American Material Culture Commons^™

Artifacts In The Raymond Powell Collection From East Texas, Jeffery S. Girard, Timothy K. Perttula

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

In March 2010, Raymond Powell of Mansfield, Louisiana, allowed the examination and photographic documentation of several artifacts in his possession. The specimens were given to him approximately 60 years ago by a friend who reportedly excavated them from a burial located in either Cass County or Titus County in East Texas. The collection consists of six ceramic vessels and three stone artifacts. The vessels appear to relate to both the Late Caddo Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1430-1680) as well as to contemporaneous sites in Bowie and Cass counties on the Red River near the Great Bend area, and the lower …

The Buckner Dam Site (41ce339) And Four Other Caddo Sites On Gum Creek In The Upper Neches River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Mark Walters

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

Due to recent droughty conditions in East Texas in 2010 and 2011, the water levels on the man-made lakes and reservoirs in the region have been steadily lowering. This decreasing water levels is exposing considerable areas along the lakes that not only have been underwater for considerable periods of time since the lakes were constructed, but this new land exposure is also exposing and eroding archaeological sites that are now along the new lake shore boundaries. Such is the case at Lake Jacksonville, a small lake on Gum Creek in Cherokee County, Texas, and newly recorded archaeological sites have been …

Analysis Of Ceramic Sherds From The Mid-18th Century Gilbert Site On Lake Fork Creek, Rains County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Gilbert site (41RA13) is an important mid-18th century American Indian site on an alluvial terrace along Lake Fork Creek, adjacent to the upper part of Lake Fork Reservoir in Rains County, Texas. The site was first investigated in 1962 by the Dallas Archeological Society, and based on the findings from that work, the Texas Archeological Society (TAS) had a field school at the site in June and July 1962.

There are several notable features of the Gilbert site. First, it contains 21 midden mounds about 6-9 m in diameter and ca. 1 m in height spread out over ca. …

Trends In Archaic And Woodland Period Use Of The Middle Sabine River Basin Based On Dart Point Proportions, Timothy K. Perttula, William L. Young

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

In this article, we use the varying proportions of a large sample of Archaic and Woodland period dart points to explore trends in settlement and occupational intensity from ca. 10,000 to 1200 years B.P. in the Pineywoods and Post Oak Savannah of East Texas. These darts were collected from sites in Gregg, Harrison, Rusk, and Smith counties, Texas, mainly on sites in the middle reaches of the Sabine River basin.

A Hematite Cone From Smith County, Texas, Mark Walters

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

Hematite (Fe2O3) is a mineral, its most important usage being iron ore. In the United States, hematite occurs over a large region with a major concentration in the central part of the country. Hematite has varying degrees of hardness and colors. Hematite gives rocks their red color and characteristic “red-streak.” Soft, earthy (red ocher) forms were prized as paints. Hard, compact forms with considerable iron content were valued as tools, because of their strength as well as susceptibility to a high and beautiful polish. Certain forms of hematite are used in making jewelry. During prehistoric times, hematite was fashioned and …

Documentation Of Archaeological Materials From The Cherokee Lake Site (41rk132), Rusk County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Cherokee Lake site was discovered by Buddy Calvin Jones in 1956, after a terrace area along Tiawichi Creek, inundated by the construction of Lake Cherokee in 1947, had been graded for the constmction of fish hatcheries there. Jones identified a single burial and a large storage pit in Area A at the southern end of the terrace, where there was a shallow (0-30 em bs) midden deposit.

The burial in Area A is an Historic Nadaco Caddo grave that probably dates to the early 18th century based on the recovery of 15 blue glass beads. This strand of beads …

The Younger Site (41mr6), Marion County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters, Bo Nelson

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

The Younger site (41MR6) is located on a lower toe slope (250ft. amsl) and alluvial terrace in the Arms Creek or Patton Creek valley at Lake 0' the Pines. Arms Creek is an eastward-flowing tributary to Big Cypress Creek. At normal pool levels the Younger site is now under the waters of Lake 0' the Pines.

