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41vn63: A Late Archaic-Woodland Period Site In The Upper Sabine River Basin, Van Zandt County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bob D. Skiles, Julian A. Sitters

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

Site 41VN63 is a multiple component Late Archaic (circa [ca.] 5000-2500 years B.P.) and Woodland period (ca. 2500-1150 years B.P.) site on an upland landform in the upper Sabine River basin. The site was recorded by James Malone (1972) during the archaeological survey of then-proposed Mineola Reservoir on the Sabine River; the reservoir has not been built.

Malone described the site in 1971 as being located on an upland ridge on the southeast side of Caney Creek, and covered a 20 x 50 m area. He noted and/or collected from the site surface chert, quartzite, and petrified wood lithic debris …

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels From Sites In Nacogdoches And Panola Counties In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels discussed in this article are from four different sites in Nacogdoches and Panola counties, in East Texas. The one site in Nacogdoches County, namely the Gatewood site (41NA3) is located in the Angelina River basin, while the three Panola County sites (41PN5, 41PN15, and H. L. English Farm) are on tributaries that flow into the Sabine River.

The Gatewood site is on the west bank of Attoyac Bayou, a major tributary of the Angelina River basin, in the easternmost part of Nacogdoches County. In 1939, a road grader working along a county road had exposed …

An Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel From The Molly Cameron Site (41bw18) In The Sulphur River Basin In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Molly Cameron site is an ancestral Caddo habitation site with burial features in the Sulphur River basin in East Texas, specifically on Aiken Creek, a southward-flowing tributary, about one mile east of the dam at Lake Wright Patman. The site was first exposed in 1928, when plowing of the land owned by W. K. Cameron exposed several ceramic vessels and human remains. One of the vessels was purchased by The University of Texas at Austin in August 1932; that vessel is documented below.

Documentation Of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Harold Williams Site (41cp10), Camp County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Harold Williams site (41CP10) is a large ancestral Caddo community cemetery on Dry Creek in the Big Cypress Creek basin in Camp County, Texas. Caddo burials and associated ceramic vessel funerary offerings have been discovered and dug at the Harold Williams site since the 1940s, and in 1967 the Texas Archeological Society (TAS) held their annual field school at the site.

During the course of the 1967 TAS excavations in Area A and B, several burial features were encountered and excavated, and these had associated ceramic vessels and other grave goods. These vessels were illustrated and cursorily described by …

Archaeological Investigations At The Walnut Branch (41ce47), Ross I (41ce485), And Ross Ii (41ce486) Sites, Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Kevin Stingley

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

The Walnut Branch site (41CE47) was recorded by George Kegley and Dan Witter in 1969 as part of an archaeological survey funded by the Texas Building Commission (now the Texas Historical Commission) in Cherokee County and adjacent counties. This ancestral Caddo site is located about six miles southwest of the city of Rusk, in the Box’s Creek valley in the Neches River basin; Box’s Creek is a generally southern-flowing tributary to the Neches River, and enters the river not far to the westnorthwest of the George C. Davis site (41CE19), otherwise known as Caddo Mounds State Historic Site. The landowner’s …

Documentation Of Caddo Vessels From Red River Sites In Bowie And Red River Counties, Texas, In The Collections Of The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum Of Natural History, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters, Bo Nelson

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

We recently had the opportunity to document three ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from Red River Caddo sites in Bowie and Red River counties, Texas, that are held by the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Only one vessel is from a known and recorded site: Bentsen-Clark (41RR41).

