scholarly journals Archaeological Investigations at the Wade (GC-38) and Estes (GC-49) Sites in the Sabine River Basin, Gregg County, Texas

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Robert Z. Selden ◽  
Bo Nelson
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Concerted Effort ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
Southeastern Part ◽  
Document Collections ◽  
The North ◽  
Pine Tree ◽  
North Side ◽  
House Structure ◽  
Sabine River

Buddy C. Jones conducted extensive archaeological investigations in the 1950s and 1960s at many sites in the mid-Sabine River basin of East Texas, especially on Caddo sites of various ages in Gregg, Harrison, and Rusk counties. However, that work has not illuminated our understanding of the archaeology of the Caddo Indian peoples that lived along this stretch of the Sabine River as much as it could have, primarily because little of the work completed by Jones was ever published, or the results and findings shared with professional and avocational archaeological colleagues working in the region. The Caddo archaeology of the Gregg County stretch of the Sabine River, in particular, is poorly known by comparison with the archaeological record in the upper Sabine River or to the archaeological studies recently completed downstream in Harrison County at sites such as Pine Tree Mound (41HS15). To begin to develop a better appreciation of the Caddo archaeology in the mid-Sabine River basin, we have made a concerted effort to analyze and document collections obtained by Jones from Caddo sites in Gregg County and the surrounding region. In this article, we discuss the archaeological findings from the Wade and Estes sites discovered and investigated by Jones in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The sites are near each other in the southeastern part of Gregg County. The Wade site is on a landform near the confluence of Peatown Creek and Dutchman Creek, northern-flowing tributaries to the Sabine River. The Estes site is on a large alluvial terrace on the north side of the Sabine River, across from the confluence of Dutchman Creek and the Sabine River This article focuses particularly on the excavations of portions of an ancestral Caddo house structure at the Wade site and the analysis of the substantial decorated sherd assemblages at both the Wade and Estes sites.

scholarly journals 41SM150: A Middle Caddo Period Site in the Angelina River Basin, Smith County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
North Side ◽  
Field School ◽  
Pine Trees ◽  
Shared Information

Site 41SM150 is an ancestral Caddo settlement and cemetery in the headwaters of the Angelina River basin in East Texas. The site was recorded by Jan Guy in 1983 as part of a University of Texas at Austin Field School, when a collector who was working at the site shared information about what he, and others, had been finding there. Apparently the site had been worked by collectors for approximately 30 years by that time. The current condition of the site is not known. The site, including both habitation and cemetery areas, is located just south of a large knoll on an alluvial terrace on the north side of the Kickapoo Creek valley. Kickapoo Creek is a westward-flowing tributary of Mud Creek in the Angelina River basin. The site area had been cultivated in the past, but in 1983 was overgrown, with weeds and pine trees.

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 Analysis of a 1940 Caddo Sherd Assemblage from the Millsey Williamson Site (41RK3), Rusk County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
East Texas ◽  
East Side ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
Small Collection ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sabine River

The Millsey Williamson site (41RK3) is an 18th century Nadaco Caddo settlement and cemetery situated on an alluvial terrace on the east side of Martin Creek in the Sabine River basin. Some portions of the site are now covered by the waters of Martin Creek Lake, constructed in the 1970s. The site was first investigated in the 1930s, when at least 11 historic Caddo burials were excavated in the cemetery at the western end of the landform. In 1940, Jack Hughes, then an East Texas resident, but later a prominent Texas archaeologist, gathered a small collection of sherds from the Millsey Williamson site, and the analysis of these sherds is the subject of this article.

scholarly journals Ceramic Sherds from the Millsey Williamson Site (41RK3), Rusk County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Glass Beads ◽  
The Body ◽  
East Side ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
Unknown Number ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Reducing Environment ◽  
Sabine River