When the site was first recorded by E. 0. Miller of the National Park Service in 1951, it was named the D. M. Collom site. The site was estimated to cover 6-8 acres, and was marked by several areas of bare ground where Caddo …

Certain Caddo Sites On Stone Chimney Creek, Cherokee County, Texas, Mark Walters, Timothy K. Perttula, Leeanna Schniebs

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

Limited archaeological investigations coupled with private landowner’s surface collections on Stone Chimney Creek in northwestern Cherokee County, Texas has resulted in the recording of nine new Caddo sites, several of which appear to have been occupied after ca. A.D. 1650 in the Allen phase. The landowner had collected artifacts on his farm and contacted the Texas Historical Commission (THC) about getting information about them, who in turn contacted the author, a member of the Texas Archeological Stewardship Network. The landowner was interested in learning more about the native inhabitants who had once called this portion of Stone Chimney Creek home. …

The Wa'akas Site (41cp490) At Lake Bob Sandlin, Camp County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

The Wa'akas site (meaning Cow in the Caddo language) is located on a small toe slope (330ft. amsl) overlooking a small and unnamed tributary to Big Cypress Creek. The channel of Big Cypress Creek lies about 1 km to the north. The toe slope landform is normally inundated by the waters of Lake Bob Sandlin but became exposed during an episode of lowered water levels (about LO feet below the normal pool elevation of 337ft. amsl) at the lake due to drought conditions from late 2005 to early 2007. A large number of prehistoric artifacts were exposed on the landform …

The Killdeer Site (41sm379): A Middle Caddo Site In Northern Smith County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

The Killdeer site was reported in July 2007 by Mark Walters, based on a surface reconnaissance of the site area and a small surface collection of artifacts, primarily prehistoric Caddo pottery sherds. The site is situated on a lower upland slope (410 feet amsl) about 190m northeast of Loves Branch, a small stream in the Harris Creek drainage in the Sabine River basin. Soils are a Redsprings very gravelly sandy loam, 8-25% slopes. Darkly-stained sediments and burned animal bone suggest that there is a Caddo midden deposit at the northern end of the site.

Additional Lake Bob Sandlin Sites With Documented Collections Of Prehistoric Lithic And Ceramic Artifacts, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Patti Haskins

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

This is the third in a series of publications that concern the documentation of prehistoric artifact-collections from sites found along the shoreline of Lake Bob Sandlin in the Big Cypress Creek basin of East Texas. These documentation efforts have demonstrated that sites at the lake have diverse temporal and spatial patterns, with an intensive Caddo occupation from the Middle (ca. A.D. 1200-1425) to Late Caddo (ca. A.D. 1430-1680) periods.

Stable Isotope Analysis From A Burial At The Pipe Site (41an67) In Anderson County, Texas, Diane E. Wilson, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

In this article, we present the findings of stable isotope analysis (carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen) from an analysis of human remains from a burial at the Pipe site (41AN67). The Pipe site is a late 15th-mid-16th century Caddo settlement and cemetery in the Lake Palestine area in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas that was investigated by Buddy Calvin Jones in 1968 and Southern Methodlst University in 1969.

The Caddo Ceramic Assemblage From The New Hope Site (41fk107), Franklin County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

The New Hope site (41FK107) is located on an alluvial terrace (330-340 ft. amsl) on the west side of the Big Cypress Creek valley, about 200m west of the channel at the time it was inundated by Lake Bob Sandlin. The site covers an estimated 2.5 acres.lt is about I km north of the confluence of Brushy Creek and Big Cypress Creek. In addition to what would have been the broad floodplain of Big Cypress Creek, there are gently sloping upland landforms (340-490 ft. amsl) to the northwest, west, and south of the site, and these landforms are dissected by …

Caddo Pottery In Modern And Contemporary Art And Protection Of Native American Cultures In Fine Arts By The Iacb’S Indian Arts And Crafts Act, Chase K. Earls

