scholarly journals Archaeological Investigations at the Pine Snake Site, an Allen Phase Settlement on Flat Creek in Northwestern Cherokee County, Texas

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Bo Nelson ◽  
Mark Walters ◽  
James Feathers
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Northwestern Part ◽  
Private Land ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Pine Snake ◽  
Neches River ◽  
Early 18Th Century ◽  
Habitation Site

The Pine Snake site is a recently discovered late 17th to early 18th century Caddo Indian archaeological site located on private land in the northwestern part of Cherokee County, Texas, in the valley of a westward flowing tributary to the Neches River. This is an area of the Pineywoods of East Texas that contains extensive numbers of Caddo archaeological sites along all major and minor streams. Post-A.D. 1400 Frankston phase and post-A.D. 1650 Historic Caddo Allen phase sites, especially cemeteries dating to either phase, are particularly abundant in this part of East Texas. This article summarizes the findings from archaeological investigations we completed at the Pine Snake site in late 2008. They have produced important information on the domestic archaeological record at a well preserved Allen phase habitation site.

scholarly journals Radiocarbon Dates from the Pine Snake Site (41CE467), Cherokee County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Northwestern Part ◽  
Private Land ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Absolute Age ◽  
Pine Snake ◽  
Neches River

The Pine Snake site is a late 17th to early 18th century Caddo Indian archaeological site located on private land in the northwestern part of Cherokee County, Texas, in the valley of the westward-flowing Flat Creek, a tributary to the Neches River. This is an area of the Pineywoods of East Texas that contains extensive numbers of Caddo archeological sites along all major and minor streams. Post-A.D. 1400 Frankston phase and post-A.D. 1650 Historic Caddo Allen phase sites, especially cemeteries dating to either phase, are particularly abundant in this part of East Texas. However, not many of these sites in the upper Neches River basin have had radiocarbon assays obtained from charred plant remains in feature contexts, and consequently the absolute age of most of these ancestral Caddo components and phases are not well or definitively established. Fortunately, charred Carya sp. nutshells are abundant in feature contexts in habitation deposits at the Pine Snake site, and samples of these remains have been submitted to DirectAMS (Seattle, Washington) for radiocarbon dating.

scholarly journals Archaeological Sites Along King Creek in Western Nacogdoches County, in East Texas

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters ◽  
Bo Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Short Distance ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
East Texas ◽  
The West ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Camino Real ◽  
Early 18Th Century

The King Creek area of western Nacogdoches County in East Texas is known to be a locality where Historic Caddo sites (of the Allen phase, ca. A.D. 1650-1800) are abundant, or at least abundant relative to many other parts of East Texas. In addition to there being at least two branches of the late 17th-early 19th century El Camino Real de los Tejas that bisect the area on their way to crossings on the nearby Angelina River, three important Historic Caddo sites have been identified not far apart in the valley: J. T. King (41NAI5), David King (41NA32l), and Wes Wisener (41NA336); the David King and Wes Wisener sites lie a short distance south of the J. T. King site, on the west side of the King Creek valley. Tom Middlebrook suggests these sites, and other Historic Caddo sites yet to be identified in the valley, are part of an early 18th century Hainai Caddo village that had farmstead compounds dispersed across at least a 3-4 km stretch of the valley. In 2009, we had the opportunity to conduct archaeological survey investigations on private land on King Creek and one of its tributaries. The survey area is about l-1.5 km northeast of the J. T. King site. The principal focus of the survey work was to identify other Historic Caddo sites in the King Creek valley. Our interest in this property had first been piqued because the landowner had reported that a iron Spanish sword had been found on the property some years earlier; the landowner also mentioned that there were preserved segments of El Camino Real de los Tejas on the property. This article summarizes the findings from a first round of archaeological survey investigations

scholarly journals Spatial Patterning of Material Culture Remains and Animal Bone at an Early 18th Century Caddo Site in East Texas

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Bo Nelson ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Spatial Patterning ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Camino Real ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Geophysical Anomalies ◽  
North And South ◽  
Early 18Th Century ◽  
Habitation Site

