American Material Culture Commons^™

Additional Material Culture Remains From The Bowles Creek Site (41ce475) In Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Kevin Stingley

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

The Bowles Creek site is on a low alluvial rise in the Bowles Creek floodplain; Bowles Creek is a southward-flowing tributary of the Neches River. Stingley found the site in early 2015 during a surface walk over, when Caddo ceramic sherds were noted in a number of gopher mounds. He excavated a number of shovel tests (n=13) and three units (generally 1 x 1 m in size); the units were excavated to between 50-80 cm bs. The site covers at least an estimated 55 m (east-west) x 20 m (north-south) area.

The initial archaeological investigations at the Bowles Creek site …

Titus Phase Ceramics From The Pine Tree Farm Site (41wd51) In The Lake Fork Creek Basin, Wood County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Pine Tree Farm site, an ancestral Caddo site occupied during the Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1430- 1680), was recorded by Bob D. Skiles in June 1977, on the basis of investigations conducted there by Skiles and James E. Bruseth, then a graduate student at Southern Methodist University, as well as work done by Skiles in 1970. The site is on a flat upland landform (400 ft. amsl) ca. 300 m northeast of Myrtle Springs Branch, a tributary to Dry Creek in the Lake Fork Creek drainage in the East Texas Pineywoods.

The Goldsmith site (41WD208) is ca. 0.4 km …

Ceramics At Three Ancestral Caddo Sites In The Upper Neches River Basin, Smith County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The upper Neches River Basin in the Pineywoods and Post Oak Savannah of East Texas is one part of the southern Caddo area where populations of ancestral Caddo groups were notably higher during the Late Caddo period, ca. A.D. 1400-1680, than at other times over their ca. 1000 year settlement of the region. The Frankston phase is comprised of farmsteads, hamlets, and small villages in the Neches and Angelina river basins in East Texas. Other Frankston phase sites are represented by small residential settlements in dispersed agricultural communities, with small family and/or community cemeteries not used for long periods of …

Radiocarbon Dates From The Henry M. Site (41na60), Nacogdoches County, In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Tom Middlebrook

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

1980s and early 1990s excavations at the Henry M. site (41NA60) on Bayou Loco in the Angelina River basin exposed a well-preserved Historic Caddo midden deposit that partially overlapped a ca. 8.8 m circular Caddo structure (apparently rebuilt to some extent) marked by a variety of cultural features and stains, including two central posts from sequent structure use. There is a probable storage platform or arbor just outside the north wall of the structure. The Patton Engraved sherds in the recovered ceramic assemblage, the two gunflints, and one European glass bead suggests that the Henry M. site was occupied by …

Ancestral Caddo Ceramics From Three Sites On Mill Race Creek, Wood County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Archaeological survey investigations were conducted in 1987 and 1988 in a large tract of land along Mill Race Creek, a southwestward-flowing tributary to Lake Fork Creek in the East Texas Pineywoods. During the course of the survey, ancestral Caddo ceramic sherds were recovered from 15 sites, including the reanalyzed sherds from the three sites discussed in this article.

The Haines Varner Allen site (41WD573) is located on an upland landform overlooking the Mill Race Creek valley; it is an ancestral Caddo settlement with midden deposits that cover about 1.2 acres and has deposits that are a maximum of 75 cm …

Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherds In A 2004 Surface Collection From The Sanders Site (41lr2), Lamar County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

The T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) is one of the more important ancestral Caddo sites known in East Texas, primarily because of its two earthen mounds and the well-preserved mortuary features of Caddo elite persons buried in Mound No. 1 (the East Mound), as well as its extensive (200+ acres) habitation deposits and material culture remains of the Middle Caddo and Historic Caddo period components. The T. M. Sanders site is located on a broad alluvial terrace just south of the confluence of Bois d’Arc Creek and the Red River.

The Caddo Archaeological Record In The Saline Creek And County Line Creek Valleys In Cherokee And Smith Counties, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Mark Walters

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

Both the Saline and County Line creeks in the upper Neches River basin were habitats where significant numbers of Caddo peoples lived in ancestral times. As with recent studies of the ancestral Caddo archaeology of the nearby Caddo Creek valley and the San Pedro Creek valley, the purpose of this consideration of the known archaeological record of Caddo settlement in the Saline and County Line creek valleys is to explore the nature of their permanent use during the lengthy native history of Caddo peoples in East Texas between ca. A.D. 900-1838.

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Artifacts In The Jesse Martin Glasco Collection From Upshur County, Texas, 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

Jesse Martin Glasco, or J. M. Glasco, lived in Gilmer in Upshur County, Texas, between the mid- 1840s and 1886. During most of those years he served as Upshur County surveyor and deputy surveyor, as well as deputy county clerk, postmaster, and tax assessor, and he also represented Upshur County in the 11th Texas legislature. Between 1859-1861 and 1867-1873, he was a meteorological observer for Upshur County for the Smithsonian Institution, and also collected Native American pottery for the Smithsonian’s collections from the Gilmer area.

41sm150: A Middle Caddo Period Site In The Angelina River Basin, Smith County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Site 41SM150 is an ancestral Caddo settlement and cemetery in the headwaters of the Angelina River basin in East Texas. The site was recorded by Jan Guy in 1983 as part of a University of Texas at Austin Field School, when a collector who was working at the site shared information about what he, and others, had been finding there. Apparently the site had been worked by collectors for approximately 30 years by that time. The current condition of the site is not known.

The site, including both habitation and cemetery areas, is located just south of a large knoll …

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 …