Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

Synthesis: What We Have Learned From The East Texas Radiocarbon Database, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

This poster provides a short overview of what we have learned from the East Texas Radiocarbon Database since it became available on the Council of Texas Archeologists’ website in 2011. These successes are numerous and include the advancement of novel methodological approaches; an improvement in our comprehension of the temporal nuances within the East Texas Archaic; the division of the East Texas Woodland period into Early, Middle and Late; the refinement of Caddo temporal chronology – particularly from a geographic perspective -- and it has provided one line of evidence to use to argue for the fluorescence of corn-based agriculture …

Ceramic Petrofacies: Modeling The Angelina River Basin In East Texas, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

Ceramic provenance studies remain the basis of worldwide archaeological research concerned with reconstructing exchange networks, tracing migrations, and informing upon ceramic economy. Unfortunately, Texas archaeologists have been plagued with an inability to trace ceramic production sources to the same extent as researchers within other regions. Ceramic petrofacies models have been employed successfully in archaeological contexts at the San Pedro Valley, Tonto basin, Tucson basin, Agua Fria, and Gila and Phoenix basins in Arizona, but have not yet been employed east of Arizona. Data resulting from the construction of an actualistic petrofacies model in the prehistoric coastal environment of East Texas …

Epistemology And Synthesis: Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis And The Caddo Tradition, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

The statistical groupings illustrated herein represent the current iteration of Caddo INAA compositional groups based upon the chemical composition of archaeologically-recovered ceramics. For some time, a number of Caddo archaeologists have thought these results to be lacking. This poster symbolizes the first step toward a new interpretation of chemical composition groups, and the initial instancce within which GIS has been employed as an analytical tool.

Radiocarbon Trends And The East Texas Caddo Tradition (Ca. A.D. 800-1680), Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

Through the employment of radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates as data, we use the date combination process to refine site-specific summed probability distributions for 555 dates from Caddo sites (n = 19) in East Texas with 10 or more ¹⁴C dates. Summed probability distributions are then contrasted across river basins and natural regions with the remainder of the East Texas Caddo Radiocarbon Database (n = 338 dates from 132 other Caddo sites), highlighting the temporal and spatial character of Caddo archaeological sites throughout East Texas.

Consilience: Radiocarbon, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, And Litigation In The Ancestral Caddo Region, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

Through the creation and analysis of databases for radiocarbon, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), and law, macro-level trends are exposed that form the framework of a broader research program aimed at advancing ideas of craft specialization and archaeological theory in the ancestral Caddo region of Southwest Arkansas, Northwest Louisiana, Northeast Texas, and Southeast Oklahoma. The findings of this investigation illustrate the research potential that remains buried within the context of cultural resource management (CRM) reports and legal databases (Westlaw and LexisNexis) that is awaiting consumption within regional research designs aimed at exploring the nuances and trends that appear through synthetic …

Additional New Radiocarbon Dates From East Texas Caddo Sites, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

As a follow-up to the radiocarbon analyses reported by Perttula and Selden (2013), in this article, we report on five new radiocarbon dates obtained from Caddo sites in East Texas. The radiocarbon samples are charred organic remains scraped off of one surface of whole vessels or sherds. These samples are from the Ware Acres site (41GG31), the H. C. Slider site in Cherokee County, an unknown site in the upper Neches River basin in Smith County (9-SC), and an unknown Titus phase site (11-BCJ) in the Big Cypress Creek basin. All of the dates are calibrated using OxCal v4.1.7.

Analysis Of The Ceramic Sherds From Area C At The Ware Acres Site (41gg31), Gregg County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr., R. Bo Nelson

CRHR: Archaeology

The Ware Acres site (41GG31) was discovered by Buddy Calvin Jones in 1951 on an alluvial terrace of Grace Creek, a southern-flowing tributary to the Sabine River in the southwestern part of the city of Longview, Texas. The site is best known for Jones’ discovery and excavation of an eighteenthcentury Caddo burial with an abundance of European trade goods (Jones 1968:21-24). However, Jones also investigated other parts of the site, which contained extensive Caddo habitation deposits, especially one area at the southern part of the site that had Late Caddo Titus phase midden deposits and remnants of house structures. A …

Temporal Dynamics Of East Texas Caddo Sites With 10 Or More Radiocarbon Dates, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

This article represents supplementary data (see Selden and Perttula 2013) highlighting the specifics of date combination and the subsequent production of summed probability distribution samples for Caddo sites in East Texas. All radiocarbon (14C ) dates employed in this effort were collected from research and cultural resource management (CRM) reports and publications, synthesized, then recalibrated in version 4.1.7 of OxCal (Bronk Ramsey 2012) using IntCal09 (Reimer et al. 2009) (Perttula and Selden 2011).

