scholarly journals Woodland and Caddo Period Sites at Toledo Bend Reservoir, Northwest Louisiana and East Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Cultural Affiliation ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Lithic Artifacts ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The University

Toledo Bend Reservoir is one of the largest artificial lakes in the United States and the largest reservoir in the South. The lake is approximately 65 miles long and contains over 1200 miles of shoreline in both Louisiana and Texas. Construction began in 1964 with completion of the power plant, with the subsequent filling of the lake in 1969. Archaeological investigations at Toledo Bend Reservoir 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 (UT) and Southern Methodist University (SMU). Girard has continued archaeological investigations along the Louisiana side of the reservoir, however, focusing particularly on work at the James Pace site. In this article we review the nature of the material culture assemblage of the Woodland and Caddo sites at Toledo Bend Reservoir based on the collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). This consists of ceramic and/or lithic artifacts from 76 different sites in Louisiana and Texas. We have also examined ceramic vessels from Woodland and Caddo burial features at several Toledo Bend Reservoir sites. Our purpose in re-examining the TARL collections from the Toledo Bend Reservoir is to better understand and characterize the material culture assemblages (primarily decorated ceramic sherds) from sites that date between ca. 2500 years B.P. and the late 17th-early 18th century A.D., particularly in light of questions concerning the cultural affiliation and cultural taxonomic relationships of the ancestral Caddo sites in this part of East Texas and western Louisiana.

scholarly journals Documentation of the Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Culpepper Site (41HP1) in Hopkins County in the Upper Sulphur River Basin in East Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
East Texas ◽  
White Oak ◽  
Tall Grass ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Cultural Affiliation ◽  
Tall Grass Prairie ◽  
Post Oak ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University

The Culpepper site (41HP1) is a late (post-A.D. 1600) Titus phase site in the upper Sulphur River basin in East Texas. It is on a sandy knoll alongside Stouts Creek, a small northward-flowing stream in the White Oak Creek basin of the larger Sulphur River drainage. The site is in the modern-day Post Oak Savannah, but there are areas of tall grass prairie between Stouts Creek and White Oak Creek; the larger White Oak and Sulphur prairies lie approximately 15 km to the west and northwest. Excavations at the Culpepper site by University of Texas (UT) archaeologists in 1931 uncovered a number of ancestral Caddo burial features with associated ceramic vessel funerary offerings. These ceramic vessels are presently curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). In this article I document and analyze the Culpepper site vessels to better ascertain the likely chronological age and social and cultural affiliation of the Caddo populations that occupied the Stouts Creek area, as well as their interrelationships with other known Caddo communities in East Texas.

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 Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from East Texas Sites Held by the Gila Pueblo Museum from 1933 to 2017

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula ◽  
Kevin Stingley
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Vessel Size ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
State Museum ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University

In the summer of 2017, 21 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels held since 1933 by the Gila Pueblo Museum and then by the Arizona State Museum were returned to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). These vessels had not been properly or fully studied and documented when the University of Texas exchanged these vessels, so our purpose in documenting these vessels now is primarily concerned with determining the stylistic (i.e., decorative methods, motifs, and decorative elements) and technological (i.e., vessel form, temper, and vessel size) character of the vessels that are in the collection, and assessing their cultural relationships and stylistic associations, along with their likely age. In 1933, little was known about the cultural and temporal associations of ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from East Texas, but that has changed considerably since that time.

scholarly journals Analysis of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in Anderson and Cherokee Counties, Texas

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University ◽  
General Collection

In this article, I document 28 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from seven sites and one general collection in the whole vessel collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). These sites and general collection are in Anderson and Cherokee counties in East Texas (Figure 1), specifically the: Rube Beard site (41AN18, n=2), the Edward W. Ellis site (41AN36, n=1), the Ray Lookabaugh site (41AN37, n=1), the R. E. Daly site (41AN39, n=9), the Jasper Tucker/Mrs. Joe Watkins Farm site (41AN44, n=11; see also Perttula and Selden [2015]), the W. T. Todd site (41AN52, n=1), the N. B. Ruggles site (41CE40, n=2), and one vessel from the Cherokee County general collections. The methods of ceramic vessel analysis follow those specified in Perttula (2018:2-4), among other publications on Caddo ceramic vessel documentation, methods consistently employed since the 1990s in the documentation of ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in East Texas sites.

scholarly journals Caddo Sites on Patroon, Palo Gaucho, and Housen Bayous in Sabine County in the Sabine River Basin of East Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Social Character ◽  
Reservoir Area ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The University ◽  
Sabine River

The 13 ancestral Caddo sites and collections discussed in this article were recorded by G. E. Arnold of The University of Texas at Austin between January and April 1940 as part of a WPA-funded archaeological survey of East Texas. The sites are located along the lower reaches of Patroon, Palo Gaucho, and Housen bayous in Sabine County, Texas. These bayous are eastward-flowing tributaries to the Sabine River in the Toledo Bend Reservoir area, but only 41SB30 is located below the current Toledo Bend Reservoir flood pool. This is an area where the temporal, spatial, and social character of the Caddo archaeological record is not well known, despite the archaeological investigations of Caddo sites at Toledo Bend Reservoir in the 1960s-early 1970s, and in more recent years.

