Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

Archaeological Studies Of The Hatchel Site (41bw3) On The Red River In Bowie County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Hatchel site (41BW3) is a major prehistoric and protohistoric Caddo village and mound center on a natural levee deposit in the floodplain of the Red River in Bowie County, Texas. The platform mound and the main part of the associated village overlooks two channel lakes of the river; these likely were part of the channel of the river when the site was occupied by the Caddo.

The site was occupied by the Caddo from at least A.D. 1040 to the late 17th century. The earliest end of this age range is based on 2-sigma calibrated ages from radiocarbon dates …

The Mitchell Site (41bw4): An Ancestral Caddo Settlement And Cemetery On Mckinney Bayou, Bowie County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Paul Mitchell site (41BW4) is an ancestral Caddo habitation site and cemetery in the larger ancestral and historic occupation of the Upper Nasoni Village on the Red River in Bowie County, in the northeastern corner of the present state of Texas. Extensive excavations were conducted at the site in the 1930s by both professional and avocational archaeologists. and in the 1940s by an avocational archaeologist, but the findings from these investigations have never been fully analyzed or reported to date, although several bioarchaeological studies have been published concerning the Mitchell site human remains. This monograph represents a renewed examination …

A Catalog Of Selected Caddo Ceramic Vessels In The Buddy Jones Collection At The Gregg County Historical Museum, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Bo Nelson

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

This publications presents information and images of 420 Caddo ceramic vessels from several different parts of East Texas. These vessels are in the Buddy Calvin Jones collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum (GCHM) in Longview, Texas. They represent unassociated funerary objects under the provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Our purpose in producing this publication is to make this information available to those in the professional and avocational archaeological community with a serious interest in the native history of the Caddo Indian peoples; as well as to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma; and to …

The Eli Moores Site, A 17th To Early 18th Century Caddo Site On The Red River, Bowie County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Eli Moores site (41BW2) is an important ancestral Caddo mound center and habitation site on the Red River in the East Texas Pineywoods, likely part of the Nasoni Caddo village visited by the Teran de los Rios entrada in 1691. The site may have been the residence of the caddi of the Nasoni Caddo when it was visited by the French and Spanish, and the Xinesi lived in a temple on the mound at the nearby Hatchel site. The site was investigated by the University of Texas in 1932, and in one of the mounds and in associated midden …

The Horton Site (41cp16) On Big Cypress Creek In The East Texas Pineywoods, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Horton site (41CP16) is primarily a Late Paleoindian (ca. 10,000 years B.P.) to ancestral Caddo site (ca. post-A.D. 800), although there is a small mid-19th-early 20th century component as well. This site is on an upland slope (320-350 ft. amsl) that once overlooked the Big Cypress Creek floodplain; the channel of the creek was ca. 100 m north from the site. The site is currently under the waters of Lake Bob Sandlin. Robert L. Turner, Jr. surface collected the site during the 1950s and 1960s, and the study of this substantial artifact assemblage is the subject of this article. …

The Lizzie Hill Site (41cp494), Camp County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Lizzie Hill site (41CP494) is one of a number of archaeological sites that Robert L. Turner, Jr. surface collected from in Camp County, Texas in the 1950s and 1960s. Bo Nelson and Turner formally recorded the site in July 2012. The analysis of the surface collection of ceramic and lithic artifacts from the site, as well as a few historic artifacts, is the subject of this article.

The site was located in a cultivated field when Turner found it and gathered his collection of artifacts, but now is in pasture, along a small tributary to Walkers Creek in the …

Glade Creek At Oil Lease Grave Site, Gregg County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Glade Creek at Oil Lease Grave site is reported by Buddy C. Jones to have been a large Caddo cemetery that was found and excavated by a Mr. C. W. Bailey sometime before 1954. Jones labeled the site as GC-23 in his site recording system. As far as can be determined from the available notes, the site was located on Glade Creek, a small spring-fed stream that is a tributary to Witcher Creek, in the Little Cypress Creek basin in the northern part of Gregg County, Texas, in the East Texas Pineywoods.

A single ceramic vessel from the site …

Glass Beads From Kinsloe Focus Sites In Gregg, Harrison, And Rusk Counties, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

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

European glass beads are one of the most common artifact categories found on historic Caddo sites in the middle reaches of the Sabine River basin in East Texas on what Jones had dubbed Kinsloe focus sites. Several thousands beads were found by Jones in his investigation of burial features at these sites, along with other European trade goods and Caddo ceramic vessels, pipes, and chipped stone tools.

