has focused on the Dragover site (3MN298), located on a floodplain of the upper Ouachita River. Artifacts from this extensive archeological site indicate use from about 6000 B.C. to the A.D. 1900s, but it was its potential for well-preserved organic material – animal bone, mussel shell, and charred plant seeds – that drew our research attention. Initial site testing in the 1980s uncovered …

Copper Artifacts From Caddo Sites In The Southern Caddo Area, Jeffery S. Girard, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Copper artifacts have been found at only 18 Caddo sites in the southern Caddo area of Southwest Arkansas, Northwest Louisiana, southeastern Oklahoma, and East Texas. Most of these exotic copper artifacts are found in burial mound context in important civic-ceremonial centers, or in burials in non-mound cemeteries. About 80 percent of the known copper artifacts occur in contexts in sites that date to the Early Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1000-1200). These copper items likely are linked to the Cahokia exchange system, and represent prestige goods with ritual status acquired and displayed by leaders in different Caddo communities. By Late Caddo …

Big Hole (41tv2161): Two Stratigraphically Isolated Middle Holocene Components In Travis County, Texas Volume I, J. Michael Quigg, Benjamin G. Bury, Robert A. Ricklis, Paul M. Matchen, Shannon Gray, Charles D. Frederick, Tiffany Osburn, Eric Shroeder

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

During April and May 2006, an archeological team from the Cultural Resources Section of the Planning, Permitting and Licensing Practice of TRC Environmental Corporation’s (TRC) Austin office conducted geoarcheological documentation and data recovery excavations at prehistoric site 41TV2161 (CSJ: 0440-06-006). Investigations were restricted to a 70 centimeter (cm) thick target zone between ca. 220 and 290 cm below surface (bs) on the western side of site 41TV2161 – the Big Hole site in eastern Travis County, Texas.

This cultural investigation was necessary under the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the implementing regulations of 36CRF …

Cultural Resource Survey Of The U.S. Highway 67 Water Improvement Project, City Of Presidio, Presidio County, Texas, Benjamin G. Bury, Paul M. Matchen, Ashleigh Knapp, J. Michael Quigg

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The City of Presidio is proposing to upgrade their water distribution system, provide services to the Colonia of Las Pampas, north of Presidio, and improve the overall water system reliability to accommodate these additional demands. Following a review of the proposed undertaking, the Texas Historic Commission (THC) recommended that a cultural resource survey be performed (THC letter dated October 21, 2015). To meet its responsibilities under existing State and Federal statutes, the City contracted TRC Environmental Corporation (TRC) of Austin to conduct the necessary cultural resource survey. Subsequently, TRC archeologists submitted a Texas Antiquities Permit Application to the THC, and …

Cultural Resources Investigations Of The Vista Ridge Regional Water Supply Project In Burleson, Lee, Bastrop, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal And Bexar Counties, Texas, Laura I. Acuña, Brandon Young, Rhiana D. Ward

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On behalf of VRRSP Consultants, LLC and Central Texas Regional Water Supply Corporation (CTRWSC), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted cultural resources investigations of the Vista Ridge Regional Water Supply (Vista Ridge) Project in Burleson, Lee, Bastrop, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal, and Bexar Counties. The work will involve installation of a 139.45-mile-long, 60-inch-diameter water pipeline from northcentral San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, to Deanville, Burleson County, Texas. The report details the findings of investigations from June 2015 to December 2015, on the alignment dated December 8, 2015 (December 8th). The Vista Ridge Project is subject to review under Section 106 of the …

Intensive Archeological Survey Of Old Airport Road At Burgess Creek In Parker County, Texas, Brandon S. Young, Timothy B. Griffith, Maryellen Russo

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On August 10 and 11, 2011, Blanton & Associates, Inc. (B&A) conducted an intensive non-collection archeological survey (augmented by backhoe trenching) at the request of Aguirre & Fields, LP and on behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Ft. Worth District, of Old Airport Road at Burgess Creek in Parker County Texas (CSJ: 0902-38-062). Investigations occurred prior to proposed roadway improvements including the relocation of approximately 1,600 feet of Old Airport Road southwest of its existing location and a new bridge at Burgess Creek. Survey efforts discovered two historic archeological sites; 41PR147 and 41PR148. Site 41PR147 is a hand-dug …

A Cultural Resources Survey Of The Bp-Fletcher No.1 Proposed 4.4-Acre Well Pad, 1.5-Acre Well Pad, And 2.4-Mile Pipeline Project, Within Village Greek State Park, Hardin County, Texas, Jennifer Cochran, Zachary Overfield, Abby Peyton, Allyson Walsh

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Perennial Environmental Services, LLC (Perennial), on behalf of Upstream Exploration, LLC (Upstream) conducted an intensive cultural resources survey of the BP – Fletcher No. 1 well pads and pipeline Project (Project) located east of Lumberton, Texas on the recently acquired Hancock Tract within the Village Creek State Park. The Project will include vegetation clearing, equipment staging as well as construction and installation of an approximately 4.4-acre pad site, 1.5-acre pad site, and a 3.8-kilometer- (km-) (2.4-mile- [mi-]) long 10.2-centimeter- (cm-) 4.0-inch- [in.-]) diameter pipeline. The pipeline portion of the Project will run adjacent to an unnamed road that bisects the …

Intensive Archeological Survey For The Barton Oaks Road At Bartons Creek Bridge Replacement, Bastrop County, Jon Budd

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On March 3, 2016, SWCA Environmental Consultants conducted an intensive cultural resources survey of new bridge installation and associated roadway approaches (approximating 1 acre) along Barton Oaks Drive in Bastrop County, Texas. These investigations for the Austin District were conducted for the proposed bridge replacement across Bartons Creek. The work was conducted in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (54 United States Code 306108) and the Antiquities Code of Texas (9 Natural Resources Code 191). Jon Budd served as Principal Investigator under Texas Antiquities Code Permit No. 7555.

