scholarly journals Documentation of Ceramic Vessels and Projectile Points from the C. D. Marsh Site (41HS269) in the Sabine River Basin

Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

A total of at least eight Caddo burials were excavated at the C. D. Marsh site on Eight Mile Creek, a southward-flowing tributary to the Sabine River, by Buddy C. Jones in 1959-1960. This includes Burial 1, an historic (dating after ca. A.D. 1685) Nadaco Caddo burial; European trade goods found with this burial include two small silver disks. The other burials (Burials 2-8) are part of an earlier Caddo cemetery that is thought to be associated with the ca. A.D. 1350-17th century Pine Tree Mound community along the Sabine River and its tributaries. Jones suggests that these latter burials are from a ca. A.D. 1200-1500 Caddo cemetery. According to Jones and notes on file at the museum, Burials 2-8 are located ca. 120 m east-southeast from the one Historic Caddo burial at the site. The burials were placed in extended supine position in north-south oriented pits in rows, with the head of the deceased at the southern end of the burial and facing north. Funerary offerings included ceramic vessels and mussel shells. In this article, we describe eight ceramic vessels in the Gregg County Historical Museum collections from Burials 1, 4, and 7, as well as projectile points from habitation contexts at the C. D. Marsh site; the location of Burial 7 relative to Burial 4 is not known. There are also six other ceramic vessels from the ca. A.D. 1200-1500 burials at the site that are unassociated funerary objects in the Gregg County Historical Museum collections. This includes one vessel each from Burials 5 and 8; the provenience of the other vessels at the site is unknown. One of the unassociated funerary object ceramic vessels at the C. D. Marsh site is a Ripley Engraved, var. McKinney carinated bowl. Such vessels would not be expected in a ca. A.D. 1200-1500 Caddo cemetery, and although this type of fine ware is commonly seen on post-A.D. 1600 Titus phase sites in the region, it is rarely found in association with European trade goods. Therefore, it may represent a burial from a third temporal component (ca. A.D. 1600-1685) at the site.

Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

The Salt Lick site (16SA37) is an ancestral Caddo site at Toledo Bend Reservoir in Sabine Parish, Louisiana. Before the creation of the reservoir, archaeological investigations on the Sabine River and tributaries in both Louisiana and Texas took place primarily took during the 1960s, with survey and excavations, sometimes of a very limited nature by the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University. The Salt Lick site was investigated by McClurkan in the Fall of 1964. The Salt Lick site (16SA37a) was a Caddo habitation site (with midden deposits) on a natural rise south of La Nana bayou, a westward-flowing tributary to the Sabine River. Hand and backhoe trench excavations uncovered 10 burials, six that may have been flexed and four that were extended burials with the deceased placed in an extended supine position on the floor of the grave. Only two of the flexed burials had funerary offerings: a Pease Brushed-Incised jar and an engraved carinated bowl with a poorly executed design (Burial 1), and two engraved bowls (Burial 4). The engraved bowls resemble varieties of Womack Engraved and Patton Engraved. The extended burials, on the other hand, had a number of funerary offerings, including ceramic vessels (n=25), a clay elbow pipe (n=1), a quiver of Perdiz arrow points (n=12), a sandstone ear spool, mussel shells (n=2), and turtle shells (n=3).


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 Jamestown Mound site (41SM54) is an Archaeological Conservancy (TAC) preserve in northern Smith Country, Texas in the northeastern part of the state. The Jamestown site is one of the largest Caddo mound centers in East Texas, with seven recorded mounds and an associated village area of unknown extent and internal complexity. It is also one of the four premier mound centers in the Sabine River basin, the other three being Hudnall-Pirtle (41RK4), a TAC preserve, Pine Tree Mounds (41HS15), also a TAC preserve as of 2006, and Boxed Springs (41UR30), and was obviously an important civic and ceremonial center for the prehistoric Caddo peoples that lived there and in surrounding communities. Unfortunately, at the present time very little is known about the archaeological record preserved at the Jamestown site, or the exact locations of several of the smaller mounds on the preserve. Here, I summarize the history of archaeological research at the Jamestown site. This article is intended to be a companion piece to the report to be submitted to the TAC on the results of on-going remote sensing activities at the Jamestown preserve. The Jamestown preserve covers approximately 18 acres of pasture divided into two tracts by a north-south running fence. It is a large prehistoric Caddo mound center, with multiple mounds, roughly arranged in a circular pattern, with an open area (or plaza) between the mounds. The largest mound (Md. A) (measuring ca. 43 m in diameter and 4 m in height, is situated in the southwestern side of the circle of mounds. Mounds B-E (15-20 m in diameter and 40 cm-1 m in height) are probably mounds built over houses with a clay floor and a clay cap. The exact locations of Mounds D and E within the TAC preserve are not currently known. Md. A is known to have two levels of burned structural remains in the upper mound fill.


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

European glass beads are one of the most common artifact categories found on historic Caddo sites in the middle reaches of the Sabine River basin in East Texas on what Jones had dubbed Kinsloe focus sites. Several thousands beads were found by Jones in his investigation of burial features at these sites, along with other European trade goods and Caddo ceramic vessels, pipes, and chipped stone tools. In Jones’ description of the beads from the Kinsloe focus sites, he relied on the analytical and chronological interpretations of John Witthoft, then of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, although he did seek the advice of R. K. Harris, a notable glass beads expert who had worked on numerous historic Caddo and Wichita sites in eastern and northern Texas. Witthoft’s interpretations of the age of the beads from the sites tended to suggest that the Kinsloe focus sites dated to the early 17th century—when beads of such types tended to date in aboriginal sites in the Northeast U.S.—while Harris suggested that the glass beads on the Kinsloe focus sites dated from no earlier than the early 18th century, and likely dated in several cases after ca. A.D. 1750. Given the likely late 17th to late 18th century ages of the engraved ceramic vessels found on the Kinsloe focus sites, based in large measure on their occurrence on a wide range of Historic Caddo sites, Harris’ temporal interpretations of the glass bead assemblages are consistent with these ceramic temporal ranges, and thus the Kinsloe focus sites are seen as indicative of Caddo settlements postdating the beginning of intensive contact between Europeans and Caddo peoples that began after A.D. 1685.