New Radiocarbon Dates From East Texas Caddo Sites, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

In this article, we report on new radiocarbon dates obtained from five Caddo sites in East Texas. The radiocarbon samples are charred organic remains scraped off of one surface of whole vessels or sherds. These samples are from the Johns (41CP12), Shelby Mound (41CP71), Gilbert (41RA13), Henry Spencer (41UR315), and Henry Williams (41UR318) sites. All of the dates are calibrated using OxCal v4.1.7 (Bronk Ramsey 2012), with atmospheric data from Reimer et al. (2009).

The Archaeology Of The Caddo, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

No abstract provided.

Little Cypress Creek Basin Archaeology: Six Late Caddo Period Cemeteries In Upshur County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters, Bo Nelson

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

Our concern in this report is to present the archaeological findings from six Late Caddo (ca. A.D. 1450-1680) cemetery sites in the Little Cypress Creek basin in Upshur County, in East Texas. These are the Enis Smith (41 UR317), Henry Williams (41UR318), I. P. Starr (41 UR319), Herbert Taft (41 UR320), Frank Smith (41 UR326), and Frank Smith Refinery (41 UR327) sites. There are two other large Late Caddo cemeteries in this same area that will also be discussed herein: Henry Spencer (41 UR315, Perttula et al. 2012) and the Sword site (41 UR8/208).

These sites represent a group of …

Caddo Sites In The Saline Creek Basin In Northern Smith County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

This article concerns the documentation of the artifacts from four prehistoric Caddo sites in the Saline Creek drainage basin in the Post Oak Savannah in northern Smith County, Texas. Saline Creek is a northward-flowing tributary to the Sabine River. The Caddo sites are ca. 10 km south of the confluence of Saline Creek with the Sabine River. Saline Creek enters into the Sabine River about 6 km east (downstream) of the confluence of a major tributary, Lake Fork Creek, with the river.

Certain Caddo Sites On Stone Chimney Creek, Cherokee County, Texas, Mark Walters, Timothy K. Perttula, Leeanna Schniebs

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

Limited archaeological investigations coupled with private landowner’s surface collections on Stone Chimney Creek in northwestern Cherokee County, Texas has resulted in the recording of nine new Caddo sites, several of which appear to have been occupied after ca. A.D. 1650 in the Allen phase. The landowner had collected artifacts on his farm and contacted the Texas Historical Commission (THC) about getting information about them, who in turn contacted the author, a member of the Texas Archeological Stewardship Network. The landowner was interested in learning more about the native inhabitants who had once called this portion of Stone Chimney Creek home. …

The Killdeer Site (41sm379): A Middle Caddo Site In Northern Smith County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

The Killdeer site was reported in July 2007 by Mark Walters, based on a surface reconnaissance of the site area and a small surface collection of artifacts, primarily prehistoric Caddo pottery sherds. The site is situated on a lower upland slope (410 feet amsl) about 190m northeast of Loves Branch, a small stream in the Harris Creek drainage in the Sabine River basin. Soils are a Redsprings very gravelly sandy loam, 8-25% slopes. Darkly-stained sediments and burned animal bone suggest that there is a Caddo midden deposit at the northern end of the site.

The Caddo Ceramic Assemblage From The New Hope Site (41fk107), Franklin County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

The New Hope site (41FK107) is located on an alluvial terrace (330-340 ft. amsl) on the west side of the Big Cypress Creek valley, about 200m west of the channel at the time it was inundated by Lake Bob Sandlin. The site covers an estimated 2.5 acres.lt is about I km north of the confluence of Brushy Creek and Big Cypress Creek. In addition to what would have been the broad floodplain of Big Cypress Creek, there are gently sloping upland landforms (340-490 ft. amsl) to the northwest, west, and south of the site, and these landforms are dissected by …

Caddo Pottery In Modern And Contemporary Art And Protection Of Native American Cultures In Fine Arts By The Iacb’S Indian Arts And Crafts Act, Chase K. Earls