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in Harrison and Titus Counties, Texas

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University

This article puts on record the documentation of 17 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from five sites in Harrison and Titus counties in East Texas in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. This documentation is part of the overall and larger effort to develop an ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel database as well as build online ceramic vessel galleries on the Index of Texas Archeology website by Dr. Robert Z. Selden, Jr.

scholarly journals Two Radiocarbon Dates from the Salt Lick Site (16SA37a) at Toledo Bend Reservoir, Sabine Parish, Louisiana

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Salt Lick ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Mussel Shells ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The University ◽  
Sabine River ◽  
Habitation Site

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).

scholarly journals A Study of Chipped Stone Artifacts from the Redwine Site (41SM193), Smith County, Texas

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry J. Shafer
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Stone Artifacts ◽  
Chipped Stone ◽  
Surface Test ◽  
Rock Site ◽  
Lithic Artifacts ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Sabine River

This article presents a detailed analysis of chipped stone artifacts from the Redwine Site (41SM193), a Middle Caddo mound and village site located on the headwaters of Auburn Creek, a tributary of the Sabine River. The collection includes chipped stone recovered from the surface, test excavations, and arrow points associated with two adult burials. The site was investigated by avocational archeologist Sam Whiteside in the 1960s and more recently by Mark Walters and Patti Haskins under the direction of John Keller of Southern Archaeological Consultants. The investigations and material culture have been briefly described. This study is designed to take a closer look at the lithics with an emphasis on technological, material, contextual, and typological analyses of the lithic artifacts, and to compare the findings to the lithics at the nearby and possibly contemporaneous Leaning Rock site (41SM325). Archaeologists generally have not focused on Caddo lithic technology, and this class of material culture remains only cursorily studied. Rather, ceramics have received the vast amount of attention with little emphasis on other types of material culture. One reason for a lack of attention to lithics may be that East Texas generally lacks the resources from which well-crafted artifacts could have been made. Small chert cobbles or pebbles, and pebbles of orthoquartzite and silicified wood constitute the major sources for chipped stone. Lacking are outcrops of excellent chert (such as the Edwards Plateau) or novaculite (eastern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas). Artifacts of from these two sources are introduced into East Texas in finished form. Edwards chert and novaculite debitage found in East Texas sites is likely from recycling broken finished artifacts. When lithics are reported, they are generally relegated to brief descriptive treatments with an emphasis on artifact classification and raw material distribution. Detailed technological treatments are rare (for exceptions. It is preferable in archaeological studies to integrate all classes of material culture in analysis and interpretation to see what sets of material co-occur both functionally, technologically, stylistically, and symbolically. Rarely is this extended effort even attempted in archaeological studies in Texas, but until all surviving aspects of material culture are integrated and interpreted as a cultural whole and within the known context of Caddo culture and life way, only fragments of past cultures will be stressed with the risk of gross misinterpretation. While it is acknowledged that this study treats only a fragment of the material culture from the Redwine site, I will attempt to integrate the findings in such a way as to relate it to extant information from the site available to me from other sources. Another objective of this study is to examine the lithics from the Redwine site and compare them with the sample from the nearby Leaning Rock site. Both collections are assumed to be approximately the same age and may be from the same extended Middle Caddo community. I will specifically emphasize the technological styles of the formal tools and the implications of the debitage with regards to technology and raw material.

scholarly journals Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Knight’s Bluff (41CS14) and Sherwin (41CS26) Sites, Cass County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Army Corps ◽  
Fort Worth ◽  
Army Corps Of Engineers ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University

A number of years ago, Perttula documented a variety of funerary objects through a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) grant awarded to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. These were from ancestral Caddo sites on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District lands in East Texas, including funerary objects from the Knight’s Bluff and Sherwin sites at Lake Wright Patman in the Sulphur River basin. These NAGPRA materials are held at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). At that time, only a few ceramic vessel funerary objects were made available for NAGPRA documentation purposes, including only three ceramic vessels from Burial 4 at the Knight’s Bluff site, and six vessels from Burials 4 and 6 at the Sherwin site. The remainder of the ceramic vessel funerary objects from these two sites (n=16 vessels from Knight’s Bluff and n=13 vessels from the Sherwin site), plus one vessel from general Lake Wright Patman contexts, either from Knight’s Bluff or the Sherwin site, have recently been documented, and they are discussed in the remainder of this article.

scholarly journals Funerary Offerings from the Keasler Site Cemetery (41HS235), Harrison County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Community Living ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Clay Pipes ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The University

The Keasler site (41HS235) is a post-ca. A.D. 1430 Late Caddo period, Titus phase cemetery with at least 31 burials in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was excavated by collectors in the late 1970s on the property of Sid Keasler of Hallsville, Texas. Minimal records on the burials at the site, and their contents, were provided by Red McFarland, one of the collectors, to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL). The Keasler site is near Little Creek, a northward-flowing tributary to Little Cypress Creek. It is perhaps one of the easternmost-known Titus phase cemeteries in East Texas, in an area where few Titus phase sites or cemeteries have been identified or investigated by professional archaeologists. Based on the analysis of the available records and vessel images at TARL, Perttula noted that funerary offerings in the burials primarily included ceramic vessels—both utility and fine wares—in almost all of the burials, along with clay pipes and arrow points in only a few of the graves. The subtle differences between two different burial groups in the number and kind of funerary offerings in the cemetery do not provide much evidence of differential status or social rank, and the frequency of funerary offerings as attested to in the TARL records is at the low end of the scale in Titus phase cemeteries. The burials at the Keasler site appear to be those of common members of the Caddo community living in the lower part of the Little Cypress Creek basin. The range of decorated utility ware and fine ware vessels placed in the burial features are consistent with use of the cemetery by ancestral Caddo peoples in parts of the 16th and 17th centuries A.D. Subsequent to the analysis of the available records at TARL from the Keasler site, funerary offerings from the site in the Sid Keasler collection have come to light. In July 1999, Mark Walters and Bo Nelson photo-documented the Keasler collection, which represents approximately 50 percent of the funerary offerings recovered by Red McFarland. This article summarizes the character of the funerary offerings in the collection. Walters also recorded the nearby Pine Grove site (41HS826), which may represent one habitation area associated with the use of the cemetery at the Keasler site by ancestral Caddo peoples.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document