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Late Caddoan Occupation Along Cowhide Bayou: An Update On The Belcher Mound And Village Sites, Jeffery S. Girard

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

In the early 1930s, a northwestern Louisiana farmer cleared an area along Cowhide Bayou near the small town of Belcher. As he attempted to level a rise with a slip, he encountered a human skeleton. Fortunately, although he continued work in the surrounding area, he left the rise alone. Dr. Clarence Webb heard of the find in 1936 and began a project that would continue more than 20 years. It resulted in what remains today as the most completely excavated and reported mound investigation in the Caddoan area. Webb's work at the Belcher Site (l6CD13) not only provided a remarkably …

Caddoan Ceremonial Sites Of The Caddoan Cultural Area Of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, And Texas: Draft Caddo National Landmark Nomination, Mark R. Barnes, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Since 1997, we have been working on the development of a National Historic Landmark (NHL) cover nomination for Caddoan ceremonial sites - earthen mounds in the Caddoan cultural area of southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, eastern Oklahoma, and northeastern Texas. Such a nomination establishes the historic context within which all similar cultural properties can be evaluated for significance according to the NHL criteria, as it establishes the research and other criteria by which a cultural property may be identified as a significant archeological resource.

Current Archaeological Investigations At The Pilgrim's Pride Site (41cp304) In Camp County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Pilgrim's Pride site (41CP304) is a large (12+ acres) Archaic and Late Caddoan Titus phase site on the crest of a projecting upland landform overlooking, and 18 m above, the Big Cypress Creek floodplain to the east and the Walkers Creek floodplain to the south. The site is marked by several concentrations of ceramic sherds, midden deposits, and various features (including burials) from the Late Caddoan Titus phase component, along with at least one area in the eastern part of the site with Middle-Late Archaic tools, lithic debris, and fire-cracked rock. No features of Middle-Late Archaic age have been …

Deconstructing The "Sanders Focus" And The "Sanders Phase": A Reply To Perttula Regarding The Taxonomy And Significance Of The So-Called Sanders Focus, Or Sanders Phase, Pottery Of Northeast Texas And Southeast Oklahoma, Frank F. Schambach

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

Perttula is correct in pointing out that there are numerical errors in a recently published table of mine. A revised version is presented here as Table 1. Although several of these errors are numerically large and might have caused problems had they gone uncorrected, Perttula is not correct in suggesting that they are "serious" in the sense that they have affected the conclusions I "reached based on the table," the insinuation being that they weaken my Sanders entrepot hypothesis. They do not. That hypothesis is part of the reinterpretation of the archeology and bioanthropology of the Arkansas Valley and the …

Decorated Caddoan Ceramics From Two Sites On The Elm Fork Of The Trinity River, Dallas County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Caddoan pottery is widely distributed as items of trade and exchange across the northern and eastern parts of the state of Texas (and indeed in several other states outside Texas), although specific information on the amounts and/or kinds of Caddoan pottery actually recovered in such non-Caddoan archaeological contexts is still quite spotty. Over the last several years, l have been compiling this ceramic information where it is available (i.e., in the published literature, from unpublished papers, and in the collections of avocational archaeologists) as part of a broader study of prehistoric Caddoan interaction and trade with neighboring groups. In this …

Caddo Lake Archaeology: Phase I Of Archaeological Investigations Along Harrison Bayou, Harrison County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Daniel J. Prikryl, Bo Nelson, Sergio A. Iruegas

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

An important part of the mission of the Caddo Lake Institute, Inc. and its Caddo Lake Scholars Program is the preservation and protection of the unique and irreplaceable cultural heritage of Caddo Lake and its bioregion, the Big Cypress Bayou watershed. The archaeology team of the Scholars Program is meeting these objectives with the initiation of the Harrison Bayou project by:

(a) offering archaeological education and training of teachers, students, and potential mentors,

(b) through fieldwork and research, identifying, assessing, and designating archaeological, historical, and cultural resources of the Caddo Lake bioregion, and

( c) formulating and implementing strategies for …

Archaeological Investigations At 34wg220: A Prehistoric Occupation In The Arkansas River Valley Of Eastern Oklahoma, Robert Bartlett

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

In January and February of 1997, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) conducted archaeological work at site 34WG220 within right-of-way for a project involving realignment of SH-72 just south of Coweta, Wagoner County, Oklahoma. The site investigation consisted of the monitoring of trench excavation as well as controlled machine stripping. A few prehistoric artifacts, none of which are diagnostic, were found during the investigation. However, two cultural features were discovered during the monitoring of the trench excavation. The features were investigated by hand excavation of a 1 x 2 test unit.

