scholarly journals Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Mrs. Martin Farm, Harrison County, Texas

Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Bo Nelson

The Mrs. Martin Farm site is a Caddo site in the community of Darco, in south central Harrison County, in the Sabine River basin of the East Texas Pineywoods. The farm was investigated by C. W. Bailey in March 1941, and two Caddo ceramic vessels recovered in this work at depths of ca. 36 and 76 cm bs are now curated at the Gregg County Historical Museum. These vessels are likely funerary offerings from two different burials at the site.

Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula

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 of sites were well-exposed because of plowing, and he was encouraged to collect robust artifact assemblages by A. T. Jackson, the WPA survey director at The University of Texas at Austin. This article concerns the analysis of the recovered artifact assemblages from 14 different WPA sites in various parts of San Augustine County (Figure 1). The 14 archaeological sites are situated in several different stream basins, on a variety of landforms (i.e., floodplain rise, alluvial terrace, and upland ridge), including the Attoyac Bayou basin (41SA1 on Attoyac Bayou; 41SA5, at junction of Little and Big Arenosa Creek; 41SA24 on Price Creek; 41SA9, 41SA15, and 41SA16, Arenosa Creek), Patroon Bayou in the Sabine River basin (41SA11 and 41SA32), Palo Gaucho Bayou in the Sabine River basin (41SA108), Ayish Bayou (41SA77, 41SA80, 41SA95, and 41SA96) in the Angelina River basin; and Hog-Harvey creeks (41SA85) in the Angelina River basin. According to Arnold, these sites ranged from 1-6 acres in size, based on the surface distribution of artifacts as well as the extent of the landforms. In the case of the Hanks site (41SA80), midden deposits marked by mussel shells and animal bones were preserved there. The landowner had also previously collected two ceramic pipes, a celt, and a 33 cm long notched chert biface from the site. Burned and unburned animal bones were also noted on the surface of the Frost Johnson Lumber Co. site (41SA5); and burials associated with ceramic vessels and other material remains were noted when the site was first put into cultivation. Whole ceramic vessels from ancestral Caddo burial features had been reported to have eroded out of the Allan Howill (41SA24) and J. McGilberry (41SA85) sites. The Allan Howill site also had mussel shells and fragments of animal bone visible on the surface, and an area with ancestral Caddo burials (at least three with skeletal remains) was reported on the edge of an upland bluff there. Arnold also excavated several test pits of unknown size at the D. C. Hines site (41SA95), where he encountered archaeological deposits between ca. 60-76 cm bs. Arnold also noted “exceptionally large quantities of petrified wood, chert and flint flakes and chips cover the surface” of the D. C. Hines site.


Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula ◽  
Robert Z. Selden ◽  
Bo Nelson

This publications presents information and images of 420 Caddo ceramic vessels from several different parts of East Texas. These vessels are in the Buddy Calvin Jones collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum (GCHM) in Longview, Texas. They represent unassociated funerary objects under the provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Our purpose in producing this publication is to make this information available to those in the professional and avocational archaeological community with a serious interest in the native history of the Caddo Indian peoples; as well as to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma; and to the general public. The information presented here on Caddo ceramic vessel forms and decorative styles should be useful in current and future syntheses of East Texas Caddo ceramic traditions from ca. A.D. 1200 to the late 17th century, if not later. The provenience of these vessels by site and/or burial feature is not known, but because Caddo ceramic vessels from different parts of East Texas have distinctive decorations, vessel forms, and rim/ lip treatment, we have been able to sort much of this vessel assemblage by age and/or region. This includes several vessels of Middle Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1200- 1450) age that are likely from the mid-Sabine River basin, vessels from sites in the ca. A.D. 1450-1680 Titus phase area in the Big Cypress and mid-Sabine River basins, and vessels from sites in the upper Neches River basin from ca. A.D. 1400-1650 Frankston phase and post-A.D. 1650 Allen phase sites. Unfortunately, there remain a number of vessels in this assemblage that are undecorated or have less distinctive stylistic characteristics, and at the present time they are considered to be from unknown ceramic assemblage contexts in East Texas Caddo sites. Hopefully further study of the entire Buddy Calvin Jones collections, along with the examination of all available records and notes (including records and notes not yet provided to the GCHM), will lead to the identification of more specific provenience assignments to the latter group of vessels.


Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula

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).