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

Hello, my name is Chase Kawinhut Earles. I was named by Julia Edge, daughter of Pauline Washington, who was the granddaughter of the Caddo chief, George Washington. I recently, well, not that very long ago started creating Caddo pottery with the much appreciated guidance from Jeri Redcorn. I have been an artist all my life, but mostly only a painter, not much clay, sculpture or pottery. I was inspired to create pottery though, but my experiences were with the Southwest and the Pueblo artists, as this is what I grew up around and what I learned. But I never started. …

A Caddo Archeology Map, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Archeologists use the term “Caddo” to refer to the many archaeological sites and abundant material remains that the ancestors of the modern Caddo peoples left behind over a large area of four different states, including eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma, traditionally centered on the Red River and its tributary streams. That record is marked by the remains of farmsteads, hamlets, villages, family and community cemeteries, and many small and large mound centers with public structures on and off mound platforms, plazas, and the burials of the social and political elite in and off mounds, as well …

The Pickett Switch Site (34pn1) And The Presence Of Arkansas River Basin Caddoans In East Central Oklahoma, Robert L. Brooks

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

The expansion of Arkansas River Basin Caddoans westward along the Canadian River remains an intriguing subject of study. This paper examines the presence of Caddoans living in the Ada vicinity, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. The focus is on the Pickett Switch site excavated by Herbert Antle from 1930-1934. This paper examines the work of Herbert Antle, the history of his excavations as well as others at the Pickett Switch site, and describes a collection from the Pickett Switch site at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Concluding comments continue to seek refinement in our understanding of the settlement practices …

M. R. Harrington And The Lost Mound In Hempstead County, Arkansas, Duncan P. Mckinnon

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

In the early months of 1916, Mark R. Harrington, under the auspices of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, visited a mound site at the Battle Farm in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Harrington describes the location of the Hempstead County mound being three miles west of Fulton “on the brink of a low terrace of the Red river bottoms, perhaps half a mile north of that stream and a quarter of a mile east of Little River, which empties into the Red at this point.” Using historical maps and archaeological site reports, this paper explores the area around the …

Watershed Times For The Caddo Peoples Of The Far Southeast, Timothy K. Perttula

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

A.D. 1450 was a watershed year in the native history of the Caddo Indian peoples of the Far Southeast (southwest Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas). For the first time, recognizable and relatively geographically coherent socio-political polities in several areas can be identified that arose out of the distinctive archaeological traditions of the Caddo area that first are recognizable about A.D. 900. These new Caddo polities that came into existence at ca. A.D. 1450 apparently lasted until at least A.D. 1680, if not later, but did not survive sustained European contact with the same socio-political organization intact that …

July 1, 1835: What Did The Caddo Believe They Were Selling, And Was The Price Paid Fair?, Jim Tiller, Gang Gong

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

Most Caddo scholars interested in the tribe’s last years in Louisiana would probably agree that the above questions are largely settled business. The authors, both geographers, would tend to concur that a consensus has probably been reached on these questions; however, those with a desire to get at the truth of the matter might want to at least consider the array of archival documentation that paints a somewhat different picture of this aspect of the land cession. In the pages that follow, a case will be presented that, from the Caddo perspective of the mid-1830s, the tribe knew exactly what …

Recent Investigations At The Mounds Plantation Site (16cd12), Caddo Parish, Louisiana, Jeffery S. Girard

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

Dr. Montroville Wilson Dickeson, born in Philadelphia in 1810, was a medical doctor, taxidermist and avid collector of fossils. Between 1837 and 1844 he pursued another interest—excavating Indian burial mounds in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. He claimed to have “opened up” more than a thousand mounds and collected more than 40,000 objects. He also made drawings of the mounds and later provided these to an artist by the name of John J. Egan, who, about 1850, converted the drawings into a series of large paintings on huge canvases. Dickeson toured the country in 1852 allowing the public to …

Toward A Regional Radiocarbon Model For The East Texas Woodland Period, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

The East Texas Radiocarbon Database contributes to an analysis of tempo and place for Woodland era (ca. 500 B.C. - A.D. 800) archaeological sites within the region. The temporal and spatial distributions of calibrated radiocarbon (¹⁴C) ages (n=127) with a standard deviation (ΔT) of 61 from archaeological sites with Woodland components (n=51) are useful in exploring the development and geographical continuity of the peoples in East Texas, and lead to a refinement of our current chronological understanding of the period. While the analysis of the dates produces less than significant findings due to sample size, they are used …

Modeling Regional Radicarbon Trends: A Case Study From The East Texas Woodland Period, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

The East Texas Radiocarbon Database contributes to an analysis of tempo and place for Woodland era (~500 BC–AD 800) archaeological sites within the region. The temporal and spatial distributions of calibrated ¹⁴C ages (n = 127) with a standard deviation (ΔT) of 61 from archaeological sites with Woodland components (n = 51) are useful in exploring the development and geographical continuity of the peoples in east Texas, and lead to a refinement of our current chronological understanding of the period. While analysis of summed probability distributions (SPDs) produces less than significant findings due to sample size, they are used …

The East Texas Caddo: Modeling Tempo And Place, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

Analysis of the Caddo sample (n=889 dates) from the East Texas radiocarbon database is used to establish the tempo and place of Caddo era (ca. A.D. 800-1680) archaeological sites, site clusters, and communities across the region. The temporal and spatial distribution of radiocarbon ages from settlements, mound centers, and cemeteries across the region have utility in exploring the development and geographical continuity of the Caddo peoples; establishing the specific times when areas were abandoned or population sizes diminished; and defining times and areas illustrating an intensification in mound center construction and large cemeteries became a focus of community social practices.

A Prehistoric Caddo Site On Black Fork Creek, Upper Neches River Basin, Smith County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

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

During the course of recent archaeological survey investigations for a proposed waterline, a previously unrecorded prehistoric Caddo site Lakewood Gardens (41SM425)-was found near, but outside the right-of-way and construction casement of, the proposed waterline. This article provides summary details about the site, hopefully adding information to the sparse archaeological record of prehistoric Caddo sites along Black Fork Creek.

The site is situated on a natural upland rise (440 feet amsl) overlooking the Black Fork Creek floodplain less than 200 m to the north. Black Fork Creek is in the upper Neches River basin; the creek flows west into Prairie Creek, …

Analysis Of Artifacts From A 2010 Surface Collection At The Pace Mcdonald Site (41an51), A Probable Middle Caddo Mound Center In Anderson County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters, Bo Nelson

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

The Pace McDonald site (41AN51) is a prehistoric Caddo mound center on Mound Prairie Creek in Anderson County, Texas, in the upper Neches River Basin. With the permission of one of the landowners, Mr. Johnny Sanford, the Friends of Northeast Texas Archaeology has initiated an archaeological research effort at the site in 2010, the first part of which was an April 2010 surface reconnaissance of the Sanford lands at the site, and the surface collection of artifacts exposed there following shallow disking of several tracts within the known boundaries of the site. This article discusses the character of the artifacts …

The Pipe Site, A Late Caddo Site At Lake Palestine In Anderson County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Buddy Calvin Jones excavated a Late Caddo cemetery and midden site he called the Lake Palestine site, in Anderson County, Texas, in March 1968. His notes indicate that a total of 21 Caddo burials were excavated at the site, and the burials were situated primarily around a midden of unknown dimensions. Jones' notes do not specify how many of the burials he excavated at the Pipe site, but one photograph in the records suggests he excavated at least three, one burial of which is the focus of this article.

Mountain Fork Archaeology: A Preliminary Report On The Ramos Creek Site (34mc1030), Elsbeth L. Dowd

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

In May-June of 2010, the University of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Archeological Survey co-sponsored a field school at the Ramos Creek site (34MC1030) in southeastern Oklahoma. Ramos Creek is located in the Ouachita Mountains along the Mountain Fork, a tributary of the Little River. Recently identified by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), this site is the northernmost known site with a Caddo component along this stream (Figure 1). The best-known Caddo sites identified for this drainage were tested during the Oklahoma River Basin Survey project of the 1960s and today are covered by the man-made Broken Bow Lake. Archaeological investigations …

Some Notes On Replicating Prehistoric Pottery, John Miller

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

My interest in pottery replication began about 30 years ago. As an archeologist, I was often required to analyze collections of prehistoric pottery. My analytical techniques were limited but standard for the day and usually involved classifying pottery according to previously defined pottery types and varieties. While this type of classification helps archeologists develop chronologies and determine cultural affiliation, it provides little understanding of how pottery was actually made. I felt that I might be able to enhance my analytical skills and possibly glean a little more from the archeological record if I could learn more about how pottery was …