A Caddo Ceramic Vessel From The Atkinson Farm Site (41rr1), Red River County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Atkinson Farm site (41RR1) is an ancestral Caddo settlement on the Mound Prairie area of the Red River alluvial valley, about midway between the Wright Plantation site (41RR7) to the west and the Sam Kaufman site (41RR16) to the east. The site was investigated by B. B. Gardner of The University of Texas in 1930. At that time, he exposed and investigated the remains of three burials, one of which had five ceramic vessels placed with it as funerary offerings; the vessels had been damaged and broken by previous plowing. One of the vessels from this burial remains in …

A Ripley Engraved Vessel From East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

An ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel from East Texas has been recently donated to the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL). The vessel comes from an unknown site in an unknown East Texas county, and had been purchased in Marshall, Texas some years ago. The decorative style of the ceramic vessel, however, does indicate the defined ceramic type, its likely age, and where in East Texas the ceramic vessel was likely manufactured.

Sherd Assemblages From Sites In Bowie, Cass, Gregg, Lamar, And Red River Counties In East Texas Held By The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum Of Natural History, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (SNOMNH) has in their collections several assemblages of ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel sherds from sites in East Texas. We recently had an opportunity to examine and document these collections during a trip to the SNOMNH, and in this article, we put those findings on record.

2016 Archaeological Investigations At The T. M. Sanders Site (41lr2), Lamar County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Mark Walters

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

On March 4th and 5th, 2016, Bo Nelson and Mark Walters returned to the T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) to inspect the property after Julia Trigg Crawford, the main landowner of the site, informed us that the fields at the site had been prepped for this year ’s planting. This article summarizes the findings from these archaeological investigations, which also included the surface examination of the 40 acres of the Sanders site owned by the Sanders family.

The Sanders site is a large and impressive ancestral Caddo mound center and village situated on an alluvial terrace (450 ft. amsl) at …

The Prairie Caddo Model And The J.B. White Site, Ross C. Fields

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

This article summarizes an hypothesis—called the Prairie Caddo model—presented in a research module published in 2006 to help explain some obvious connections in material culture between Caddo sites in east Texas and sites in central Texas. Harry J. Shafer prepared this module, entitled People of the Prairie: A Possible Connection to the Davis Site Caddo, as an outgrowth in part of excavations that Prewitt and Associates, Inc., performed at the J. B. White site in 2002 for the Texas Department of Transportation. Following the summary of the hypothesis is a synopsis of the results of the excavations at J. B. …

The Adair Site: Caddo Relations Through Ceramic Analysis, Joanne D. Starr

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

The Adair site (3GA1), located in the Upper Ouachita River Valley in Garland County, Arkansas is an Upper Ouachita Caddo site. The people at the site are presume to be at the center of cultural dominance for the area and had interaction with Caddo sites in the region. This article explores this by studying the whole vessel collections that were excavated at the Adair site in the 1930s. Comparing the Adair collection to three other Caddo sites provides information about the social standing of the Adair site, its relations with other sites, and how it fits into the greater fabric …

A Report On A Long Term Research Program On The Bowman Site In Arkansas, Duncan P. Mckinnon

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

The Bowman (3LR46) and Bowman/Wallace (3LR50) sites represent a Caddo multi-mound center on the Red River in Little River County, Arkansas. Southeastern researchers may recognize the site name from an engraved shell cup and several additional “SECC” objects found in Mound 2. Hoffman provides a brief summary of digging at the sites and offers a proposed site organization of eight mounds (both burial and “temple mounds”) surrounding a possible plaza area and at least three offmound cemeteries. Material collected from Mounds 1 and 2 and two off-mound cemeteries suggest Haley phase (ca. A.D. 1200-1400) occupations. Additionally, data from Mound 1 …

Salvage Along The Red River: The Red Cox (3la18) Site And Its Place On The Caddo Landscape, Duncan P. Mckinnon, Ryan Nguyen, Tyler Yeager, Leslie L. Bush

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

The Red Cox (3LA18) site is located in Lafayette County, Arkansas along the Red River. As recounted in his weekly report of April 9, 1975, Dr. Frank Schambach received word that the site was being directly impacted by land leveling machinery. Salvage efforts collected the remains from the floor of a burned Caddo farmstead structure. Remains include ceramic sherds, carbonized corn kernels, acorn nutmeat and nutshells, burned wood fragments, and bits of daub. In this paper, we present the results of a recent analysis of the materials and situate the farmstead within the Red River landscape during a period shortly …

