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Radiocarbon Dates From Aboriginal Sites In Cherokee, Henderson, And Tyler Counties In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The newly obtained radiocarbon dates discussed in this article were done by DirectAMS of Seattle, Washington. Three of the sites have only a single AMS radiocarbon date, while four radiocarbon dates have been obtained from the M. S. Roberts site (41HS8) on Caddo Creek in the Neches River basin. The radiocarbon ages obtained on these samples have been calibrated to 2 sigma using IntCal 13 (Reimer et al. 2013). These dates were obtained to continue to expand the utility of the East Texas Radiocarbon Database to better understand the age of archaeological components at sites in the region, as well …

The J. B. Maxwell Site (41ce43) In The Mud Creek Basin, Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Gus E. Arnold recorded the J. B. Maxwell site (41CE43), an ancestral Caddo site, in March 1940 under the auspices of the WPA-sponsored archaeological survey of East Texas. The site covered 2 acres of an upland landform/bluff overlooking the Turnpike Creek floodplain. Turnpike Creek is a tributary to Mud Creek in the Angelina River basin (Figure 1).

An Historic Caddo Burial At The Swen Farm Site (41bw65), Bowie County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Swen Farm site is on an alluvial terrace (220-230 ft. amsl) of the Sulphur River. When it was first recorded in 1970 prior to the enlargement of Lake Wright Patman the landform was an island in the reservoir, with the submerged channel of the river along the eastern and northern sides of the island, with artifacts of Archaic, Woodland, and ancestral Caddo period age exposed in several areas, and midden deposits were also present (Briggs and Malone 1970). In 1971, an early 18th century Caddo burial feature was discovered at the site by L. H. Head, Sr., of Texarkana, …

Magnetic Gradient Survey At The M. S. Roberts (41he8) Site In Henderson County, Texas, Duncan P. Mckinnon, Timothy K. Perttula, Arlo Mckee

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

The M. S. Roberts site is located in Henderson County, Texas and it represents one of the few known Caddo mound sites in the upper Neches River Basin in northeast Texas (Figure 1). The site is situated along Caddo Creek – an eastward-flowing tributary of the Neches River (Perttula et al. 2016; Perttula 2016; Perttula and Walters 2016). The site is located southeast of Athens, Texas. When first recorded, the single mound at the site was approximately 24 m long and 20 m wide and roughly 1.7 m in height (Pearce and Jackson 1931). Directly west of the mound was …

41ag9 And 41ag10: Ancestral Caddo Sites On Percella Creek In The Angelina River Basin In East Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Both 41AG9 (ET-609) and 41AG10 (ET-610) were identified and recorded by Gus E. Arnold in late 1939-early 1940 under the auspices of the very successful WPA University of Texas archaeological survey of East Texas; they are only ca. 400 m apart. The sites are on elevated alluvial landforms in the Percella Creek valley; Percella Creek is an eastward-flowing tributary to the Angelina River, and joins the river about 3 km to the east of the sites (Figure 1).

During Arnold’s archaeological survey, he collected substantial numbers of ceramic vessel sherds from both sites, and the sites were in plowed fields …

The Kinsloe Site (41gg3) On Rabbit Creek In The Mid-Sabine River Basin, Gregg County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Kinsloe site (41GG3) is on Rabbit Creek in the middle Sabine River basin a few miles north of Kilgore, Texas. The site is ca. 2 km west of the confluence of Rabbit Creek and the Sabine River. This site is one of a number of late 17th to early 19th century Caddo sites that have been associated with the Kinsloe focus or phase first recognized by Buddy C. Jones (1968; see also Fields and Gadus 2012:639- 643; Perttula 2007), and affiliated with Nadaco Caddo groups. Jones (1968:29-47 and Figure 3) provides a detailed summary of the local avocational archaeological …

The Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Assemblage From The Will Odham Site (41ce42) In The Angelina River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Will Odham site (ET-713) was recorded by Gus E. Arnold in March 1940 under the auspices of the WPA-sponsored archaeological survey of East Texas. The site was on an alluvial rise in the Big Turnpike Creek valley; Big Turnpike Creek is a tributary to Mud Creek in the Angelina River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods (Figure 1). The J. B. Maxwell site (41CE43), also recorded by Arnold, lies ca. 600 m northwest of the Odham site (Perttula 2017).

