scholarly journals The Caddoan Archaeology of the Sabine River Basin during the Middle Caddoan Period

Author(s):  
TImothy K. Perttula ◽  
J. Brett Cruse

Compared to the earlier and later parts of the prehistoric Caddoan archaeological record in Northeast Texas, archaeologists do not know much about the Middle Caddoan period (ca. A.D. 1200-1400) in the Sabine River basin. During the last few years, however, new archaeological information on settlements, subsistence, and the diverse material culture record suggest that the era was a time of significant cultural change for Caddoan peoples living in the upper and middle Sabine River basin.

Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

The 13 ancestral Caddo sites and collections discussed in this article were recorded by G. E. Arnold of The University of Texas at Austin between January and April 1940 as part of a WPA-funded archaeological survey of East Texas. The sites are located along the lower reaches of Patroon, Palo Gaucho, and Housen bayous in Sabine County, Texas. These bayous are eastward-flowing tributaries to the Sabine River in the Toledo Bend Reservoir area, but only 41SB30 is located below the current Toledo Bend Reservoir flood pool. This is an area where the temporal, spatial, and social character of the Caddo archaeological record is not well known, despite the archaeological investigations of Caddo sites at Toledo Bend Reservoir in the 1960s-early 1970s, and in more recent years.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

Archaeological evidence from 15th to 17th century (dating from ca. A.D. 1430-1680) Caddo sites that have been investigated in the Big Cypress Creek and Sabine River basins of northeastern Texas indicate that many of the components have been identified as belonging to the Titus phase. They represent permanent, year-round, settlements of horticultural or agricultural peoples with distinctive cultural practices and material culture. The 15th to 17th century archaeological record in these two basins “refers to a number of distinctive socio-cultural groups, not a single Caddo group; these groups or communities were surely related and/or affiliated by kinship, marriage, and social interaction." There are several clusters of settlements that apparently represent parts of contemporaneous small communities. A political community as used here is a cluster of interrelated settlements and associated cemeteries that are centered on a key site or group of sites distinguished by public architecture (i.e., earthen mounds) and large domestic village areas. The Shelby Mound site is one of the premier sites in a political community centered in the Greasy Creek basin and neighboring Big Cypress Creek basin. The social and cultural diversity that probably existed among Titus phase cultural groups is matched by the stylistic and functional diversity in Titus phase material culture, particularly in the manufacture and use of fine ware and utility ware ceramics, and the ceramic tradition is the surest grounds for evaluating attribution of archaeological components to the Titus phase. It is the character of their stylistically unique material culture, coupled with the development of distinctive mortuary rituals and social and religious practices centered on the widespread use of community cemeteries and mound ceremonialism as means to mark social identities, that most readily sets these Caddo groups apart from their neighbors in East and Northeast Texas and in the Red River basin to the north and east. This article discusses the analysis of the plain and decorated ceramic sherds (focusing on the latter) from the mound deposits at the Shelby Mound site in the Robert L. Turner collection. Because of the stratified nature of the mound deposits it is possible that temporal changes in the stylistic character of the utility wares and fine wares in use at the site can be detected, and full documentation of the assemblage at Shelby Mound will be key in stylistic comparisons of the ceramic traditions among contemporaneous Titus phase communities in the Big Cypress Creek basin and the mid-Sabine River basin.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

The Kinsloe focus (now phase) was defined by Jones on the basis of seven sites in Gregg, Harrison, and Rusk counties in East Texas, in the middle reaches of the Sabine River basin. These sites are Ware Acres (41GG31), Kinsloe (4IGG3), Susie Slade (4IHSI3), Brown I (4IHS26I), C. D. Marsh (4IHS269), Millsey Williamson (4IRK3), and Cherokee Lake (41RK132). As currently understood, these historic Caddo sites were most likely occupied by Nadaco Caddo people between ca. A.D. 1680-1800. For our purposes here, my interest is in compiling in one place the characteristic material culture items found in the known Kinsloe phase sites as a whole, even though it is recognized that the seven sites probably were not all contemporaneously occupied and some of them may date as early as the late 17th century and others may date as late as the early 19th century. This compilation will be useful in any basic comparisons that may be made between the archaeology and material culture of the Nadaco Caddo and other historic Caddo groups living in East Texas, particularly in the diverse composition of cemrnic vessel assemblages and the abundance and range of European trade goods obtained by the various Caddo groups from the French, Spanish, and English traders.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 7-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro G. Sinner

This paper focuses on a century of interaction between a colonial agent (Rome) and an indigenous people (known in classical texts as the Laietani) who inhabited the area before the arrival of the conquerors. It investigates how contact between the two societies may be detected in the archaeological record, and, where possible, what changes in local culture resulted. The first part, which presents the archaeological sites of the Cabrera de Mar valley and its material culture, documents the contacts over time between those that occupied the valley and those who arrived from the Italian peninsula. A number of indices of such contacts are considered: architecture, construction techniques, imported pottery, epigraphy, and the monetary system. The second part considers whether it is possible to detect in the valley not only cultural contact but also cultural change.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
LeeAnna Schniebs

Some years ago, I commented that the upper Sabine River basin in Northeast Texas had “a highly significant and diverse archaeological record, one that has intrigued professional and avocational archaeologists alike for at least 75 years." At the same time, I noted that “we still know very little about the prehistoric and early historic Caddoan groups who lived in the basin, and unfortunately it has been a number of years since dedicated archaeologists, professional or avocational, turned their attention to this region." In this article, I present information on five different prehistoric Caddo sites in the upper Sabine River basin, specifically in Smith and Wood counties, Texas. What these five sites share besides the fact that they are prehistoric Caddo sites is that the findings from the archaeological work completed at them has not previously been made available to, or shared with, the archaeological community, despite the work having been done more than 20-30 years ago. Each of the five sites is important in its own right as a place where the prehistoric heritage of the Caddo peoples has been preserved, and together they help illuminate the native history of the Caddo in the upper Sabine River basin of their traditional homelands.


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