Obsidian Artifacts From The Ozark Area, Don R. Dickson

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

In a paper presented at the Ozark Prehistory II session at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in New Orleans in 1996, the author stated that available evidence suggested two possible movements of Plains oriented peoples into the Ozark area during prehistoric times. The first of these was during the Late Archaic, and is reflected in quantities of Hanna, Duncan, and McKean bifaces being found in western Ozark sites. All of these types were named by Wheeler for examples recovered from Late Archaic sites in Wyoming. Although Perino suggests that the northeastern Oklahoma examples are only similar and should be …

Research Notes: Conch Shell Cups And Black Drink, Jesse Todd

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

Conch shell cups appear during Caddoan times as part of trade with other Mississippian groups.

Preliminary Report On The James Bayou Survey: A Search For Sha-Childni-Ni (1795-1840), Claude Mccrocklin

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

This is a preliminary report on an archaeological survey of the James Bayou area of Marion County, Texas that started in February, 1998 and is still continuing. The primary goal of the survey was to find the location of the large 1795-1840 Caddo Indian village called by them Sha-Childn-Ni (Timber Hill). Historical research and two early maps of 1811 and 1841 clearly show the village on the south side of James Bayou. The sites found prove that both maps are right. This is a report on Sites 2 and 3 of the four sites found to date. [Ed note: A …

Caddo Ceramics From The Middle Caddoan Period Knight's Bluff Site (41cs14), Cass County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

During 1997 investigations by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory associated with the placement of a utility sewer line trench at the Knight's Bluff site (41CS14), and the relocation of the prehistoric midden/cemetery at the site, a wide assortment of Caddo ceramics was found. The sample of ceramics includes 651 vessel sherds (including 240 decorated sherds), three pipe sherds, and five pieces of burned clay. With the exception of nine sherds from the camp sewer line trench area, the remainder of the ceramic assemblage is from in and immediately around the midden/cemetery area located near the bluff edge in the western …

The Middle Caddoan Period In East Texas: A Summary Of The Findings Of The East Texas Caddoan Research Group, Tom Middlebrook, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The second meeting of the East Texas Caddoan Research Group (ETCRG) met in San Antonio on October 27, 1996, to consider the archaeology of the Middle Caddoan period in East Texas. The meeting was arranged as a three hour symposium held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Texas Archeological Society.

The meeting's format involved the informal presentation by several ETCRG members of major research findings along thematic lines for each of several river basins in the region. The presenters distributed handouts to participants and mixed their comments with slides, photographs, and the hands-on examination of a few selected …

The Middle Caddoan Period In The Lower Sulphur River Area, Maynard B. Cliff

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

For purposes of this review, the Lower Sulphur River in Texas includes the area of the Sulphur River basin from the Arkansas border to the eastern edge of Titus County, and encompasses the area of what is today Wright Patman Lake and the White Oak Creek Wildlife Management Area. Traditionally, the Lower Sulphur River area has been tied to cultural constructs defined in the Red River basin, to the north and east. In his ambitious overview of the Caddoan Culture Area, Don Wyckoff generally placed the Lower Sulphur River area with the cultures of the Great Bend. As defined by …

The Caddoan Archaeology Of The Sabine River Basin During The Middle Caddoan Period, Timothy K. Perttula, J. Brett Cruse

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

Compared to the earlier and later parts of the prehistoric Caddoan archaeological record in Northeast Texas, archaeologists do not know much about the Middle Caddoan period (ca. A.D. 1200-1400) in the Sabine River basin. During the last few years, however, new archaeological information on settlements, subsistence, and the diverse material culture record suggest that the era was a time of significant cultural change for Caddoan peoples living in the upper and middle Sabine River basin.

The Middle Caddoan Period In The Big Cypress Creek Drainage Basin, Bo Nelson, Mike Turner

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

The Middle Caddoan period in the Big Cypress Creek drainage basin has been based upon a synthesis of Thurmond's (1990) archaeological overview of the basin. Thurmond defines a transitional Caddoan period (dating ca. A.D. 1300-1400) from 14 sites that have ceramic assemblages combining Early Caddoan and Late Caddoan stylistic attributes. A review of these sites, along with additional information from recent archaeological investigations, suggests that the Middle Caddoan period in the Big Cypress Creek basin has an evolving cultural diversity that extends over a longer period of time, fitting well with Story's definition of the period as dating from ca. …

The Caddoan Occupation Of The Attoyac And Angelina River Basins In The Middle Caddoan Period, Tom Middlebrook

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

The Angelina River basin, including the drainage of its largest tributary, the Attoyac Bayou, encompasses all of Nacogdoches County and portions of Cherokee, Rusk, Angelina, San Augustine, Shelby, and Sabine counties in deep East Texas. Archaeological studies in the region that have illuminated our understanding of Caddoan developments have been meager and spotty at best.