The area of potential effects (APE) comprises new …

Archaeological Survey Of The Proposed Bear Creek Corporate Center Dallas County, Texas, Molly A. Hall, Allen M. Rutherford

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

EVP Developmental/Avere Real Estate is proposing to construct the Bear Creek Corporate Center at the southeast corner of SH161 and Conflans Road in Irving, Texas on approximately 16 acres. This is located in the Bear Creek floodplain 300 meters form the creek channel.AR Consultants, Inc. was contracted to survey the entire property. The survey and shovel testing were conducted on May 17, 2016.

The water table was relatively high at the time of survey, inundating almost a third of the property. No prehistoric or historic archaeological sites were found during the survey. This follows the predictions made prior to field …

Csj 0151-09-036, Proposed Us 183 From Us 290 To Sh 71 Travis County, Austin District, Jon Budd

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Previously unrecorded site 41TV2509 was discovered post-review during construction for the widening of US 183 from US 290 to SH 71. The project, conducted under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 7627, consisted of examining and reporting a multi-component site, 41TV2509, which was discovered post-review during vegetation clearing and grading in association with the widening of US 183. Fieldwork was conducted between April 20 and April 25, 2016. The project area covered an area of approximately 0.02 acres, completely situated within existing TxDOT right of way. A pile of roughly 100 yellow bricks, some still mortared together, was encountered during mechanical operations …

Proposed Salado Creek Trail, Lions Park Lake To Se Military Drive, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, Mark P. Luzmoor, Kristi Miller Nichols

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In December 2015, Vickrey & Associates, Inc. (Client) contracted with Raba Kistner Environmental, Inc. (RKEI), to perform an intensive pedestrian survey for a proposed 3.2 mile hike and bike trail along Salado Creek near San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The proposed trail is an extension of the existing South Salado Creek Greenway Trail which was installed in 2008. The project is owned by the City of San Antonio. Since the project area is currently owned by a political subdivision of the state, the project falls under the Antiquities Code of Texas as administered by the Texas Historical Commission (THC). The …

Cultural Resources Survey Of A Proposed Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant, El Paso County, Texas, Peter C. Condon, Katherine Jones

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On July 31, 2015 Versar Inc. performed a linear pedestrian survey which followed the standards outlined under THC’s Archaeological Survey Standards for Texas and Rules of Practice and Procedure for the Antiquities Code of Texas on 8.8 acres of land in east El Paso, El Paso County, Texas. The proposed survey parcel is positioned between Global Reach Drive and the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant, north of Montana Avenue (U.S. Highway 62/180). The area of potential effect is on property owned by El Paso International Airport, a sub-entity of the City of El Paso. The project goal was to identify …

Archaeological Monitoring And Test Excavations At The 1722 Presidio San Antonio De Bexar (Plaza De Armas Buildings), San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, Clinton Mckenzie, Lindy Martinez, Raymond Mauldin, Kristi Nichols, Melissa Eiring, Leonard Kemp, Tamra Walter, Adriana Ziga, Kelly Harris, Steve Tomka

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

From April 2013 to November 2014, the Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) conducted archaeological monitoring and test excavations at the site of the 1722 Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, also known in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the Plaza de Armas Buildings (Vogel Belt Complex) within Military Plaza in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The project was performed for Ford, Powell and Carson, Architects and Planners, Inc. under contract with the City of San Antonio in anticipation of renovations and improvements to the Plaza de Armas Buildings (Vogel Belt Complex) …

Bioarchaeological Investigations Of Nineteenth-Century African American Burials At The Pioneer Cemetery (41bo202) In Brazoria, Texas, Aaron R. Norment, Jeremy W. Pye, Cory J. Broehm, Douglas K. Boyd

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

A search for unmarked graves in the state-owned right of way and underneath the pavement of State Highway 332 resulted in the discovery and archeological excavation of 11 unmarked graves associated with Pioneer Cemetery, an African American burial ground in Brazoria, Texas. Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted the fieldwork for the Texas Department of Transportation’s Archeological Studies Program. Between 2008 and 2012, the 11 unmarked graves were discovered, exhumed, analyzed, and then reinterred in Pioneer Cemetery in September 2012. This report describes the bioarcheological investigations of those burials along with 3 other unmarked burials that were previously exhumed and reburied …

An Unusual Late Aboriginal Assemblage From The Wilson Site (41ss186), San Saba County, Central Texas, Charles A. Hixson, James K. Feathers

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The late aboriginal component in the Wilson Site in San Saba County is unusual in that most of the assemblage is consistent with that of Classic Toyah, but the diagnostic projectile point is an unnotched triangular arrow point instead of the typical Perdiz point. The absence of Perdiz points suggests that this component is associated with non-Toyah people and possibly dates to after 1700. Archaeological testing by the Llano Uplift Archeological Society (LUAS) to find supporting evidence for a historic date identified an Austin phase shell midden and a “Late Component” composed of triangular arrow points, end scrapers, a beveled …