The Millsey Williamson site (41RK3) is an 18th century Nadaco Caddo settlement and cemetery situated on an alluvial terrace on the east side of Martin Creek in the Sabine River basin. Some portions of the site are now covered by the waters of Martin Creek Lake, constructed in the 1970s. The site was first investigated in the 1930s, when at least 11 historic Caddo burials were excavated in the cemetery at the western end of the landform. Buddy Calvin Jones excavated a disturbed historic burial at the site in 1955, and also occasionally collected glass beads from the surface of the site. The funerary offerings placed with this disturbed burial were not clearly enumerated by Jones, as his description of artifacts from the site included artifacts he examined in several other collections. He did note 275 sherds from the surface of the site and 12 whole or restored ceramic vessels from an unknown number of burials. Most of these sherds were recorded by Jones as being grog– (52 percent) or bone–tempered (43 percent), but 4 percent were tempered with shell. Perttula and Nelson recently documented 11 vessels from the Millsey Williamson site in the collections of the Gregg County Historical Museum (GCHM). These vessels include a Emory Punctated–Incised (shell– tempered) collared jar; a Maydelle Incised jar; a Bullard Brushed jar; a jar with brushing only on the body; a Ripley Engraved, var. unspecified carinated bowl; Simms Incised carinated bowl; two unidentified engraved carinated bowls with a continuous stepped rectilinear scroll design; a carinated bowl with a sprocket rim with a continuous negative scroll design; a carinated bowl with diagonal opposed and cross–hatched engraved lines on the rim; and a plain olla. The ceramic vessels are of diverse manufacture, form, and decorative methods. Most are carinated bowls and jars tempered with grog and bone, and fired in a reducing environment, and the former are decorated with engraved lines, while the latter are decorated incised, punctated, or brushed utility wares. On their own stylistic merits, none of these vessels in the GCHM collections is that of a recognizable Historic Caddo type, such as Natchitoches Engraved, Simms Engraved, var. Darco, or Keno Trailed, and in fact, most of these vessels cannot be identified as examples of specific types. The vessels that can be typed include Emory Punctated–Incised, Maydelle Incised, and Bullard Brushed jars and a Ripley Engraved, var. unspecified carinated bowl; one vessel has been dubbed Simms Incised because it is of a form and decorative style that matches Simms Engraved, except the motif is executed with incised lines. Also recovered from the site were clay and limonite pipes, ochre and vermillion, animal teeth, glass beads, metal gun parts, gun flints, iron knives, iron arrow points, and awls in the Millsey Williamson collection. There were also a variety of brass objects: a brass tinkler, coils, hawk bells, and unworked pieces of sheet brass.

A Letter of Gordian III from Aphrodisias in Caria

1969 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 56-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenan T. Erim ◽  
Joyce Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
New York University ◽  
Southeastern Part ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
The North ◽  
North Side ◽  
The Face ◽  
The City

During the 1965 and 1966 campaigns of excavation at Aphrodisias in Caria, conducted under the aegis of New York University, investigations of the large Theatre of the city were initiated. The Theatre lies mostly buried along the eastern slope of the ‘acropolis’, a conical hillock in the southeastern part of the site. Dr. Elisabeth Alföldi-Rosenbaum supervised four initial trenches and soundings (Theatre I to IV) excavated on the north side of the building, which revealed the proscenium, the adjacent lowest tiers of seats, the north parodos and the analemma. In August, 1966, two adjoining pieces of a large block of coarse-grained local marble inscribed with a letter from Gordian III were discovered. The lower piece of the inscription was found built into the analemma, facing the north parodos at a height slightly above eye-level. The upper fragment came to light on the parodos floor and was removed to the surface and photographed by Dr. E. Alföldi. Progress in the excavation of the parodos in 1967 and 1968 allowed careful inspection of the lower portion which remains in situ. The two fragments (inv. nos. 66–608 A and B) are well-preserved and constitute virtually the whole block, although some damage is evident on the upper left-hand corner of the face and along the break. The total measurements are 1·53 m. × 0·72 m. × 0·72 m. It cannot be entirely excluded that the block may have been reused in the analemma wall since there is some evidence of repairs in this area. The letters average 0·025 m. in height and are cut in a style typical of the later second and third centuries A.D. at Aphrodisias; particularly characteristic is the form of B, see Pl. I.