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Bo Nelson

The Loftis (HC-53) and Pearl Smith (HC-60) sites are ancestral Caddo sites that were investigated by Buddy Jones, probably in 1960, but those investigations were never published by Jones. The sites are along Clarks Creek in the Sabine River basin in southwestern Harrison County in East Texas; Loftis is about 3 km north of the Pearl Smith site. Jones excavated Caddo burials from both sites, and also conducted limited investigations in Caddo habitation deposits at the Loftis site. There are two vessels from the Loftis site and one vessel from the Pearl Smith site in the Buddy Jones collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum. There are no notes or plans of the burial features excavated by Jones at either site. Burials had apparently been excavated by several people at the Loftis site, including Jones , and the burials ex


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Robert Z. Selden ◽  
Bo Nelson

The Sipes Hill site (41RK602) is an ancestral Caddo site on Martin Creek, near Trammel's Trace, about 20 km from its confluence with the Sabine River. It is ca. 2 km downstream from the Martin Lake dam. The Sipes' Home site (41RK603) is about 100m to the northeast. This site was found and investigated by Buddy C. Jones in the 1950s or early 1960s. He did an unknown amount of excavations at the site, and ended up excavating at least one Caddo burial at the site; there are no available notes concerning these excavations or the burial feature, however. Whole vessels from the Sipes Hill site in the Jones collection are at the Gregg County Historical Museum.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

Excavations in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) at the Fred Yarbrough site (41VN6) in the upper Sabine River basin recovered a number of ceramic vessels from Area B of the site. Johnson provided an initial description of the vessels as well as drawings of a number of the reconstructed vessels. In this article, I reexamine the nine vessels from the Fred Yarbrough site held in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin (TARL), employing the vessel documentation protocol used in recent years to document ancestral Caddo vessels from sites in East Texas, and I also provide photographs of each of the vessels.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

The ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels discussed in this article are from four different sites in Nacogdoches and Panola counties, in East Texas. The one site in Nacogdoches County, namely the Gatewood site (41NA3) is located in the Angelina River basin, while the three Panola County sites (41PN5, 41PN15, and H. L. English Farm) are on tributaries that flow into the Sabine River. The Gatewood site is on the west bank of Attoyac Bayou, a major tributary of the Angelina River basin, in the easternmost part of Nacogdoches County. In 1939, a road grader working along a county road had exposed an ancestral Caddo burial feature with skeletal remains and three ceramic vessels. Gus Arnold, working on the University of Texas Archeological survey of East Texas, recorded the site and collected one of the ceramic vessels; no details were obtained on the other two vessels in the feature.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

The GC-123 site was located and investigated by Buddy C. Jones during his years of archaeological work and surface collecting at numerous aboriginal sites in the mid-Sabine River basin in East Texas. The site is in south-central Gregg County, on Rabbit Creek (a northern-flowing tributary to the Sabine River), but only a few miles from the Sabine River valley. The site is notable for its ceramic sherd assemblage. Based on characteristics of Woodland period ceramics from the mid-Sabine River basin, including sites such as 41HS231 and 41RK562 (see Dockall and Fields 2011; Dockall et al. 2008), Hawkwind (41HS915), Folly (41RK26), Herman Ballew (41RK222), and Resch (41HS16, the GC-123 site appears to be a single component Woodland period occupation.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

The Susie Slade site (41HS13) is an ancestral Nadaco Caddo settlement and cemetery on a sandy knoll in the Potters Creek valley in the Sabine River basin. The site is known to have had a large cemetery (> 90 burials) that was excavated by a number of East Texas collectors and amateur archaeologists in 1962, University of Texas (UT) archaeologists; one burial reportedly had 36 stacked Simms Engraved vessels as funerary offerings. Ceramic vessels from the UT investigations at the Susie Slade site are in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL), along with vessels donated to TARL by Forrest Murphey, one of the amateur archaeologists that worked at the site. These vessels are documented in this article, following the standard protocol for vessel documentation in use for several years in the analysis of Caddo ceramic vessels from East Texas sites.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Bo Nelson

The Clay Ball site is an ancestral Caddo site believed to be located in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. The site is notable for its series of small, square vessels with Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 1400- 1650) engraved motifs, as such vessel forms have not been previously documented in studies of Frankston or later Allen phase (ca. A.D. 1650-1830) vessel assemblages. The unique ceramic vessels from the site were excavated by Buddy C. Jones, and although his main site collecting and excavation work was in the mid-Sabine River basin, he did excavate several sites in the upper Neches River basin in Anderson, Cherokee, and Smith counties. Unfortunately, Jones left no notes or records associated with the Clay Ball site that would allow us to either ascertain the contextual relationship of the various features at the site where they were excavated, nor for that matter even provide a locational description of the site.


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