There is no archaeological evidence in the Angelina River basin of extensive Caddoan occupation during the Early Caddoan period (ca. A.D. 1000-1200). Jelks presented the results of the largest archaeological project conducted in the area in his dissertation dealing with the archaeology of the McGee …

The Archaeology Of The Middle Caddoan Period In The Middle Red River Valley Of Northeast Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Middle Caddoan period sites (estimated to date from ca. A.D. 1100-1300/1350; in the Middle Red River Valley of Northeast Texas appear to have cultural affiliation with the Sanders phase/focus originally recognized by Krieger. Sanders phase components are distributed in the Middle Red, Kiamichi, and Upper Sabine River basins of Southeast Oklahoma and Northeast Texas. In the Middle Red River valley, key components include the A.C. Mackin (41LR36), Fasken (41RR14), Roitsch (41RR16; previously known as the Sam Kaufman site), Holdeman (41RR11), Sanders (41LR2), and Harling (41FNI) sites.

Middle Caddoan period settlements along the Middle Red River include dispersed farmsteads and hamlets …

Middle Caddoan Period Archaeology In The Upper Sulphur River Basin, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Middle Caddoan period archaeological sites in the upper Sulphur River basin are rare, by contrast with the lower Sulphur River area, and probably the best-known site of this age in the upper part of the basin is the Hurricane Hill site (41HP106). The site is located on a high upland landform, at the Cooper Lake dam, overlooking the wide valley of the South Sulphur River.

The Hurricane Hill Middle Caddoan component occurs mainly on the South Rise, a natural sand-covered rise on the crest of the uplands. However, at least one burial and several pit features associated with the component …

Some Observations On Four Probable Middle Caddo Period Cemeteries In Camp And Upshur Counties, Northeast Texas, Robert L. Turner Jr.

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

In this paper, I discuss probable Middle Caddo period ceramic vessels and other artifacts from cemeteries at the Rumsey (41CP3), Harold Williams (41CP10), Graydon Adkins #1 (41UR21), and Graydon Adkins#2 (41UR17) sites in Camp and Upshur counties.

Notes On Caddoan Vessels Collected From The Mosquito Island Site (41ag66), Lake Sam Rayburn, Tom Middlebrook

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

This paper documents four Caddoan ceramic vessels from the Mosquito Island site (4IAG66) at Lake Sam Rayburn. The vessels were obtained from the site by two individuals who violated the provisions of the Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), and were arrested on the site while in the act of disturbing the archaeological site. They were subsequently convicted under ARPA for their illegal actions.

Construction Damages A Prehistoric Caddo Indian Archaeological Site At The City Of Gilmer's Proposed Lake Gilmer, Upshur County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

In March 1996, the archaeological work being conducted at the proposed Lake Gilmer was called to a halt by the archaeological contractor (Horizon Environmental Services of Austin, Texas) and the City of Gilmer long before the required archaeological mitigation of important prehistoric Caddo sites had been completed. The reasons are still somewhat obscure.

After a delay of more than 1.5 years in the completion of the archaeological investigations at the proposed Lake Gilmer, a federal and state-permitted reservoir in Northeast Texas, the Division of Antiquities Protection at the Texas Historical Commission has taken up the task of completing the archaeological …

The Development Of The Burial Mound Tradition In The Caddo Area, Frank F. Schambach

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

This is a significantly revised version of a paper I presented at the 1994 East Texas Archeological Conference in Tyler, Texas. The gist of that paper was that the origins of the burial mound tradition in the Caddo area can be traced, not to the Coles Creek culture in the Lower Mississippi Valley as the conventional wisdom would have it, but to an independent Fourche Maline mound building tradition that developed in and around the Red River Valley beginning about 100 B.C.2 I still think that there was an independent Fourche Maline mound building tradition and I still think that, …

Book Review "Don't Know Much About Caddo Archeology, Don't Know Much .... ", Timothy K. Perttula

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

In an otherwise interesting and recently published book by Judith Nies entitled Native American History, there is an extremely wide-of-the-mark discussion of the Spiro site which I would like to share with the readers of Caddoan Archeology. The inaccuracy of the presentation conveys all too well, unfortunately, how little is still known about Caddoan archeology, and about the Caddo peoples, among the general public and the general reader.