In Jones’ description of the beads from the Kinsloe focus sites, he relied on the analytical and chronological interpretations of John Witthoft, then of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, although he did …

Documentation Of Ceramic Vessels And Projectile Points From The C. D. Marsh Site (41hs269) In The Sabine River Basin, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Bo Nelson

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

A total of at least eight Caddo burials were excavated at the C. D. Marsh site on Eight Mile Creek, a southward-flowing tributary to the Sabine River, by Buddy C. Jones in 1959-1960. This includes Burial 1, an historic (dating after ca. A.D. 1685) Nadaco Caddo burial; European trade goods found with this burial include two small silver disks. The other burials (Burials 2-8) are part of an earlier Caddo cemetery that is thought to be associated with the ca. A.D. 1350-17th century Pine Tree Mound community along the Sabine River and its tributaries. Jones suggests that these latter burials …

The Clay Ball Site In The Upper Neches River Basin Of East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

The Clay Ball site is an ancestral Caddo site believed to be located in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. The site is notable for its series of small, square vessels with Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 1400- 1650) engraved motifs, as such vessel forms have not been previously documented in studies of Frankston or later Allen phase (ca. A.D. 1650-1830) vessel assemblages.

The unique ceramic vessels from the site were excavated by Buddy C. Jones, and although his main site collecting and excavation work was in the mid-Sabine River basin, he did excavate several sites in the upper …

The Ceramic Sherd Assemblage From The Boatstone Site In Gregg County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Boatstone site (GC-50 in Buddy Jones' site numbering system) is one of many Caddo sites that Buddy Jones investigated along the Sabine River and its tributaries in the Longview, Texas, area. In most cases, his investigations at the sites consisted of the surface collection of ceramic and lithic artifacts, and only in rare cases did Jones complete analyses or publications on his investigations. This article discusses the ancestral Caddo ceramic assemblage from the Boatstone site, which is situated near the confluence of Iron Bridge Creek and the Sabine River in southeastern Gregg County in the East Texas Pineywoods. This …

A Woodland Period Ceramic Assemblage From Rabbit Creek In The Sabine River Basin, Gregg County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The GC-123 site was located and investigated by Buddy C. Jones during his years of archaeological work and surface collecting at numerous aboriginal sites in the mid-Sabine River basin in East Texas. The site is in south-central Gregg County, on Rabbit Creek (a northern-flowing tributary to the Sabine River), but only a few miles from the Sabine River valley.

The site is notable for its ceramic sherd assemblage. Based on characteristics of Woodland period ceramics from the mid-Sabine River basin, including sites such as 41HS231 and 41RK562 (see Dockall and Fields 2011; Dockall et al. 2008), Hawkwind (41HS915), Folly (41RK26), …

Plant Remains From Shelby Mound (41cp71), Camp County, Texas, Leslie L. Bush

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

Nine lots of botanical samples collected during 1988 and 1992 excavations at the Shelby Mound site (41CP71) were submitted for identification prior to their eventual curation at Stephen F. Austin State University. Some botanical samples from these excavations have been previously reported. Excavations at Shelby Mound were conducted in a 10 x 10 ft. unit divided into four 5 x 5 ft. squares. Botanical samples were recovered using 1/4-inch screen. Shelby Mound, also known as the Tracy site and the Greasy Creek site, is a large Late Caddo village, community cemetery, and mound center. Most of the community cemetery at …

Archaeological Investigations At The Wade (Gc-38) And Estes (Gc-49) Sites In The Sabine River Basin, Gregg County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Bo Nelson

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

Buddy C. Jones conducted extensive archaeological investigations in the 1950s and 1960s at many sites in the mid-Sabine River basin of East Texas, especially on Caddo sites of various ages in Gregg, Harrison, and Rusk counties. However, that work has not illuminated our understanding of the archaeology of the Caddo Indian peoples that lived along this stretch of the Sabine River as much as it could have, primarily because little of the work completed by Jones was ever published, or the results and findings shared with professional and avocational archaeological colleagues working in the region. The Caddo archaeology of the …

41sm53 (P-4) On Prairie Creek, Smith County, Texas, Mark Walters, Timothy Perttula

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

In February 1957, Sam Whiteside of Smith County, Texas, excavated a burial at 41SM53. This site was designated P-4 in Mr. Whiteside’s notes and it was one of several Caddo sites along Prairie Creek in the upper Sabine River basin that he investigated to varying degrees in the 1950s and 1960s. As an a vocational archeologist Mr. Whiteside made many important contributions to East Texas archeology. Dr. Dee Ann Story, of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin, who corresponded with Mr. Whiteside, later obtained the trinomial 41SM53 for the site.