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

Hello, my name is Chase Kawinhut Earles. I was named by Julia Edge, daughter of Pauline Washington, who was the granddaughter of the Caddo chief, George Washington. I recently, well, not that very long ago started creating Caddo pottery with the much appreciated guidance from Jeri Redcorn. I have been an artist all my life, but mostly only a painter, not much clay, sculpture or pottery. I was inspired to create pottery though, but my experiences were with the Southwest and the Pueblo artists, as this is what I grew up around and what I learned. But I never started. …

A Caddo Archeology Map, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Archeologists use the term “Caddo” to refer to the many archaeological sites and abundant material remains that the ancestors of the modern Caddo peoples left behind over a large area of four different states, including eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma, traditionally centered on the Red River and its tributary streams. That record is marked by the remains of farmsteads, hamlets, villages, family and community cemeteries, and many small and large mound centers with public structures on and off mound platforms, plazas, and the burials of the social and political elite in and off mounds, as well …

The Pickett Switch Site (34pn1) And The Presence Of Arkansas River Basin Caddoans In East Central Oklahoma, Robert L. Brooks

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

The expansion of Arkansas River Basin Caddoans westward along the Canadian River remains an intriguing subject of study. This paper examines the presence of Caddoans living in the Ada vicinity, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. The focus is on the Pickett Switch site excavated by Herbert Antle from 1930-1934. This paper examines the work of Herbert Antle, the history of his excavations as well as others at the Pickett Switch site, and describes a collection from the Pickett Switch site at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Concluding comments continue to seek refinement in our understanding of the settlement practices …

M. R. Harrington And The Lost Mound In Hempstead County, Arkansas, Duncan P. Mckinnon

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

In the early months of 1916, Mark R. Harrington, under the auspices of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, visited a mound site at the Battle Farm in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Harrington describes the location of the Hempstead County mound being three miles west of Fulton “on the brink of a low terrace of the Red river bottoms, perhaps half a mile north of that stream and a quarter of a mile east of Little River, which empties into the Red at this point.” Using historical maps and archaeological site reports, this paper explores the area around the …

Watershed Times For The Caddo Peoples Of The Far Southeast, Timothy K. Perttula

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

A.D. 1450 was a watershed year in the native history of the Caddo Indian peoples of the Far Southeast (southwest Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas). For the first time, recognizable and relatively geographically coherent socio-political polities in several areas can be identified that arose out of the distinctive archaeological traditions of the Caddo area that first are recognizable about A.D. 900. These new Caddo polities that came into existence at ca. A.D. 1450 apparently lasted until at least A.D. 1680, if not later, but did not survive sustained European contact with the same socio-political organization intact that …

July 1, 1835: What Did The Caddo Believe They Were Selling, And Was The Price Paid Fair?, Jim Tiller, Gang Gong

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

Most Caddo scholars interested in the tribe’s last years in Louisiana would probably agree that the above questions are largely settled business. The authors, both geographers, would tend to concur that a consensus has probably been reached on these questions; however, those with a desire to get at the truth of the matter might want to at least consider the array of archival documentation that paints a somewhat different picture of this aspect of the land cession. In the pages that follow, a case will be presented that, from the Caddo perspective of the mid-1830s, the tribe knew exactly what …

Recent Investigations At The Mounds Plantation Site (16cd12), Caddo Parish, Louisiana, Jeffery S. Girard

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

Dr. Montroville Wilson Dickeson, born in Philadelphia in 1810, was a medical doctor, taxidermist and avid collector of fossils. Between 1837 and 1844 he pursued another interest—excavating Indian burial mounds in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. He claimed to have “opened up” more than a thousand mounds and collected more than 40,000 objects. He also made drawings of the mounds and later provided these to an artist by the name of John J. Egan, who, about 1850, converted the drawings into a series of large paintings on huge canvases. Dickeson toured the country in 1852 allowing the public to …