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Ceramic Vessels From Caddo Sites In Wood County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

This article concerns the documentation of 54 ceramic vessels in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) from seven ancestral Caddo sites in Wood County in East Texas (Figure 1). This includes vessels from A. C. Gibson (41WD1, n=2 vessels), J. H. Reese (41WD2, n=26), H. D. Spigner (41WD4, n=17), Mattie Dial (41WD5, n=2), B. F. Cathey (41WD14, n=2), J. H. Baker (41WD33, n=4), and 41WD117 (n=1 vessel).

The A. C. Gibson site is situated in the floodplain of the Sabine River near the confluence with Cottonwood Creek. In 1932, looters …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Joseph Fabion (41sy24) And S. H. Latham (41sy25) Sites In Shelby County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

There are ancestral Caddo vessels in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas from the Joseph Fabion (41SY24, n=4 vessels) and S. H. Latham (41SY25, n=3) sites in Shelby County, Texas. Those vessels from the Joseph Fabion site were exposed along the bank of a county road some time prior to October 1930, while those from the S. H. Latham site were exposed by 1920s flooding and collected by the landowner.

A Middle Caddo Period Cemetery (41fk97/139) On Big Cypress Creek In Franklin County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

In the early 1990s, an ancestral Caddo habitation site and cemetery was reported to the junior author in the Big Cypress Creek valley in Franklin County in East Texas by a local collector. The site is in an area of other known ancestral Caddo cemeteries, including the Bruce J. Connally Farm (41FK5) and the P. G. Hightower Farm (41FK7). In this article we summarize the available information about this important but still little known ancestral Caddo site.

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The E. B. Minter (41hp2) And Roger Attaway (41hp15) Sites In Hopkins County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

A number of ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels are in the collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin from the E. B. Minter (41HP2, n=4 vessels) and Roger Attaway (41HP15, n=5 vessels) in Hopkins County, Texas. We recently had the opportunity to fully document these vessels as part of our long-term efforts to characterize ancestral East Texas Caddo vessel forms, temper usage, and stylistic/decorative elements.

The University of Texas conducted excavations at the E. B. Minter site, in the upper White Oak Creek and Sulphur River basin, in May 1931. A 60 x 35 …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Fred Yarbrough Site (41vn6) In The Upper Sabine River Basin, Van Zandt County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Excavations in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) at the Fred Yarbrough site (41VN6) in the upper Sabine River basin recovered a number of ceramic vessels from Area B of the site. Johnson provided an initial description of the vessels as well as drawings of a number of the reconstructed vessels. In this article, I reexamine the nine vessels from the Fred Yarbrough site held in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin (TARL), employing the vessel documentation protocol used in recent years to document ancestral Caddo vessels from sites in …

Archaeological Evidence Of The Use Of The Horse By Caddo Indian Peoples, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The introduction of the horse to the Americas by Europeans, particularly the Spanish, after 1492 played a very important role in Native American history and societal change. As Peter Mitchell has commented in his book Horse Nations: “the horse was so very widely introduced to population across the world after 1492. It can thus provide a constant against which to evaluate the many changes that those populations experienced after European contact, while highlighting the ‘radically different meanings and impacts in distinctive cultures’ that its arrival heralded.” Among the Caddo Indian peoples, the horse was introduced in the late 1600s from …

Caddo Vessels From The Susie Slade Site (41hs13), Harrison County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Susie Slade site (41HS13) is an ancestral Nadaco Caddo settlement and cemetery on a sandy knoll in the Potters Creek valley in the Sabine River basin. The site is known to have had a large cemetery (> 90 burials) that was excavated by a number of East Texas collectors and amateur archaeologists in 1962, University of Texas (UT) archaeologists; one burial reportedly had 36 stacked Simms Engraved vessels as funerary offerings. Ceramic vessels from the UT investigations at the Susie Slade site are in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL), along with vessels donated to TARL …

Documentation Of Early Caddo Period Ceramic Vessels From The George C. Davis Site On The Neches River In Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The George C. Davis site (41CE19)/Caddo Mounds State Historic Site in Cherokee County, Texas, is a Caddo site that was occupied by ancestral Caddo peoples between ca. A.D. 940 and the late 1200s (based on an extensive suite of calibrated radiocarbon dates, see below) on a large alluvial terrace of the Neches River in East Texas. The site is a planned civic-ceremonial center that has three earthen mounds—Mound A, a large platform mound with elite residences and special purpose structures; Mound B, a second platform mound; and Mound C, a burial mound used as a cemetery for the elite or …

Caddo Vessels From The W. O. Ziegler Farm (41wd30) And Claude Burkett (41wd30) Sites In The Upper Sabine River Basin In Wood County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Caddo ceramic vessels were collected at the W. O. Ziegler Farm (41WD30) and Claude Burkett (41WD31) sites in 1930 during archaeological investigations in Wood County by The University of Texas. The one vessel from the W. O. Ziegler Farm site, located in the Lake Fork Creek drainage in the upper Sabine River basin, was found in 1918 at a depth of ca. 1.2 m by the landowner while digging a storm cellar. University of Texas archaeologists purchased the vessel in August 1930.

The Claude Burkett site is in the Big Sandy Creek basin in the upper Sabine River basin. The …

Historic Caddo Archaeological Sites In Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Kevin Stingley, Mark Walters

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

The historic archaeology of the Caddo Indian peoples in East Texas has been the subject of considerable interest by Caddo archaeologists for a number of years. Much of that interest has been focused on the investigation of the effects of European contact on Caddo cultural traditions and practices, particularly the impact of introduced European epidemic diseases, and the impact of Spanish, French, and American colonization efforts.

