Caddo Ceramics from 41CV41A at Fort Hood, Coryell County, Texas

Index of Texas Archaeology Open Access Grey Literature from the Lone Star State ◽

10.21112/.ita.2000.1.24 ◽

2000 ◽

Author(s):

Timothy K. Perttula

Keyword(s):

Native Americans ◽

Southern Plains ◽

North Central ◽

East Central ◽

Economic Relationships ◽

Fort Hood ◽

Petrographic Analyses ◽

Central Texas ◽

Southeast Texas ◽

Trade And Exchange

Prehistoric Caddo ceramics made in Northeast Texas after ca. A.D. 900 were widely traded in Texas, and other parts of the Caddoan area, being found in some quantity on North central, East central, central, and inland Southeast Texas archeological sites. They were also traded with prehistoric peoples in the Midwest, the southeastern U.S., and the southern Plains. However, the ceramic evidence for prehistoric Caddoan trade and exchange with other Native Americans has not been systematically compiled and studied for the prehistoric and historic periods. Consequently, it is impossible to confidently discuss the scope, timing, or direction of trade/exchange between Caddoan groups and surrounding non-Caddoan communities, or explore changes in the nature of social and economic relationships between particular Caddo groups and with other prehistoric peoples. Over the last several years, I have been attempting to systematically document archeological infonnation on the distribution and character of Caddoan ceramic sherds and vessels both within and outside what is considered the southern Caddoan archeological area. This documentation effort has included instrumental neutron activation analysis by the Missouri University Research Reactor, petrographic analyses, and studies of ceramic styles and pastes. Here, I discuss Caddo ceramics from 41CV4JA that were recently recovered in archeological investigations by Prewitt and Associates, Inc. at Fort Hood in Central Texas.

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Caddo Ceramics on the Red River in North Central Texas

Index of Texas Archaeology Open Access Grey Literature from the Lone Star State ◽

10.21112/.ita.1996.1.15 ◽

1996 ◽

Author(s):

Timothy K. Perttula ◽

Earnest R. Martin ◽

Bo Nelson

Keyword(s):

Native Americans ◽

Red River ◽

North Central ◽

East Central ◽

Economic Relationships ◽

Far North ◽

North Central Texas ◽

Central Texas ◽

Southeast Texas ◽

Trade And Exchange

Caddo ceramics manufactured after A.D. 900 were widely traded in Texas, being found in some quantity on North Central, East Central, Central, and inland Southeast Texas archeological sites. They were also traded with prehistoric peoples in the Midwest (as far north as Iowa and Illinois) and the Southeastern U.S. While archeologists have known this for some time, much of the ceramic evidence for prehistoric Caddoan trade and exchange with other Native Americans has not been systematically compiled and studied, as became apparent during a recent review of the prehistoric and historic aboriginal pottery in Texas. Consequently, Caddoan archeologists are not yet in the position to confidently discuss the scope, timing, or direction of trade/exchange between Caddoan groups and surrounding non-Caddoan communities, or explore changes in the nature of social and economic relationships between particular Caddo groups and other prehistoric peoples. This paper represents part of our initial efforts to begin systematically compiling archeological information on the distribution and character of Caddo ceramic sherds and vessels outside what is considered the southern Caddoan archaeological area. In it, we report on Early and Late Caddo ceramics found by Dr. Ernest R. Martin at two sites along the Red River in North Central Texas, some 130 km or more west of the westernmost Caddo settlements on the Red River in Northeast Texas.