Archaeological deposits were estimated to cover a 5 acre area, but were concentrated in a ca. 60 m diameter area. …

Continued Shovel Test Investigations At The Historic Caddo Allen Phase Bowles Creek Site (41ce475), 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 (41CE475) on Bowles Creek in the Neches River basin in East Texas (Figure 1) is an important and well-preserved Historic Caddo Allen phase habitation site on a low alluvial rise not far north of the current channel of Bowles Creek (Perttula and Stingley 2016, 2017; Perttula et al. 2016). This article summarizes the archaeological findings from the February 2016 excavation of 18 additional shovel tests (ST 40-48 and ST 50-60) at the site, placed between 10-25 m north of the Bowles Creek channel, and excavated in an attempt to clarify the subsurface character and depth of …

The Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Cemetery At 41hs74 On Hatley Creek In The Sabine River Basin, Harrison County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Site 41HS74 is an ancestral Caddo habitation site and cemetery on Hatley Creek, a southwardflowing tributary to the Sabine River, in the East Texas Pineywoods (Figure 1). The site was investigated in 1986 by Heartfield, Price and Greene, Inc. (1988). The re-analysis of the ceramic vessels recovered from nine burial features at the site are the subject of this article. The vessels are curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL).

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Sherds From 2016 Investigations At 41mr211, Marion County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Renewed archaeological investigations in 2016 by the Texas Historical Commission at the early 19th century Caddo site 41MR211 recovered a small number of ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel sherds from a variety of contexts in Locus 3 (Table 1), which is located just east of the main 1999 excavation block (Figure 1). The sherds are from grog-tempered (70 percent) and shell-tempered (30 percent) vessels. In the larger vessel sherd assemblage (n=368) reported by Parsons et al. (2002a, 2002b) from 41MR211, 36.8 percent of the sherds are from shell-tempered vessels and 59.4 percent are from vessels made with grog temper.

Caddo Ceramic Vessel Database From Sites In Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, And Arkansas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

This compilation of more than 9310 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels is from 356 sites and collections primarily in Texas (i.e., about 87 percent of the vessels and 88 percent of the sites and collections), although there are significant collections in this compilation from sites in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. The ceramic vessel database has been compiled from available published and unpublished articles, monographs, and technical reports, as well as ceramic vessel inventory forms (when available) on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory.

New Radiocarbon Dates From The Sanders Site (41lr2), Lamar County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Recent archaeological investigations at the West Mound at the Sanders site (41LR2), on the Red River in Lamar County, Texas, disclosed substantial archaeological deposits associated with a burned clay floor to an ancestral Caddo structure in the mound. A significant part of the archaeological deposit were unburned animal bones of turtle, deer, and bison, along with Middle Caddo period, Sanders phase, fine and utility ware ceramic sherds; Sanders is one of 26 known Caddo sites in East Texas with bison bones and/or tools. In this article, I discuss the results of the radiocarbon dating of two samples of animal bone—deer …

The Harold Nix Site In Morris County, Texas: A Late Titus Phase Cemetery On Boggy Creek In The Big Cypress Creek Basin, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The Harold Nix site is an ancestral Caddo cemetery excavated in 1995 and 1996 by Ralph Nicholas and colleagues on land owned by Harold Nix on a sandy landform along a small tributary to Boggy Creek, itself a southward-flowing tributary to Big Cypress Creek, in Morris County, Texas. The site was discovered during backhoe work on the property in July 1975, and Mr. Nix asked Nicholas to excavate the cemetery. The exact location of the site is not known and a state trinomial has not been assigned the site at this time. Nicholas’ notes on the excavations and collections were …

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Tom Shumate Site (41rk2), Rusk County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The subject of this article are the four ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from the Tom Shumate site (41RK2) in Rusk County. The site is on Dry Creek in the upper Angelina River basin, about 5 km southeast of the town of Mount Enterprise, Texas (Figure 1). The ceramic vessels were found by the landowner after a flood in April 1935 had exposed a burial feature. Later work in 1935 by The University of Texas at Austin, led by A. T. Jackson, recovered no additional burial features; Jackson purchased the vessels from the landowner.