Analysis Of Faunal Remains From Selected Contexts At The Shelby Mound Site (41cp71): Results From Mound Excavations, Leeanna Schniebs, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Additional faunal material from earlier mound deposits at the Titus phase Shelby Mound site (41CP71) on Greasy Creek in Camp County, Texas, total 459 faunal specimens, weighing 339.8 grams. Sixty-one (13.3%) bone fragments are identifiable, and 201 specimens are burned (43.8%). Standard zooarchaeological identification techniques have been employed in this analysis, using comparative skeletal collections. Attributes that have been examined for each of the bone fragments include taxon, element, and portion of that element, symmetry, burning, and weight. This analysis focuses on identifying general preferences of animal exploitation at this site during the Late Caddo Titus phase. Table 1 summarizes …

Additional Artifact Collections From The Gardener Site (41cp55), Camp County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

The Gardener site (41CP55) was first recorded by Sullivan (1977) prior to construction of Lake Bob Sandlin on Big Cypress Creek. A surface collection of sherds and daub suggested that the site was the locus of a Late Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1450-1680) settlement and burned house. However, no further archaeological work was done at the site before it was inundated by Lake Bob Sandlin in the late 1970s.

Recently, because of lower flood pool levels (about 9 ft. below normal flood pool) at Lake Bob Sandlin due to East Texas drought conditions, archaeological materials from the Gardener site have …

Freshwater Mussel Shells: A Status Symbol At The Roitsch/ Williams Sites In Red River County, Texas?, Jesse Todd

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

Upon examining unmodified bone and shell from the Sanders site (41LR2), the Dan Holdeman site (41RR11), the Roitsch site (41RR16), the Bob Williams portion of the Roitsch site (41RR16), the Rowland Clark site (41RR77), and the Roden site (34Mc215), which are located in the Middle Red River Valley of Texas and Oklahoma, freshwater mussel shells were more apparent as burial furniture at the Roitsch and Bob Williams site than any other of the above mentioned sites.

Analysis Of The Hardin A Site (41gg69) Faunal Remains, Leeanna Schniebs

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

The excavation of the Hardin A site (41GG69), a late 14th to early 15th century A.D. period Caddo site in Gregg County, Texas, yielded 495 faunal specimens. This sum includes all bone fragments, and pieces of antler and turtle shell. Total weight of the assemblage is 266.6 grams. Faunal material was recovered from 15 levels in a single 1 x 2 m unit comprised of a midden deposit and feature fill. The remainder of the article discuss the methods employed in the faunal analysis, results of taxonomic identification and quantification, and the distribution of these remains.

The Joe M. Smith Collection From The Roseborough Lake Site (41bw5), Bowie County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Joe M. Smith collection is held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. It appears to have been given by Mr. Smith to A. T. Jackson in the early 1930s, around the time of The University of Texas excavations at the nearby Eli Moores site (41BW2). The collection is said to have come from the Rochelle Plantation, which is an earlier name for the Roseborough Lake site (41BW5). The Roseborough Lake site is on an old meander of the Red River “that was cut off in 1872 and named Roseborough Lake." It lies …

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

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

At the request of one of the landowners, Ms. Julia Crawford, renewed archaeological investigations took place at the renowned Sanders site (41LR2) in November 2013. These investigations consisted solely of a pedestrian survey of the main part of the Sanders site—the location of two ancestral Caddo earthen mounds and associated habitation deposits—on a broad alluvial terrace (450 ft. amsl) of the Red River, in conjunction with a surface collection of observed material culture remains. Other recent archaeological investigations at the Sanders site have taken place more than ca. 400 m south of the main part of the site, at the …

New Radiocarbon Dates From The Shelby Mound Site (41cp71) On Greasy Creek In The Big Cypress Creek Basin Of East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

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

Six new radiocarbon dates have been obtained from the Shelby Mound site (41CP71) in the Big Cypress Creek basin in East Texas. They are on charred organic remains—corn cupules and glumes and Hickory (Carya sp.) nutshell—identified in several levels in and immediately below the mound deposits.

The Shelby Mound site on Greasy Creek is the social and political center of an ancestral Caddo Greasy Creek political community. It stretches for several hundred meters along Greasy Creek and a small tributary, with an earthen mound at the northern end of the village and a large cemetery at its southern end. Domestic …

The Steck Site (41wd529), A Titus Phase Settlement In The Lake Fork Creek Drainage Basin, Wood County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bob D. Skiles

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

The Steck site (41WD529) is a 15th to early 16th century A.D. Caddo settlement situated in the far western margins of the modern Pineywoods of East Texas, in the upper Sabine River basin in Wood County. The site is specifcally situated in the uplands more than 12m above the Dry Creek foodplain, in the upper part of the Lake Fork Creek drainage basin. Two natural springs emerge from the Queen City Eocene formation immediately below the site.