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Aboriginal Ceramic Wares from Sites in the Yegua Creek Drainage of the Brazos River Basin, East Central Texas

Index of Texas Archaeology Open Access Grey Literature from the Lone Star State ◽

10.21112/ita.2019.1.39 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Timothy Perttul

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Aboriginal Peoples ◽

Way Of Life ◽

Brazos River ◽

East Central ◽

Post Oak ◽

Central Texas ◽

Ceramic Vessels ◽

Ceramic Sherd ◽

Trade And Exchange

Sherds from aboriginally-made ceramic vessels have been recovered on sites dating after ca. 2000 years B.P. in the Yegua Creek drainage of the Brazos River basin in the Post Oak Savannah of Burleson, Lee, and Washington counties in east central Texas (Figure 1). These sherds are from several different wares, including sandy paste Goose Creek Plain sherds made by Mossy Grove peoples, ancestral Caddo tempered and decorated wares made in East Texas, bone-tempered sandy paste wares that may be representative of a local ceramic tradition, and bone-tempered sherds from Leon Plain vessels made by Central Texas Toyah phase peoples. None of the ceramic sherd assemblages from the 18 sites discussed herein are substantial, ranging only from 1-72 sherds per site (with an average of only 13.3 sherds per site), indicating that the use (much less their manufacture) of ceramic vessels by Post Oak Savannah aboriginal peoples was not of much significance in their way of life, but may signify interaction, trade, and exchange between them and other cultures, such as the Caddo, inland and coastal Mossy Grove, and Toyah phase peoples that relied on ceramic vessel manufacture and use as key parts of their subsistence pursuits. It is likely that the benefits of trade (ceramics being just one of the items that was being traded) between these different peoples was to help establish cooperative alliances, and reduce competition and violence in the region, and such alliances were established and maintained by aboriginal peoples over a long period of time in the region.

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The Goss Farm Site (41FN12) on Bois d’Arc Creek, Fannin County, Texas

Index of Texas Archaeology Open Access Grey Literature from the Lone Star State ◽

10.21112/.ita.2015.1.58 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Timothy K. Perttula

Keyword(s):

Red River ◽

Orifice Diameter ◽

Late Prehistoric ◽

Southern Plains ◽

North Central ◽

University Of Texas ◽

Extended Position ◽

Close Proximity ◽

Central Texas ◽

The University

The Goss Farm site (41FN12) is an ancestral Caddo settlement on an alluvial landform on the west side of Bois d’Arc Creek near its confluence with the Red River. The Sanders site (41LR2) lies east of the Goss Farm on Bois d’Arc Creek; the Goss Farm site is likely part of the same ancestral Caddo settlement as the Sanders site. The recovered artifacts from Goss Farm strongly suggest that the occupations there are culturally related to that of the Sanders site. In August 1930, B. B. Gardner of the University of Texas conducted limited archaeological investigations at the site. He noted that the alluvial landform had midden deposits as well as burials, and he suggested that the site probably contained a large number of burials. In the work, a 15 cm thick ash feature was identified at ca. 76 cm bs; this may be evidence of extensive burning from hearths or the incinerated remains of a burned structure; the full extent of the feature was not defined by Gardner. Three burial features (Burials 1-3) were also excavated at the Goss Farm in 1930, two in close proximity (Burials 1 and 2) that were in flexed positions, were buried at depths of between ca. 45-76 cm bs, and had no associated funerary offerings. Burial 3 was 30 m south of the flexed burials, and was an adult with a cranially deformed skull (comparable to the skulls at the Sanders site) that was buried at a depth of ca. 30 cm bs in an extended position, with the head facing west. One shell-tempered bowl (14.0 cm in height and 14.5 cm in orifice diameter) was included as a funerary offering with Burial 3. The vessel was decorated with two sets of two appliqued nodes and two sets of three appliqued nodes. This decorative treatment is similar to Late Prehistoric Southern Plains shell-tempered decorated vessels (i.e., a variety of Nocona Plain) in the upper Brazos and Red River basins in North Central Texas. The Goss Farm was periodically visited by members of the Dallas Archeological Society. Housewright excavated a child burial at the site that contained an extraordinary funerary offering of 260 disk-shaped turquoise beads and two turquoise pendants. Found also during the excavation of the burial was a single red-slipped sherd, likely from a Sanders Plain vessel.

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