Extractive Strategies At Peoria Quarry, Ottowa County, Oklahoma, Don Dickson

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

The Peoria Quarry complex was first recognized as representing prehistoric activities by geologist Walter P Jenny in 1891. Jenny, who was studying the zinc and lead mines in southwestern Missouri and adjacent areas, made collections from the Peoria extractive area and submitted these specimens along with an introductory letter to Mr. G. K Gilbert of the United States Geological Survey. The latter contacted William H. Holmes, who visited the location in late October of that year (Holmes 1894:7-8). Prior to the evaluation of Jenny, the site was referred to as "old Spanish mines" because the local populace could not attribute …

Radiocarbon And Oxidizable Carbon Ratio Dates From The Camp Joy Mound (41ur144) In Northeast Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mike Turner, Bo Nelson

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

The Camp Joy Mound (41UR144) is a looted Caddo mound on property owned by the U.S. Anny Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, at Lake o' the Pines. Although only a small number of artifacts have been found in the mound deposits - principally a few brushed sherds - it appears to be a Late Caddoan period construction with two mound platforms, separated by extensive charcoal lenses from one ( or more) burned Caddoan structure e~posed in a larger looters trench. To ascertain the age of the burned Caddoan structure that stood on the main mound platform, we obtained two …

Caddo Ceramics On The Red River In North Central Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Earnest R. Martin, Bo Nelson

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

Caddo ceramics manufactured after A.D. 900 were widely traded in Texas, being found in some quantity on North Central, East Central, Central, and inland Southeast Texas archeological sites. They were also traded with prehistoric peoples in the Midwest (as far north as Iowa and Illinois) and the Southeastern U.S. While archeologists have known this for some time, much of the ceramic evidence for prehistoric Caddoan trade and exchange with other Native Americans has not been systematically compiled and studied, as became apparent during a recent review of the prehistoric and historic aboriginal pottery in Texas. Consequently, Caddoan archeologists are not …

The Womack, Gilbert, And Pearson Sites: Early Eighteenth Century Tunican Entrepots In Northeast Texas, Frank Schambach

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

For the past few months, I have been working on a detailed response to a paper by James Bruseth, Diane Wilson, and Timothy Perttula published in the fall issue of Plains Anthropologist. There, these authors challenge my Sanders entrepot hypothesis and my new paradigm for the Mississippi period archeology of the Arkansas Valley, claiming that the Sanders focus, as propounded by Alex D. Krieger, is alive and well, so much so that they have renamed it the Sanders phase to ready it for service in the 1990s and beyond.

The Caddoan Oak Hill Village Site, J. Brett Cruse, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Rarely do prehistoric archeologists in North America have the opportunity to completely excavate and study an entire Native American community or village. To be able to expose a Native American village in its entirety provides a unique, and unprecedented, view of the past community and social arrangements that existed among Native American societies before contact with Europeans.

Recently, in northeast Texas, the Oak Hill Village site (41RK214), a large village occupied by prehistoric horticultural-agricultural Caddo peoples between about A.O. 1050 and 1450, was fully uncovered under the direction of J. Brett Cruse (then of Espey, Huston & Associates, Inc., Austin, …

Book Review: Archeology In The Eastern Planning Region, Texas: A Planning Document, Robert L. Brooks

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

With the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 and ensuing regulatory guidelines, a mandate for the development of "The State Historic Preservation Plan" was clearly established. During the late 1960s and the 1970s, because of limited funding and the absence of information on the structure of these plans, few states had formulated plans or if they had state plans, they were of an extremely general nature. In the 1980s, principally through funding initiatives on the part of the National Park Service and through the efforts of NPS preservation planners such as John Knoerl, many states began their …

"Historical Processes And The Political Organization Of The Hasinai Caddo Indians": A Reply, Nancy Adele, Timothy K. Perttula

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

In a recent volume of the Caddoan Archeology Newsletter, Daniel Hickerson argues that Apache aggression across the Southern Plains, Apache trade in horses and other European goods, and European-introduced diseases dramatically affected Caddo an populations by encouraging their migration south to the upper Neches/Angelina river basins area traditionally occupied by one segment of the Caddo, the Hasinai groups. In his opinion, the Hasinai confederacy was a nascent chiefdom that developed as a direct result of this mid to late-seventeenth century southern migration. As has been pointed out by Caddoan ethnographers, ethnohistorians, and archeologists for 50 years or more, the Caddo …