Patterns Of Cranial Trauma At The Akers Site (34lf32) Of Southeastern Oklahoma, Simone Rowe

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

Previous work at Wister Valley Fourche Maline sites in southeastern Oklahoma has concluded that the area was a contested landscape with extensive feuding, resulting trophy-taking behavior, and mass burials. Preliminary paleopathological work at the Akers site (34Lf32) suggested that there may have been a high percentage of broken bones, however complete analyses had not been completed. New paleopathological work at the Akers site indicates that 35 percent of the adults buried there had at least one fractured bone at time of death. Furthermore, adult females were more likely to have lower limb fractures and multiple fractures, suggesting different patterns of …

Current Research In The Sabine Mine’S Rusk Permit, Rusk County, Texas, Ross C. Fields, John E. Dockall

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

In 2014–2015, Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted test excavations at seven Native American sites—41RK674, 41RK680, 41RK693, 41RK695, 41RK703, 41RK704, and 41RK729—in northeast Rusk County, Texas. These sites are in Area W of the South Hallsville No. 1 Mine’s Rusk Permit, which is operated by North American Coal Corporation–Sabine Mine. The excavations consisted of 92 m2 (80.7 m3) of hand-dug test units and 63 backhoe trenches (702 m2).

Testing determined that the sites have components dating as early as the Middle Archaic period (ca. 3500 B.C.) and as late as the Late Caddo period (late A.D. 1400s), with Late Archaic, Woodland, …

Update On Recent Activities At The Arkansas Archeological Survey’S Henderson State University Research Station In Arkadelphia, Mary Beth D. Trubitt

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

The Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station (ARAS/HSU) has been active with several small field projects this year, as well as on-going work in the lab. In February and March 2016, Mary Beth Trubitt and Katie Leslie advised Hot Springs National Park personnel on placement of four soil moisture monitors so as to avoid cultural features at 3GA22, a significant novaculite quarry with prehistoric and historic components. In the process, we were able to map additional quarry features, most of which are associated with early twentieth century whetstone procurement. Our fieldwork and documentation resulted in extending the site …

Current Archeological Research In East Texas: Documentation Of Wps-Gus Arnold Archeological Survey Collections, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Gus Arnold identified and recorded many ancestral Caddo sites during his 1939-1940 Works Progress Administration (WPA)-sponsored archeological survey of East Texas. Currently, I have been engaged in studying the artifact collections from 51 WPA sites in Angelina, Cherokee, Gregg, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Sabine, and San Augustine counties, especially the ceramic sherd assemblages, held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas. The sites are located in the Sabine River, Neches River, Angelina River, and Attoyac Bayou stream basins.

Effigy Pottery In The Joint Educational Consortium’S Hodges Collection, Mary B. Trubitt

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

As part of on-going documentation of the Joint Educational Consortium’s Hodges Collection, 31 ceramic effigy vessels or vessel fragments are described. Most were dug by Thomas and Charlotte Hodges or Vere Huddleston in the 1930s-1940s from sites in the Middle Ouachita archeological region of southwest Arkansas. By documenting these vessels and what is known of their archeological contexts, we can better employ them in future analyses of regional variation, iconography, and interactions between the Caddo Area and the Mississippian Southeast.

A Report And Request Toward Building A Canine Burial Corpus, Duncan P. Mckinnon

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

Both the affectionate and mutually adaptive relationships that contemporary humans share with the dog (Canis familiaris) are the result of a long history of domestication. Because of this long partnership, an analysis of dog burials can shed light on certain integrated components associated with mortuary practices, symbolic expression, and oral traditions in humans. There is an enormous amount of archeological and ethnological literature describing the role of the domesticated dog around the world. These sources describe the variable roles of dogs as human partners, friends, companions in hunting and herding, as pack animals, as guard, fighting, and war dogs, as …