The J. T. King site (41NA15) is an early 18th century Caddo habitation site on King Creek, a tributary to the Angelina River. It is situated on the northern route of El Camino Real de los Tejas, about 5 km east of the Camino Real’s crossing of the Angelina River. This is an area where Historic Caddo sites are relatively common, and there are sites generally contemporaneous with the J. T. King site both north and south some distance along King Creek. Archaeogeophysical and archaeological investigations were conducted intermittingtly at the J. T. King site since May 2008, following the relocation of the site by Tom Middlebrook in 2006. The archaeogeophysical work was led by Dr. Chester P. Walker, and covered a 6.1 acre area of the site. During that work, a considerable number of geophysical anomalies were defined, including 10 circular to sub-round anomalies that range from 3.7 to 12.5 m in diameter. A number of them have smaller anomalies situated in or near their centers that are likely central hearths or large post holes (i.e., center posts) inside Caddo structures.

scholarly journals Archaeological Findings from an Historic Caddo Site (41AN184) in Anderson County, Texas

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
European Trade ◽  
Neches River ◽  
Early 18Th Century

This article reports on the archaeological findings from a Historic Caddo site (41AN184)1 in the upper Neches River basin in Anderson County, in East Texas. The site was found in about 1960 by Ron Green (of Rockdale, Texas) when he was a teenager. In 2007, he donated the collection of artifacts to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, noting that “[n]othing can undo what has been done, but I know that the Caddo Nation will ensure these artifacts are given the proper respect and honor they would get no where else”. The artifacts donated by Mr. Green are from a late 17th to early 18th century Caddo site, and includes European trade goods (glass beads) as well as Caddo manufactured objects (including ceramic vessels and arrow points), which are rarely found on Caddo sites in the upper Neches River basin.

scholarly journals Early to Mid-19th Century Occupation at the Dead Cow Site (41SM324), Smith County, Texas

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Downtown Area ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Republic Of Texas ◽  
Sabine River ◽  
Habitation Site

The Dead Cow site is an early to mid-19th century archaeological site located within the northern part (Sabine River basin) of the proposed Republic of Texas 1836 Cherokee Indians land grant in East Texas, generally east of the downtown area of the modem city of Tyler. Cherokee Indians had moved into East Texas by the early 1820s, and "most of the Cherokees cleared land and carved out farms in the uninhabited region directly north of Nacogdoches, on the upper branches of the Neches, Angelina, and Sabine rivers. By 1822 their population had grown to nearly three hundred." To date, historic archaeological sites identified as being occupied by the Cherokee during their ca. 1820-1839 settlement of East Texas remain illusive, and to my knowledge no such sites have been documented to date in the region. This article considers, from an examination of the historic artifact assemblage found here, the possibility that the Dead Cow site is a Cherokee habitation site.

scholarly journals Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Eli Moores Site (41BW2), Bowie County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Red River ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University ◽  
Early 18Th Century ◽  
Habitation Site

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 a temple on the mound at the nearby Hatchel site (41BW3). The site was investigated by the University of Texas in 1932, and in one of the mounds and in associated midden deposits, the remains of Caddo structures, midden deposits, features, eight burials (with nine individuals), and a large ceramic and lithic assemblage were recovered, along with well-preserved plant and faunal remains.

scholarly journals 18th Century Mexican Majolica Sherds from the George C. Davis Site (41CE19), Cherokee County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Spanish Colonial ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Camino Real ◽  
The Many ◽  
Neches River ◽  
Early 18Th Century