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):  
Perttula ◽  
Nelson ◽  
Robert Selden ◽  
Walters

This report puts on record the collection of 34 ancestral Caddo vessels held by the Smith County Historical Museum (SCHM) in Tyler, Texas. Most of the collection was donated to the SCHM in 2013, but several were also donated in 1985 (Carol Kehl, April 2014 personal communication). The vessels in this collection have been documented following the methods employed by the Friends of Northeast Texas Archaeology and Archeological & Environmental Consultants, LLC on a number of ancestral Caddo ceramic collections from East Texas archaeological sites (e.g., Perttula 2011, 2013, 2014; Perttula and Nelson 2013; Perttula and Thacker 2014; Perttula et al. 2007, 2009a, 2009b, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2013, 2014). The provenance of the Caddo vessels includes a number of vessels from sites at Lake O’ the Pines in the Big Cypress Creek basin, while the other 10 vessels are believed to have been collected from sites in the upper Neches River basin in Smith County, Texas. We discuss these conclusions in the “Summary and Conclusions” section of the report, relying on the decorative styles and types of the vessels (see Suhm and Jelks 1962) to sort them into the material culture remains known to be associated with different ancestral Caddo cultural groups in East Texas.


1980 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J. J. Klaver ◽  
Wolfgang Böhme

AbstractIn this paper all material of Chamaeleo quadricornis, present in museum collections, has been studied. Using morphological and geographical characteristics two subspecies are recognized, one of which is new: Chamaeleo quadricornis gracilior ssp. n. The history of the species has been reconstructed, using schemes of the orographic profile of West Cameroon, which furnishes a historical interpretation for the new subspecies. The closely related species C. eisentrauti and C. montium have also been discussed in this context. The assumed phylogenetic affinities are represented in a phylogram. This leads us to the following hypotheses: - in the Tchabal Mbabo mountains, which have hardly been explored faunistically, there probably lives a chameleon, that resembles C. quadricornis. - the differentiation in characteristics between C. montium and the sympatric C. eisentrauti and C. q. quadricornis (both being mutually allopatric) on the one hand and the allopatric C. q. gracilior ssp. n. on the other hand can be explained by "character displacement".


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

The Ware Acres site (410031) was discovered by Buddy Calvin Jones in 1951 on an alluvial terrace of Grace Creek, a southern-flowing tributary to the Sabine River in the southwestern part of the city of Longview, Texas. The site is best known for Jones' discovery and excavation of an eighteenth century Caddo burial with an abundance of European trade goods. However, Jones also investigated other parts of the site, which contained extensive Caddo habitation deposits, especially one area at the southern part of the site that had Late Caddo Titus phase midden deposits and remnants of house structures. A large assemblage of ceramic sherds were collected from this area, and although Jones indicated that "a complete analysis of them will be given in a later report," this was never done. This article presents an analysis of these ceramic sherds, primarily to put the ceramic assemblage findings from this important East Texas site on record. The stylistic attributes and known ceramic types in the Ware Acres assemblage are also compared to the ceramic assemblage from the Pine Tree Mound site, as the Ware Acres site may be a component of the Pine Tree Mound Titus phase community found in the middle reaches of the Sabine River basin.


Author(s):  
Annette Imhausen

This chapter discusses the invention of writing and number notation in ancient Egypt. Writing is believed to have been invented in Egypt at the end of the fourth millennium BCE. Among the predynastic elite tombs, tomb U-j (assigned to King Scorpion around 3200 BCE) holds a significant place. Within the twelve rooms of the structure, the earliest evidence of hieroglyphic writing from ancient Egypt was discovered. Two types of objects with inscriptions were found in tomb U-j. On the one hand, almost 200 labels made from bone, ivory, or stone and on the other hand, ceramic vessels. If we presume that some basic assumptions about the earliest written objects from tomb U-j are correct, that is, if the abstract signs were indeed the representation of numbers or quantities and the labels were attached to some goods about which they held information (e.g., the indication of their quantities or their origin or owner) then, like in Mesopotamia, the earliest writing is linked to administrative needs, and the invention of a quantity/numerical notation along with the invention of script is almost a necessary consequence.


Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula

Caddo ceramic vessels were collected at the W. O. Ziegler Farm (41WD30) and Claude Burkett (41WD31) sites in 1930 during archaeological investigations in Wood County by The University of Texas. The one vessel from the W. O. Ziegler Farm site, located in the Lake Fork Creek drainage in the upper Sabine River basin, was found in 1918 at a depth of ca. 1.2 m by the landowner while digging a storm cellar. University of Texas archaeologists purchased the vessel in August 1930. The Claude Burkett site is in the Big Sandy Creek basin in the upper Sabine River basin. The landowner found two ceramic vessels after a heavy rain had eroded them from the site. University of Texas archaeologists also purchased these vessels in August 1930. Wilson and Jackson excavated a few test trenches at the site at that time, but did not recover any more vessels. They did note that ceramic sherds were present in small amounts between ca. 15-30 cm bs in the test trenches.


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