In recent years, another focus of Historic Caddo archaeological investigations has been on characterizing the material culture record of the different clusters of Caddo Indian sites in East Texas, most notably the study of …

An Unusual Caddo Bottle From The Walters Collection, Mark Walters

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

In this article, I discuss an unusual Caddo bottle in the Walters Collection. This vessel came from either Smith or Wood counties, Texas. The design on the bottle appears to depict a deer body with a human head. My purpose is to look at the vessel in more depth, explore the relationship between Caddo people and deer, and make information about the vessel available to the public. Plans are in place to curate this vessel at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin.

Analysis Of A 1940 Caddo Sherd Assemblage From The Millsey Williamson Site (41rk3), Rusk County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Millsey Williamson site (41RK3) is an 18th century Nadaco Caddo settlement and cemetery situated on an alluvial terrace on the east side of Martin Creek in the Sabine River basin. Some portions of the site are now covered by the waters of Martin Creek Lake, constructed in the 1970s. The site was first investigated in the 1930s, when at least 11 historic Caddo burials were excavated in the cemetery at the western end of the landform. In 1940, Jack Hughes, then an East Texas resident, but later a prominent Texas archaeologist, gathered a small collection of sherds from the …

The Caddo Ceramic Sherd Assemblage From The Hawkins Site (41sm144) On The Sabine River In Smith County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Hawkins site is an ancestral Caddo habitation site on a Sabine River bluff about 1.7 km southwest of the confluence of Little White Oak Creek with the river, in the Pineywoods of Smith County. The site was located and investigated in the 1950s by Sam Whiteside of Tyler, Texas. This article is concerned with the analysis of the Caddo ceramic wares from the site, as well as an assessment of the probable age and cultural affiliation of the Caddo occupation.

Documentation Of The Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Culpepper Site (41hp1) In Hopkins County In The Upper Sulphur River Basin In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Culpepper site (41HP1) is a late (post-A.D. 1600) Titus phase site in the upper Sulphur River basin in East Texas. It is on a sandy knoll alongside Stouts Creek, a small northward-flowing stream in the White Oak Creek basin of the larger Sulphur River drainage. The site is in the modern-day Post Oak Savannah, but there are areas of tall grass prairie between Stouts Creek and White Oak Creek; the larger White Oak and Sulphur prairies lie approximately 15 km to the west and northwest.

Excavations at the Culpepper site by University of Texas (UT) archaeologists in 1931 uncovered …

New Archaeological Investigations At The M. S. Roberts Site (41he8) In The Caddo Creek Valley In Henderson County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Arlo Mckee, Mark Walters, Bo Nelson

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

In this article, we discuss new archaeological investigations at the M. S. Roberts site (41HE8), likely a 14th to early 15th century A.D. Caddo period mound center along Caddo Creek in the upper Neches River basin in Henderson County in East Texas. With the permission and cooperation of the landowners, we completed an aerial survey of the site to produce a detailed topographic map as well as assess the plan and profile of the mound and its associated borrow pit, and we also excavated a number of shovel tests around the mound to locate habitation deposits. Finally, a few auger …

Ceramic Sherd Assemblages From The Hawkins Bluff (41cs2), Snipes (41cs8), And 41cs44 Sites On The Lower Sulphur River At Lake Wright Patman, Cass County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Many documented sites on the lower Sulphur River in the East Texas Pineywoods were occupied by Caddo peoples, and there are a number of such sites at Lake Wright Patman, including better known sites such as Knight’s Bluff (41CS14) and Sherwin (41CS26). These sites appear to have been small villages with family cemeteries, occupied between ca. A.D. 1200-1400. In this article, I discuss the ceramic sherd assemblages from three less well-known Middle Caddo period occupations at other sites at Lake Wright Patman.

A House Burning At Redwine (41sm193), Mark Walters

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

I explore an unusual Caddo vessel from the Redwine site (41SM193), a Middle Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1200-1400) habitation/mound site located in Smith County, Texas. This vessel has been described as part of the Walters Collection by Perttula.

Archaeological Survey Investigations Of Private Land Within The Boundaries Of The Proposed Lower Bois D’Arc Creek Reservoir Project, Fannin County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters, Rodney J. Nelson, Gary W. Cheatwood

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

At the request of a private landowner that has property within the boundaries of the proposed Lower Bois d’Arc Creek Reservoir in Fannin County, we completed volunteer archaeological survey investigations on a portion of this tract of private land on July 18, 2015. The proposed Lower Bois d’Arc Creek Reservoir is to be more than 16,500 acres in size; the project sponsor is the North Texas Municipal Water District, and the Tulsa District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently reviewing the project sponsor’s application for a Department of the Army permit under Section 404 of the Clean …

The 7-J Ranch Site (41ho4) In The Post Oak Savannah Of East Texas, Houston County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The 7-J Ranch site (41HO4) is a multi-component Woodland period and Early Caddo period habitation site on a natural rise in the Trinity River floodplain in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas. It is in an area of the middle reaches of the Trinity River where Woodland period sites (dating from ca. 500 B.C. to A.D. 800) are notably common on alluvial landforms, in particular Holocene Terrace-1 and alluvial rise landforms.

The site appears to be a midden mound built up from the accumulations of habitation debris along the edge of the modern floodplain and the modern river channel. …

41sm91: A Frankston Phase Settlement On The Neches River At Lake Palestine, Smith County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Site 41SM91 is an ancestral Caddo habitation site on an upland landform east of the Neches River, in the area of Lake Palestine, a large reservoir constructed on the Neches River in the East Texas Pineywoods; the dam is located about 11 km south of the site. The site was found and recorded during a 1957 survey of the proposed reservoir flood pool, and Johnson described it as “a large Frankston Focus habitation site located in a cultivated field on the slope of a large hill to the east of the Neches floodplain”. A large assemblage of ceramic vessel sherds …