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels From Sites In The Upper Neches River Basin In Anderson And Cherokee Counties, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Julian A. Sitters

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

Late Caddo period sites belonging to the Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 1400-1680) and the Historic Caddo Allen phase (ca. A.D. 1680-1800) are common in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas, including habitation sites as well as associated and unassociated cemeteries. As is well known, ancestral Caddo cemeteries have burial features with associated funerary offerings, most commonly ceramic vessels. In this article, we document 34 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) from six different sites in the upper Neches River basin, including the Ballard …

Report On Magnetic Gradient Survey At Three Caddo Sites In East Texas, Duncan P. Mckinnon

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

The use of magnetic gradient at Caddo sites located throughout the Caddo people’s ancestral lands within the current areas of east Texas, southwest Arkansas, northeast Louisiana, and eastern Oklahoma has been very successful in the elucidation and mapping of the distributional characteristics of buried cultural features. January 2016 surveys conducted at three Caddo sites in East Texas (41CE475, 41CE476, and 41CE477) add to this growing corpus of remote sensing spatial data. The survey work was conducted in order to assess the nature of sub-surface preservation in different environmental and historical contexts and map the distribution of geophysical anomalies attributed to …

Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The A. C. Gibson Site (41wd1) In The Sabine River Valley, Wood County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bob D. Skiles

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

The A. C. Gibson site (41WD1) is an ancestral Caddo site located on a natural knoll at the base of an upland landform, adjacent to the floodplain of the Sabine River and Cedar Lake, an old channel of the river, in southwestern Wood County, in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas. Two Caddo ceramic vessels are in the collections from the site held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. These vessels are documented in this article.

Test Excavations And Additional Surface Collections At The Peach Orchard Site (41ce477) On Bowles Creek In Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Kevin Stingley

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

In March 2016, additional archaeological investigations were conducted at the Peach Orchard site (41CE477) in the Bowles Creek valley in Cherokee County, Texas. This is an area with numerous Historic Caddo Allen phase settlements, including the Peach Orchard site. Investigations at these sites have included pedestrian survey, systematic surface collections, intensive shovel testing, excavation of several 1 x 1 m units, and remote sensing. The ancestral Caddo sherd collection from the sites strongly suggest they are locations of post-A.D. 1680 Historic Caddo settlements, probably by the Neche or Nechas Caddo peoples. Patton Engraved sherds, the Allen phase fine ware ceramic …

The Use Of Clay Pigments On Ceramic Vessel Sherds From The Hatchel Site (41bw3) And Comparisons To Ancestral East Texas Caddo Ceramic Vessel Assemblages, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The most distinctive material culture item of the Caddo groups living in East Texas were the ceramics they made for cooking, storage, and serving needs, and also included as necessary funerary goods. The styles and forms of ceramics found on sites in the region hint at the variety, temporal span, and geographic extent of a number of ancestral Caddo groups spread across the landscape. The diversity in decoration and shape in Caddo ceramics is substantial, both in the utility ware jars and bowls, as well as in the fine ware bottles, carinated bowls, and compound vessels, and these characteristics are …

Correspondence Between George T. Wright And A. T. Jackson Regarding Late 1930s-Early 1940s Excavations At The Sam Kaufman Site (41rr16), Timothy K. Perttula

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

In the 1930s and 1940s George T. Wright was a landowner (Kiomatia Plantation) and Vice-President of the Kiomitia Mercantile Company: General Merchandise in Kiomatia and Paris, Texas. He was also an avid Indian artifact collector at sites along the Red River in Red River, Texas, and also dug at sites he knew in the area, including the Wright Plantation site (41RR7), which he owned, and the Sam Coffman site (now known as Sam Kaufman, 41RR16, and for a short time known as the Arnold Roitsch site), a few miles downstream along the Red River. Both sites are large ancestral Caddo …

A Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherd Collection From A Site 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

Frank H. Watt (1889-1981) was a well-known and well-respected avocational archaeologist that lived in the Waco, Texas, area and studied the archaeology of the central Brazos River valley. He made forays into other parts of the state, however, including the Caddo archaeological area of East Texas. At an unknown date, probably in the 1950s or 1960s, Watt investigated an ancestral Caddo site on the Dennis Farm six miles northwest of the community of Neches, in the upper Neches River basin (probably in the Walnut Creek valley), in Anderson County. He collected 42 sherds from Caddo ceramic vessels from the site, …

Documentation Of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels From Sites In Red River County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The vessel collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL) have ancestral Caddo vessels from a number of sites along the Red River in the Mound Prairie area. Vessels are documented in this article from four such sites, including Wright Plantation (41RR7), Howard Hampton Farm (41RR10), Sam Kaufman (41RR16), and the Abe Cox Place (with no trinomial), in the vicinity of the Rowland Clark site (41RR77). I also discuss a small ceramic sherd assemblage at TARL from the Wright Plantation site.