During the late 17th-early 18th century, Spanish forces colonized the middle reaches of the Neches River and its tributaries when several missions were established for the Tejas and other Hasinai tribes in this locale: Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, 1690-1693, Mission El Santisimo de Nombre Maria (1690-1692), and Mission Nuestra Padre de San Francisco de Tejas (1716-1719, 1721-1730), otherwise known as Mission San Francisco de los Nechas. These missions were established along the Hasinai Trace, later known as El Camino Real de los Tejas . None of these missions have been located and identified in the many archaeological investigations that have been conducted in East Texas since the 1930s. It has been known, however, since 1940 that early 18th century artifacts have been found at the George C. Davis site (41CE19) on the Neches River at the crossing of the Camino Real. H. Perry Newell, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) excavator of the site, had noted in the published report on the 1939-1941 excavations at the George C. Davis site, that: some pieces of Spanish pottery found near a spring in one of the ravines cutting the slope a few hundred yards southeast from the mound [Mound A]…The Spanish ware were examined by Arthur Woodward, Los Angeles County Museum…The Spanish ware was analyzed as follows: “The fragment of blue and white glazed ware is Mexican majolica, made at Puebla, Mexico, sometime between 1700-76 but more than likely it dates from 1720-1750." This majolica from the George C. Davis site, about 20 sherds in total, has been recently relocated in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. The sherds are from early 18th century (ca. 1720) Puebla Blue on White plates, a bowl, and a cup. Given the rarity of majolica on archaeological sites in East Texas outside of Spanish Colonial archaeological deposits, its presence at the George C. Davis site is especially intriguing given the fact that Mission San Francisco de Tejas/de los Nechas or Neches was built in this part of the Neches River valley in 1716, then rebuilt in 1721, and finally abandoned in 1730.

scholarly journals The De Rossett Farm (41HE75) and Quate Place (41HE81) Sites in the Cobb Creek Valley in the Upper Neches River Basin, Henderson County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
The State ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The North ◽  
North Side ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River ◽  
The Town

The De Rossett Farm and Quate Place sites were among the earliest East Texas archaeological sites to be investigated by professional archaeologists at The University of Texas (UT), which began under the direction of Dr. J. E. Pearce between 1918-1920. According to Pearce, UT began work in this part of the state under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and that work “had led me to suppose that I should find this part of the State rich in archeological material of a high order.” The two sites were investigated in August 1920. They are on Cobb Creek, a small and eastward-flowing tributary to the Neches River, nor far to the northeast of the town of Frankston, Texas; the sites are across the valley from each other. The De Rossett Farm site is on an upland slope on the north side of the valley, while the Quate Place site is on an upland slope on the south side of the Cobb Creek valley, about 2 km west of the Neches River, and slightly southeast from the De Rossett Farm. Both sites have domestic Caddo archaeological deposits, and there was an ancestral Caddo cemetery of an unknown extent and character at the De Rossett Farm.

scholarly journals The J. M. Snow Site (41CE8) in the Neches River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Deer Antler ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Pipe ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Mussel Shells ◽  
Neches River ◽  
Habitation Site

The J. M. Snow site (41CE8) is an ancestral Caddo habitation site and probable small cemetery in the Pineywoods of East Texas. According to Jackson, the site had two habitation areas along the bank of an old channel of the Neches River, each some 300 m from an area where the landowner found 8-10 ceramic vessels from one or more burials that had eroded into a ravine. A Bullard Brushed jar was purchased from the landowner. One of the habitation areas had a well-preserved midden deposit about 4.6-7.6 m in diameter and ca. 46-76 cm in thickness. University of Texas (UT) excavations in September 1933 concentrated on this midden deposit. The work recovered burned clay, mussel shells, ash, bone awls (n=2), perforated mussel shells, bone beads (n=2), lithic scrapers, deer antler tools, and deer, dog, raccoon, turtle, turkey, fish, rabbit, and squirrel bone refuse, as well as ceramic pipe sherds and many ceramic vessel sherds.

scholarly journals The Buckner Dam Site (41CE339) and Four Other Caddo Sites on Gum Creek in the Upper Neches River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Bo Nelson ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Small Lake ◽  
Lake Shore ◽  
Archaeological Collections ◽  
Dam Site ◽  
Lakes And Reservoirs ◽  
Neches River

Due to recent droughty conditions in East Texas in 2010 and 2011, the water levels on the man-made lakes and reservoirs in the region have been steadily lowering. This decreasing water levels is exposing considerable areas along the lakes that not only have been underwater for considerable periods of time since the lakes were constructed, but this new land exposure is also exposing and eroding archaeological sites that are now along the new lake shore boundaries. Such is the case at Lake Jacksonville, a small lake on Gum Creek in Cherokee County, Texas, and newly recorded archaeological sites have been found along its shores. This article is a summary of efforts to document archaeological collections that have been reported from five sites at Lake Jacksonville.

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