There are two midden deposits at the Steck site, as well as evidence for structures arranged around an open plaza in a small …

East Texas Archeological Society, Tyler, Texas, 1956-1959, Mark Walters

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

The East Texas Archeological Society (ETAS) was formed in Tyler, Texas, on June 26, 1956. The last record of any activity by that society was in 1959. This article is an attempt to document the brief history of that organization and identify some of the key players associated with it. One of those that played a major role was my late uncle, Sam Whiteside. His family graciously gave permission to study his notes and records, which included the records from the ETAS. Unfortunately, Mr. Whiteside suffered from a debilitating disease that became acute in the summer of 1959, requiring hospitalization, …

The Petrographic Analysis Of Sherds From The Musgano Site (41rk19), Rusk County, Texas, Steve A. Tomka, Lori B. Love, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Characterizing the mineralogical composition of ceramic vessels and sherds from Caddo sites in East Texas by means of petrographic analysis provides a unique opportunity to gather and investigate empirical evidence from ceramic vessels on: (1) technological and manufacturing practices, and (2) their trade and exchange at varying scales conducted by ancestral Caddo people with their neighbors, both near and far (i.e., other ancestral Caddo groups as well as non-Caddo communities). This evidence in turn can be used to explore changes in the nature of social and economic relationships between particular Caddo groups and other prehistoric populations. Identified compositional and paste …

The Late Paleoindian Occupation Of The Western Ouachita Mountains Of Southeast Oklahoma: The Archaeology Of Component V At The Quince Site (34at134), Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Quince site (34AT134) is a well-preserved and relatively deeply stratified Ouachita Mountains archaeological site in Atoka County in southeastern Oklahoma. The site’s archaeological deposits are buried in Late Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial terrace deposits of McGee Creek, a tributary to Muddy Boggy Creek, itself a southern-flowing tributary to the Red River, that cuts through the western edge of the mountains.

Excavated in 1982 and 1983 prior to the creation of McGee Creek Reservoir by the Bureau of Reclamation, the 3.0 m deep archaeological deposits at the Quince site contained a record of prehistoric occupations spanning most of the Holocene …

Documentation Of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels In The Smith County Historical Museum Collections, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Mark Walters

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

This report puts on record the collection of 34 ancestral Caddo vessels held by the Smith County Historical Museum (SCHM) in Tyler, Texas. Most of the collection was donated to the SCHM in 2013, but several were also donated in 1985 (Carol Kehl, April 2014 personal communication).

The vessels in this collection have been documented following the methods employed by the Friends of Northeast Texas Archaeology and Archeological & Environmental Consultants, LLC on a number of ancestral Caddo ceramic collections from East Texas archaeological sites (e.g., Perttula 2011, 2013, 2014; Perttula and Nelson 2013; Perttula and Thacker 2014; Perttula et …

Documentation Of Caddo Vessels In The Robert L. Turner Collection At Stephen F. Austin State University, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Mark Walters

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

Perttula et al. (2010) documented more than 300 ceramic vessels in the Robert L. Turner, Jr. collection from ancestral Caddo burial sites in East Texas, primarily from the Big Cypress Creek basin, but also including vessels from sites in the middle Sabine, lower Sulphur River, and Neches/Angelina River basins. When the Turner collection was donated to Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) in 2012, it was noted that some of the vessels in the collection had not been documented by Perttula et al. (2010). In the spring of 2014 we had an opportunity to remedy the situation, and with the …

Documentation Of Cemeteries And Funerary Offerings From Sites In The Upper Neches River Basin, Anderson, Cherokee, And Smith Counties, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

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

This publications concerns the documentation of ceramic vessels, a ceramic pipe, a stemmed arrow point, and glass beads from several post-A.D. 1400 ancestral Caddo sites in the upper Neches River basin in Smith, Anderson, and Cherokee counties, Texas. Two of the sites have been recorded and have state of Texas trinomials: Vanderpool (41SM77) on Saline Creek and Pipe (41AN67) along the Neches River, but the other sites (one also on Saline Creek) and collections have not been.

These artifacts were recovered from a series of burials excavated and recorded by Buddy Calvin Jones at the sites in 1956 and 1960. …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From Sites In The Upper Neches River Basin Of East Texas, Anderson And Cherokee Counties, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, P. Shawn Marceaux, Bo Nelson, Mark Walters

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

This report concerns the analysis and documentation of 129 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from seven burial/cemetery sites in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas: R. L. Jowell (41AN13, n=13 vessels), Mrs. Emma Owens (41AN21, n=1 vessel), Richard Patton (41AN26, n=29 vessels), Pierce Freeman (41AN34, n=19 vessels), E. W. Hackney (41CE6, n=8 vessels), Jim P. Allen (41CE12, n=55 vessels), and R. F. Wallace (41CE20, n=1 vessel). These sites are part of a cluster of Late Caddo and Historic Caddo period sites in northeastern Anderson County and northwestern Cherokee County (Figures 1 and 2).