Archaeological Investigations At The Bowles Creek Site (41ce475), Cherokee County, Texas, In Early 2017, Timothy K. Perttula, Kevin Stingley, Mark Walters

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

The Bowles Creek is a substantial Historic Caddo period Allen phase settlement on a natural rise in the Bowles Creek floodplain in the Neches River basin in East Texas. There have been several rounds of work completed at the site since it was first recorded by Stingley, including shovel testing, the excavation of 1 x 1 m units, and the remote sensing of a 2400 square meter area. In this article, we discuss the archaeological findings from work done at the site in January and February 2017.

Artifacts From 41sa38 In The Texas Archeological Research Laboratory Collections, Timothy K. Perttula

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

Site 41SA38 (ET-692) was recorded in February 1940 by Gus Arnold of the University of Texas as part of the WPA-sponsored archaeological survey of East Texas. The site was identified on a natural alluvial rise in a freshly plowed floodplain on the west side of Ayish Bayou, about 1 km southwest of the city of San Augustine, Texas.

Artifact Assemblages From San Augustine County, Texas, Sites Recorded In 1939-1940 By Gus E. Arnold, Timothy K. Perttula

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

During the 1939-1940 WPA-sponsored archaeological survey of East Texas, Gus E. Arnold was particularly active in identifying and recording sites in San Augustine County, in the East Texas Pineywoods (see Perttula 2015a, 2017a), as well as sites along Patroon, Palo Gaucho, and Housen bayous in neighboring Sabine County (Perttula 2015b, 2017b), and sites in the Angelina River basin in Angelina County (Perttula 2016c). During his archaeological survey efforts, he collected substantial assemblages of ceramic and lithic artifact assemblages (curated by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin), primarily due to the fact that the surface …

The Historic Caddo Component At The Roseborough Lake Site (41bw5) 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 Roseborough Lake site (41BW5) is on an old meander of the Red River “that was cut off in 1872 and named Roseborough Lake." It lies a few miles west of other important Late Caddo and Historic Caddo period sites, and a few miles west of Texarkana in Bowie County.

The Roseborough Lake site is a large historic Caddo village occupied from the late 17th century until the late 18th century, with habitation features and cemeteries. It also is the location of a Nassonite post established by the French in the 1720s, known by the Spanish as San Luis de …

Selected Caddo Ceramic Artifacts From The E. H. Buchanan Plantation (41rr5), Bowie County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

The E. H. Buchanan site is an ancestral Caddo settlement investigated by B. B. Gardner of The University of Texas in July 1930. The site lies between Pond Creek and Salt Well Slough, streams that drain into the nearby Red River, and they are not far upstream from the large Caddo mound and village center at the Sam Kaufman site (41RR16) on Mound Prairie.

As described in Gardner’s notes on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at The University of Texas at Austin, the site lay adjacent to a salt lick on “Buchanan’s upper place,” on a natural …

Archaeological Investigations At The Mike Myers Site (41ce481) On Bowles Creek In Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Kevin Stingley

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

The Mike Myers site is a multiple component prehistoric site in the Bowles Creek valley in the Neches River basin in East Texas. The site is on an upland landform (400 ft. amsl), now a pasture with low surface visibility, between Bowles Creek to the east ca. 100 m and a spring-fed branch to the west. The confluence of Bowles Creek with Jackson Branch lies ca. 600 m to the south. Soils on the site are classified as Nacogdoches fine sandy loam. Based on the archaeological investigations conducted at the site to date, the known site area covers a ca. …

Analysis Of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Assemblages From The Gas Line Site (41ce63) And 41ce289, Neches River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

In this article, I discuss the character of the Caddo archaeological assemblages at two sites on Bowles Creek in the Neches River basin that are just north of the important mound center at the George C. Davis site (41CE19): namely the Gas Line site (41CE63) and 41CE289. All three sites are on a broad alluvial terrace of the Neches River and Bowles Creek (Figure 1); the confluence of the two streams is ca. 4.0 km south of 41CE289. Both sites appear to have been occupied by Caddo peoples after the main occupation at George C. Davis ended at ca. A.D. …

Documentation Of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels From The Knight’S Bluff (41cs14) And Sherwin (41cs26) Sites, Cass County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

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

A number of years ago, Perttula documented a variety of funerary objects through a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) grant awarded to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. These were from ancestral Caddo sites on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District lands in East Texas, including funerary objects from the Knight’s Bluff and Sherwin sites at Lake Wright Patman in the Sulphur River basin. These NAGPRA materials are held at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL).

At that time, only a few ceramic vessel funerary objects were made available …