scholarly journals Caddo Ceramics from Mound Deposits at the Shelby Mound Site (41CP71) on Greasy Creek, Camp County, Texas

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
The North ◽  
Unique Material ◽  
Sabine River

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.

scholarly journals An Artifact Assemblage from Area B at the Grace Creek Site (41GG33), Gregg County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
East Side ◽  
The South ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
The North ◽  
North Side ◽  
Lithic Tools ◽  
Extensive Surface ◽  
Sabine River

The Grace Creek #1 site (41GG33, GC–1) was situated on a natural alluvial rise on the east side of Grace Creek, about 0.4 km north of its confluence with the Sabine River. On the north side of the site was an abandoned Sabine River lake bed, while to the south was an old channel, as well as a channel lake (Muddy Lake), of the Sabine River. Jones divided the site into three areas (A, B, and C); a midden deposit was apparently located in Area B on the central part of the rise. Buddy Calvin Jones identified and worked at the Grace Creek #1 site between 1954 and 1956, while the site was being destroyed for the construction of an earthen dike along Grace Creek and the Sabine River. In addition to the extensive surface collection of projectile points, lithic tools, and ceramic sherds he found there, in areas A–C, Jones also conducted limited excavations in areas where apparently organically–stained soil and possible feature stains were noted on the scraped surface of the site. In these excavations, he documented midden deposits, a flexed burial in the midden deposits in Area B, two pit features in this area, and several small (ca. 10 cm in diameter) post holes in Area C. Jones' map of the site did not indicate the location of the excavations in Area C, but Jones suggested that aboriginal houses were likely present here. The ceramic artifacts discussed in this article are from a fire pit in Area B that was excavated by Buddy Jones in October 1956. There are also a number of arrow points in the collections from the site, as well as a large ceramic elbow pipe. These materials are in the collections of the Gregg County Historical Museum in Longview, Texas.

scholarly journals The Jonas Short Site (41SA101), San Augustine County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Coral Snake ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The University ◽  
Sabine River

The Jonas Short site (41SA101) is one of a few known and investigated Woodland period mounds in the Trans–Mississippi south (i.e., East Texas, Northwest Louisiana, Southwest Arkansas, and Southeast Oklahoma). In fact, the site is one of only four identified mound sites of possible Woodland period age—and Mossy Grove cultural tradition—in the Neches–Angelina and Sabine river basins in East Texas and Northwest Louisiana: Coral Snake (16SA48), Anthony (16SA7), Jonas Short, and Westerman (41HO15). The Jonas Short site was located on an alluvial terrace of the Angelina River. It was investigated in 1956 by archaeologists from the University of Texas and the River Basin Survey prior to its inundation by the waters of Lake Sam Rayburn.

scholarly journals Late Caddo Ceramics from 41HE337 in Henderson County, Texas

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
East Texas ◽  
The North ◽  
North Side ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Neches River ◽  
The City

Site 41HE337 is a Late Caddo settlement located on the north side of Caddo Creek, an eastward-flowing tributary to the Neches River, and just west of the city of Poynor, in Henderson County, Texas. Bill Young, an avocational archaeologist living in Corsicana, Texas, has a substantial collection of Caddo ceramic vessel sherds from the site. He gave his permission to study and document these materials as part of a broader study I am engaged in of post-A.D. 1300 Caddo ceramic traditions in the upper Neches River basin of East Texas.

scholarly journals A Titus Phase Midden Mound at the Earl Jones Farm (41WD3) in the Lake Fork Creek Basin, Wood County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Pine Tree ◽  
Sabine River

The Earl Jones Farm site is one of a number of Late Caddo period, Titus phase (ca. A.D 1430-1680), sites along tributaries of Lake Fork Creek in the upper Sabine River basin in East Texas, nor far from Quitman, the county seat for Wood County. This includes sites such as J. H. Reese (41WD2), L. L. Winterbauer (41WD6), 41WD19, 41WD44, Pine Tree (41WD51), Burks (41WD52), and Steck (41WD529) with habitation features, midden deposits, and family cemeteries.

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