Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

The Jonas Short Site (41sa101), San Augustine County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

The Jonas Short site (41SA101) is one of a few known and investigated Woodland period mounds in the Trans–Mississippi south (i.e., East Texas, Northwest Louisiana, Southwest Arkansas, and Southeast Oklahoma). In fact, the site is one of only four identified mound sites of possible Woodland period age—and Mossy Grove cultural tradition—in the Neches–Angelina and Sabine river basins in East Texas and Northwest Louisiana: Coral Snake (16SA48), Anthony (16SA7), Jonas Short, and Westerman (41HO15).

The Jonas Short site was located on an alluvial terrace of the Angelina River. It was investigated in 1956 by archaeologists from the University of Texas and …

Funerary Offerings From The Keasler Site Cemetery (41hs235), Harrison County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters, Bo Nelson

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

The Keasler site (41HS235) is a post-ca. A.D. 1430 Late Caddo period, Titus phase cemetery with at least 31 burials in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was excavated by collectors in the late 1970s on the property of Sid Keasler of Hallsville, Texas. Minimal records on the burials at the site, and their contents, were provided by Red McFarland, one of the collectors, to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL).

The Keasler site is near Little Creek, a northward-flowing tributary to Little Cypress Creek. It is perhaps one of the easternmost-known Titus phase cemeteries …

Late Paleoindian–Early Archaic Dart Points From The Wolfshead Site (41sa117) In The Angelina River Basin In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

The Wolfshead site (41SA117) was excavated by the Texas Archeological Salvage Project at The University of Texas in 1960 prior to the inundation of the site by the waters of Lake Sam Rayburn in the Angelina River basin in East Texas. The site was located on a sandy terrace and covered ca. 1 acre in size; the sandy deposits were a maximum of ca. 60 cm in thickness below an historic plow zone.

The excavations in the northern and southern parts of the site indicated that the Wolfshead site had an extensive Late Paleoindian–Early Archaic San Patrice culture occupation estimated …

Possible Engraved Canebrake Rattlesnake Motifs On Sherds From The Etoile Site (41na11) In The Angelina River Basin In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

Engraved canebrake rattlesnake motifs on bottles has been found in ceramic assemblages in at least 18 Middle (ca. A.D. 1200–1400) and Late Caddo (ca. A.D. 1400–1680) period sites in the Big and Little Cypress Creek, mid–Sabine, Red River, and Angelina River basins in East Texas. The motif consists of “representational images of snakes with entwined or interlocking tails."

The Archaeology Of The Archaic Periods In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The archaeology of the Archaic periods—Early, ca. 10,000–8000 years B.P., Middle, ca. 8000–5000 years B.P., and Late, ca. 5000–2500 years B.P.—in East Texas is not well understood in broad terms, although valuable information on the archaeological character of the Archaic peoples in the region has been gained over the years from the detailed investigation of a few specific sites. New knowledge concerning the archaeology of the Archaic periods in East Texas is slow in coming, due in part to the kinds of Archaic sites that have been identified by archaeologists during survey investigations and/or recommended by archeologists, state agencies, and …

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 …

Another Look At The Urbankte Site (41cv26) In Coryell County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Harry J. Shafer

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

Perttula (2016) had analyzed ceramic sherds and other material culture remains curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) from four sites in the Brazos River basin in the Central Texas prairie that had been identified as Prairie Caddo sites by Shafer; one of the sites was the Urbankte site (41CV26). The Urbankte site is on the Leon River in Coryell County, at Belton Reservoir; the Leon River is a southward-flowing tributary to the Brazos River. The term “Prairie Caddo” used by Shafer refers to Caddo groups affiliated with Caddo communities in East …

Native American Ceramic Assemblages From Sites In Tyler County, In Southeast Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

As part of a WPA-funded project, Gus E. Arnold of the University of Texas carried out archaeological survey investigations in Tyler County, Texas, between October 1939 and August 1940. During that time he recorded three sites in the Neches River basin with Native American ceramic vessel sherd assemblages, in an area just south of the known southern boundary of the Southern Caddo Area in East Texas. These ceramic assemblages, curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL), are the subject of this article.

Obsidian Artifacts From East Texas Archaeological Sites, Timothy K. Perttula, Thomas R. Hester

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

Obsidian artifacts are one of the few material culture remains on East Texas sites that provide direct evidence of distant links between East Texas’s native American peoples and native American communities in the Southwest or the Northwestern Plains. Other such material culture items include marine shells from the Gulf of California, turquoise from New Mexico sources, and sherds from ceramic vessels made in the Puebloan Southwest. Such artifacts, however, are rarely recovered in East Texas archaeological sites. In this article, we summarize the available information on obsidian artifacts from East Texas archaeological sites, much of it gathered from Hester’s Texas …

The Newt Smith Site (41he78), Henderson County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Newt Smith site (41HE78) is probably an ancestral Caddo cemetery and habitation site in the Coon Creek valley of the Post Oak Savannah in the Trinity River basin in East Texas. In April 1931, a Mrs. A. G. Hughes of Poynor, Texas, donated a single Caddo vessel to The University of Texas. That vessel is in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL).

18th Century Mexican Majolica Sherds From The George C. Davis Site (41ce19), Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

During the late 17th-early 18th century, Spanish forces colonized the middle reaches of the Neches River and its tributaries when several missions were established for the Tejas and other Hasinai tribes in this locale: Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, 1690-1693, Mission El Santisimo de Nombre Maria (1690-1692), and Mission Nuestra Padre de San Francisco de Tejas (1716-1719, 1721-1730), otherwise known as Mission San Francisco de los Nechas. These missions were established along the Hasinai Trace, later known as El Camino Real de los Tejas . None of these missions have been located and identified in the many archaeological investigations …

The De Rossett Farm (41he75) And Quate Place (41he81) Sites In The Cobb Creek Valley In The Upper Neches River Basin, Henderson County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The De Rossett Farm and Quate Place sites were among the earliest East Texas archaeological sites to be investigated by professional archaeologists at The University of Texas (UT), which began under the direction of Dr. J. E. Pearce between 1918-1920. According to Pearce, UT began work in this part of the state under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and that work “had led me to suppose that I should find this part of the State rich in archeological material of a high order.”

The two sites were investigated in August 1920. They are on Cobb Creek, a …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …