Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

2016 Archaeological Investigations At The T. M. 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

On March 4th and 5th, 2016, Bo Nelson and Mark Walters returned to the T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) to inspect the property after Julia Trigg Crawford, the main landowner of the site, informed us that the fields at the site had been prepped for this year ’s planting. This article summarizes the findings from these archaeological investigations, which also included the surface examination of the 40 acres of the Sanders site owned by the Sanders family.

The Sanders site is a large and impressive ancestral Caddo mound center and village situated on an alluvial terrace (450 ft. amsl) at …

The Prairie Caddo Model And The J.B. White Site, Ross C. Fields

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

This article summarizes an hypothesis—called the Prairie Caddo model—presented in a research module published in 2006 to help explain some obvious connections in material culture between Caddo sites in east Texas and sites in central Texas. Harry J. Shafer prepared this module, entitled People of the Prairie: A Possible Connection to the Davis Site Caddo, as an outgrowth in part of excavations that Prewitt and Associates, Inc., performed at the J. B. White site in 2002 for the Texas Department of Transportation. Following the summary of the hypothesis is a synopsis of the results of the excavations at J. B. …

The Adair Site: Caddo Relations Through Ceramic Analysis, Joanne D. Starr

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

The Adair site (3GA1), located in the Upper Ouachita River Valley in Garland County, Arkansas is an Upper Ouachita Caddo site. The people at the site are presume to be at the center of cultural dominance for the area and had interaction with Caddo sites in the region. This article explores this by studying the whole vessel collections that were excavated at the Adair site in the 1930s. Comparing the Adair collection to three other Caddo sites provides information about the social standing of the Adair site, its relations with other sites, and how it fits into the greater fabric …

A Report On A Long Term Research Program On The Bowman Site In Arkansas, Duncan P. Mckinnon

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

The Bowman (3LR46) and Bowman/Wallace (3LR50) sites represent a Caddo multi-mound center on the Red River in Little River County, Arkansas. Southeastern researchers may recognize the site name from an engraved shell cup and several additional “SECC” objects found in Mound 2. Hoffman provides a brief summary of digging at the sites and offers a proposed site organization of eight mounds (both burial and “temple mounds”) surrounding a possible plaza area and at least three offmound cemeteries. Material collected from Mounds 1 and 2 and two off-mound cemeteries suggest Haley phase (ca. A.D. 1200-1400) occupations. Additionally, data from Mound 1 …

Salvage Along The Red River: The Red Cox (3la18) Site And Its Place On The Caddo Landscape, Duncan P. Mckinnon, Ryan Nguyen, Tyler Yeager, Leslie L. Bush

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

The Red Cox (3LA18) site is located in Lafayette County, Arkansas along the Red River. As recounted in his weekly report of April 9, 1975, Dr. Frank Schambach received word that the site was being directly impacted by land leveling machinery. Salvage efforts collected the remains from the floor of a burned Caddo farmstead structure. Remains include ceramic sherds, carbonized corn kernels, acorn nutmeat and nutshells, burned wood fragments, and bits of daub. In this paper, we present the results of a recent analysis of the materials and situate the farmstead within the Red River landscape during a period shortly …

Patterns Of Cranial Trauma At The Akers Site (34lf32) Of Southeastern Oklahoma, Simone Rowe

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

Previous work at Wister Valley Fourche Maline sites in southeastern Oklahoma has concluded that the area was a contested landscape with extensive feuding, resulting trophy-taking behavior, and mass burials. Preliminary paleopathological work at the Akers site (34Lf32) suggested that there may have been a high percentage of broken bones, however complete analyses had not been completed. New paleopathological work at the Akers site indicates that 35 percent of the adults buried there had at least one fractured bone at time of death. Furthermore, adult females were more likely to have lower limb fractures and multiple fractures, suggesting different patterns of …

Current Research In The Sabine Mine’S Rusk Permit, Rusk County, Texas, Ross C. Fields, John E. Dockall

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

In 2014–2015, Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted test excavations at seven Native American sites—41RK674, 41RK680, 41RK693, 41RK695, 41RK703, 41RK704, and 41RK729—in northeast Rusk County, Texas. These sites are in Area W of the South Hallsville No. 1 Mine’s Rusk Permit, which is operated by North American Coal Corporation–Sabine Mine. The excavations consisted of 92 m2 (80.7 m3) of hand-dug test units and 63 backhoe trenches (702 m2).

Testing determined that the sites have components dating as early as the Middle Archaic period (ca. 3500 B.C.) and as late as the Late Caddo period (late A.D. 1400s), with Late Archaic, Woodland, …

Update On Recent Activities At The Arkansas Archeological Survey’S Henderson State University Research Station In Arkadelphia, Mary Beth D. Trubitt

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

The Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station (ARAS/HSU) has been active with several small field projects this year, as well as on-going work in the lab. In February and March 2016, Mary Beth Trubitt and Katie Leslie advised Hot Springs National Park personnel on placement of four soil moisture monitors so as to avoid cultural features at 3GA22, a significant novaculite quarry with prehistoric and historic components. In the process, we were able to map additional quarry features, most of which are associated with early twentieth century whetstone procurement. Our fieldwork and documentation resulted in extending the site …

Current Archeological Research In East Texas: Documentation Of Wps-Gus Arnold Archeological Survey Collections, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Gus Arnold identified and recorded many ancestral Caddo sites during his 1939-1940 Works Progress Administration (WPA)-sponsored archeological survey of East Texas. Currently, I have been engaged in studying the artifact collections from 51 WPA sites in Angelina, Cherokee, Gregg, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Sabine, and San Augustine counties, especially the ceramic sherd assemblages, held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas. The sites are located in the Sabine River, Neches River, Angelina River, and Attoyac Bayou stream basins.

Effigy Pottery In The Joint Educational Consortium’S Hodges Collection, Mary B. Trubitt

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

As part of on-going documentation of the Joint Educational Consortium’s Hodges Collection, 31 ceramic effigy vessels or vessel fragments are described. Most were dug by Thomas and Charlotte Hodges or Vere Huddleston in the 1930s-1940s from sites in the Middle Ouachita archeological region of southwest Arkansas. By documenting these vessels and what is known of their archeological contexts, we can better employ them in future analyses of regional variation, iconography, and interactions between the Caddo Area and the Mississippian Southeast.

A Report And Request Toward Building A Canine Burial Corpus, Duncan P. Mckinnon

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

Both the affectionate and mutually adaptive relationships that contemporary humans share with the dog (Canis familiaris) are the result of a long history of domestication. Because of this long partnership, an analysis of dog burials can shed light on certain integrated components associated with mortuary practices, symbolic expression, and oral traditions in humans. There is an enormous amount of archeological and ethnological literature describing the role of the domesticated dog around the world. These sources describe the variable roles of dogs as human partners, friends, companions in hunting and herding, as pack animals, as guard, fighting, and war dogs, as …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The T. M. Sanders Site (41lr2) On The Red River In Lamar County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters, Bo Nelson

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). The Sanders site is located on a broad alluvial terrace just south of the confluence of Bois d’Arc Creek and the Red River. The terrace has silt loam soils, which have a shallow dark brown silt loam A-horizon overlying thick B- and C-horizons that range from dark reddish-brown, reddish-brown, dark brown, to yellowish-red in color. These soils …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Paul Mitchell Site (41bw4) On The Red River, Bowie County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Mark Walters

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 (Figure 1). Extensive excavations were conducted at the site in the 1930s by both professional and avocational archaeologists, and in the 1940s by an avocational archaeologist. The Paul Mitchell site is located in the McKinney Bayou floodplain about 2 miles from the current channel of the Red River to the north. The site is part of a large …

Caddo Archaeology In The Caddo Creek Valley Of The Upper Neches River Basin, Anderson And Henderson Counties, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

Caddo Creek is a generally eastward-flowing tributary of the Neches River that originates in Henderson County in East Texas. The creek flows ca. 30 km to its confluence with the Neches River, just south of the A. C. Saunders site (41AN19), one of the more important ancestral Caddo mound centers in this part of East Texas.

Caddo Creek flows from west to east across the eastern edge of the Post Oak Savannah and into the Pineywoods physiographic regions of East Texas (see Figure 1b; see also Diggs et al. 2006). The Pineywoods cover large parts of East Texas, have medium-tall …

Prairie Caddo Sites In Coryell And Mclennan Counties In Central Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Did ancestral Caddo peoples live and settle on the prairies of Central Texas in prehistoric times (i.e., before A.D. 1680)? Story had noted that there is little known about “the nature of the Caddo connections” in these sites, and she wondered what these settlements represented: “(1) groups from the east who occupied the area year round and/or seasonally; or (2) local groups who were interacting with Caddoans [sic] through trade, marriage, and visitations…?” In this article, I am concerned with the consideration of “Caddo connections” as expressed in the character of the ceramic assemblages from four sites in Central Texas …

A Late Caddo Period Vessel From The De Long Farm Site (41an16) In The Upper Neches River Basin, Anderson County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The De Long Farm site (41AN16) is in the Caddo Creek valley in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas, about 3.2 km northwest of the small town of Frankston, Texas. A Caddo midden area was about 200 m to the east.

The site was found by a local farmer after a vessel was discovered in a gully in a field after plowing. University of Texas archaeologists investigated the find spot in October 1935, but after excavating a large area around the vessel find spot, no other vessels or any evidence of burials were found. UT did purchase the …

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The J. B. Sparkman Site (41hp26), Hopkins County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Two ancestral Caddo vessels were excavated by a J. B. Sparkman from a burial that had been exposed by erosion. The burial was found on the site in the Caney Creek valley in the upper Sabine River basin near the community of Black Oak in southeastern Hopkins County, Texas. The University of Texas purchased the two vessels from Mr. Sparkman in May 1931.

Caddo Ceramic Assemblage From A Site Across The Road From The Millsey Williamson Site In Rusk County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

In archaeological investigations by Jones at the Nadaco Caddo Millsey Williamson site (41RK3), he identified a burial area on the western tip of an alluvial terrace landform on the east side of Martin Creek, as well as a village area to the east. The burial area and the village area were separated by a road, a paved segment of the 19th century Trammel’s Trace. Trammel’s Trace was an Anglo–American version of the aboriginal Caddo Trace “that led from the Hasinai Caddo settlements in East Texas to the Kadohadacho settlements on the Red River in the general area of Texarkana, Texas, …

Eagle Burials On Red River Caddo Sites, Timothy K. Perttula

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

A wide variety of birds are found in faunal assemblages from Caddo sites in southwest Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, eastern Oklahoma, and East Texas, particularly turkey as well as ducks and geese. One of the rarest avifauna recovered on Caddo sites of any age is that of the eagle, including bald eagles and golden eagles.

An Ancestral Caddo Site On Mill Creek In Rusk County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Site RC–15 (the 15th site recorded in Rusk County by Jones) in Rusk County, Texas, in the Pineywoods, was identified by Buddy Calvin Jones during his wide–ranging survey investigations in East Texas in the 1950s–1960s. This ancestral Caddo site is on Mill Creek, a tributary stream in the mid–Sabine River basin, a few miles south of its confluence with Tiawichi Creek. The Oak Hill Village site (41RK214), a large ancestral Caddo settlement that was occupied between ca. A.D. 1150–1450, is on Mill Creek not far south of Site RC–15.

Reaping The Whirlwind: The Caddo After Europeans, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Cast

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

The De Soto chronicles introduce us to the Caddo Indian peoples of East Texas in what we can arbitrarily call “historic times.” The Gentleman of Elvas had this to say when the Spaniards reached the Caddo province of Naguatex on the Red River in the Great Bend area of southwestern Arkansas in August of 1542.

The cacique [of Naguatex], on beholding the damage that his land was receiving [from the Spanish forces], sent six of his principal men and three Indians with them as guides who knew the language of the region ahead where the governor [Luis de Moscoso] was …

A Ceramic Sherd Assemblage From A Caddo Site 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

This article reports on a collection of ancestral Caddo artifacts from an unrecorded site in the upper Neches River basin in northeastern Henderson County in East Texas. The collection had been found by landowners on an unreported Caddo site in this locale—which appears to be in the Caddo Creek valley west of the Neches River—and the collection was recently relocated by Debbie Shelley of Frankston, Texas. Mrs. Shelley brought the collection to the 2015 East Texas Archeological Conference, and provided the opportunity to fully document the ceramic and lithic artifacts in the collection.

Caddo Ceramic Sherd Assemblage From A Hearth Feature At The Cherokee Lake Site (41rk132) In Rusk County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

There is a collection of plain and decorated ceramic sherds in the Gregg County Historical Museum from a feature, described as either a fire pit or a hearth, excavated by Buddy Calvin Jones in March 1956 at the Cherokee Lake site (41RK132) on Toawichi Creek in northern Rusk County, Texas. This assemblage is discussed in this article.

The Cherokee Lake site is best known for its early 18th century Nadaco Caddo component, but it also has a Middle Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1200–1400) component. In Jones’ discussion of work he conducted at the Cherokee Lake site, he mentions the excavation …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From Lake Sam Rayburn Sites, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

The distinctive Caddo ceramic vessels from the lower Neches–Angelina (i.e., Lake Sam Rayburn) and the lower Sabine (i.e., Toledo Bend Reservoir) river basins are not well understood, due to current cultural phase taxonomic difficulties and poorly defined ceramic assemblages. Sites in these areas were included in the Angelina focus by Jelks, which was a “broadly defined unit encompassing the entire Caddoan [sic] sequence in the Lake Sam Rayburn locality; needs reevaluation in light of larger sample of sites which are known in the area." Perttula used the term late Angelina focus to refer to sites in these localities that date …

Bone Tools From Caddo Sites In The Angelina River Basin In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

In addition to the use of stone for tools, ancestral Caddo communities in East Texas also relied on organic materials for tools, including animal bones and plant parts (i.e., cane and wood). Bone tools were an important part of the technological system of Caddo groups and their study helps to understand the range of activities that occurred at Caddo sites in particular locations and regions. However, they are often not preserved in habitation deposits and features on East Texas Caddo sites due to bioturbation and erosion of sandy sediments where artifacts came to accumulate during an occupation or series of …

Incised–Punctated Utility Ware Sherds From Lake Sam Rayburn Ancestral Caddo Sites, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

One of the more distinctive of the decorative methods represented in the ancestral Caddo ceramic assemblages from Lake Sam Rayburn sites is sherds and vessels with incised–punctated decorative elements. This diversity in the range and character of sherds and vessels with incised–punctated decorative elements is also the case in ancestral Caddo sites on the Sabine River and tributaries in the Toledo Bend Reservoir area of East Texas and Northwest Louisiana.

Jelks included the incised–punctated vessels and sherds from the Lake Sam Rayburn sites in a newly defined type: Pineland Punctated–Incised. Pineland Punctated– Incised is a grog and/or bone–tempered utility ware, …

Ceramic Pipes From Lake Sam Rayburn Caddo Sites, Angelina River Basin, East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

Ceramic pipes are an important part of the ancestral Caddo material culture in all parts of the Caddo area from as early as ca. A.D. 800, and there are also ceramic pipes known from Woodland period sites in the Caddo area. The Caddo pipe forms known include long–stemmed (up to 61 cm in length) Red River pipes, elbow pipes of several varieties, and platform pipes. All three pipe forms are known from Caddo sites at Lake Sam Rayburn in the Angelina River basin in East Texas.

New Radiocarbon Dates From Four East Texas Caddo Sites, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The East Texas Radiocarbon Database is an important and relatively new database concerning one key aspect of the archaeological record of the Caddo peoples that lived in East Texas from as early as ca. A.D. 800/850. To date, there are a total of approximately 920 radiocarbon dates available from ancestral Caddo sites in the region in the East Texas Radiocarbon Database.

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The S. E. Watson (41rr8) And Hook’S Ferry (41rr9) Sites, Red River County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Mark Walters

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

There are 15 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from the S. E. Watson (n=13) and Hook’s Ferry (n=2) sites in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. The S. E. Watson site is a Caddo mound center, village, and cemetery on Pecan Bayou near its confluence with the Red River. Another Caddo mound was reported at nearby 41RR67, on the Chapman Plantation, although it may have been destroyed by Red River flooding. The Hook’s Ferry site (41RR9) is situated in the Red River floodplain just east of the Jonesborough site (41RR15), north of …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Eli Moores Site (41bw2), 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 Eli Moores site is situated on a natural levee of the Red River, currently about 2.5 km north of the site.

The site, occupied from the 17th to the early 18th century, 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 …