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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 …

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 …

Caddo Ceramic Sherds From Leon River Valley Sites In Coryell County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

This article is concerned with the consideration of “Caddo connections” as expressed in the character of the ceramic assemblages from three sites in the Leon River valley in Central Texas that have been considered to have Caddo pottery and were occupied by Prairie Caddo peoples; these ceramic assemblages are in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). Of particular importance are the stylistic (i.e., decorative methods and decorative elements) and technological (i.e., choice of temper inclusions) attributes of the sherds from the sites that are from plain ware, utility ware, and …

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.

41ce291: An Historic Caddo Settlement In The Neches River Valley In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Site 41CE291 was visited by H. Perry Newell and A. T. Jackson in March 1940, and they made a small surface collection of artifacts at that time; the surface-collected artifacts are in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). The site is on a large terrace of the Neches River, about 0.4 km east of the George C. Davis site (41CE19); the two sites are divided by a small valley of a southward-flowing spring-fed tributary of the Neches River; Forman Branch flows along the east side of this terrace.

Newell noted …

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 Caddo Occupation Of The L. B. Miller Farm (41he4/55) In The Post Oak Savanna And Trinity River Basin In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The L. B. Miller Farm site (41HE4/55) is a Late Caddo period Frankston phase Caddo habitation site and small cemetery on an upland landform (400 ft. amsl) in the Coon Creek-Catfish Creek drainage in the Post Oak Savannah of the Trinity River basin. The ancestral Caddo artifact collections from the site at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) include four vessels from a burial feature, sherds from two unreconstructed ceramic jars found in habitation contexts, and 178 ceramic sherds from midden deposits.

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).

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherd Studies: Buddy Calvin Jones Sites In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, Buddy Calvin Jones of Longview, Texas, identified and investigated archaeological sites across many counties in East Texas. Many of those sites were ancestral Caddo sites occupied from as early as ca. A.D. 850 to the early 1800s, and in his work he obtained surface collections of ceramic sherds from sites as well as large sherd assemblages and ceramic vessels from excavations in habitation deposits and Caddo cemeteries.

Jones published only a few papers on his investigations, but his expansive archaeological collections (accompanied by notes and documentation) were donated to the Gregg County …

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 …

New Radiocarbon Dates From Ancestral Caddo Sites In Cherokee, Fannin, Hopkins, Nacogdoches, And Wood Counties, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

In order to continue to expand the utility of the East Texas Radiocarbon Database to better understand the age of archaeological components at sites, as well as temporal trends in settlement by Native Americans in East Texas, archaeologists need to seek out samples wherever such samples can be obtained. This includes organic remains (i.e., plant and animal remains) from intact archaeological deposits as well as organic remains preserved in well-maintained curated collections. This article presents the results of AMS dating of plant remains or animal bones at five different ancestral Caddo sites in East Texas.

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.