scholarly journals Upper Neches River Basin Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Anderson, Cherokee, and Henderson Counties in East Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Smithsonian Institution ◽  
The State ◽  
National Museum ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Pipe ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

The National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (NMNH) has extensive collections of artifacts from ancestral Caddo sites in the Caddo area. This includes 19 ceramic vessels and one distinctive ceramic pipe from several sites in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. The majority of these artifacts were originally collected by noted amateur archaeologist R. King Harris of Dallas, Texas, who sold his collection to the NMNH in 1980, while three of the vessels were originally in Bureau of American Ethnology holdings, and likely are from early archaeological investigations by Dr. J. E. Pearce of The University of Texas at Austin that were funded by the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE). Pearce began work in this part of the state under the auspices of the BAE, 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.”

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 A Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherd Collection from a Site in the Upper Neches River Basin, Anderson County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
The State ◽  
River Valley ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Brazos River ◽  
Baylor University ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
A Site ◽  
Neches River

Frank H. Watt (1889-1981) was a well-known and well-respected avocational archaeologist that lived in the Waco, Texas, area and studied the archaeology of the central Brazos River valley. He made forays into other parts of the state, however, including the Caddo archaeological area of East Texas. At an unknown date, probably in the 1950s or 1960s, Watt investigated an ancestral Caddo site on the Dennis Farm six miles northwest of the community of Neches, in the upper Neches River basin (probably in the Walnut Creek valley), in Anderson County. He collected 42 sherds from Caddo ceramic vessels from the site, and these collections are in the holdings of the Mayborn Museum Complex at Baylor University.

scholarly journals Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in the Upper Neches River Basin in Anderson and Cherokee Counties, Texas

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula ◽  
Julian Sitters
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages ◽  
Trade And Exchange ◽  
Neches River

Late Caddo period sites belonging to the Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 1400-1680) and the Historic Caddo Allen phase (ca. A.D. 1680-1800) are common in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas, including habitation sites as well as associated and unassociated cemeteries. As is well known, ancestral Caddo cemeteries have burial features with associated funerary offerings, most commonly ceramic vessels. In this article, we document 34 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) from six different sites in the upper Neches River basin, including the Ballard Estates (41AN53, n=4 vessels), O. L. Ellis (41AN54, n=15), Lee Ellis (41AN56, n=1), Dabbs Estate (41AN57, n=3), A. H. Reagor (41CE15, n=3), and John Bragg (41CE23, n=8 vessels) sites. Our first purpose is to put on record these ceramic vessels from six poorly known ancestral Caddo sites in order to better understand the history of Caddo settlement in the upper Neches River basin, including the history of burial interments at these sites. The second purpose is much broader, and is part of an effort to establish an East Texas Caddo ceramic vessel database that can be employed for a variety of research purposes. The synthesis of the stylistically diverse Caddo ceramic wares in different recognized ancestral communities across the Caddo area, including the upper Neches River basin occupied by a Hasinai Caddo group, would seem to be tailor-made for studies of ancestral Caddo social networks and social identities that rely on large regional ceramic datasets. The formal and statistical assessment of the regional variation in Caddo ceramic assemblages is currently being assembled in a Geographic Information System by Robert Z. Selden, Jr. (Stephen F. Austin State University), and the assemblages include the vessels from the six sites discussed herein. This is based on the delineation of temporal and spatial divisions in the character of Caddo ceramics (i.e., principally data on decorative methods, vessel forms, defined types and varieties, and the use of different tempers) across East Texas sites and other parts of the Caddo area, and then constructing networks of similarities between ceramic assemblages from these sites that can be used to assess the strength of cultural and social relationships among Caddo communities in the region through time and across space. The identification of such postulated relationships can then be explored to determine the underlying reasons for the existence of such relationships, including factors such as the frequency of interaction and direct contact between communities, the trade and exchange of ceramic vessels, population movement, and similarities in the organization of ceramic vessel production. In conjunction with a database on 2D/3D-scanned Caddo ceramic vessels from East Texas sites, the East Texas Caddo ceramic vessel database is made part of a digital database where comprehensive mathematical and quantitative analyses of morphological attributes and decorative elements on vessels can be conducted. Queries to such a combined database of vessels and sherds should lead to better understandings of regional Caddo ceramic stylistic and technological attributes and their spatial and temporal underpinnings. The results of past and current instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and petrographic analysis of Caddo Area ceramics, including East Texas (where there is a robust INAA database) can also be explored as a means to corroborate production locales, and establish the chemical and paste characteristics of local fine ware and utility ware ceramics in assemblages of different ages. These in turn allow the evaluation of the possible movement of ceramic vessels between different Caddo communities in East Texas and the broader Caddo world.

scholarly journals The Caddo Ceramic Sherd Assemblage from the W. T. Robinson Farm (41AN4), Anderson County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Sherd ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

The W. T. Robinson Farm site (41AN4) is one of a number of ancestral Caddo sites known in the Caddo Creek valley in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. The site, about 2.5 miles northwest of Frankston, Texas, was investigated by archaeologists from the University of Texas (UT) in 1931 in an area where locals had reportedly excavated 15 Caddo vessels some 20 years earlier. The UT investigations found no Caddo burials or vessels, and recovered only a small assemblage of ceramic vessel sherds.

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 Artifact Assemblages from San Augustine County, Texas, Sites Recorded in 1939-1940 by Gus E. Arnold

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Surface Distribution ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Mussel Shells ◽  
The University ◽  
Sabine River

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.

scholarly journals The Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Cemetery at 41HS74 on Hatley Creek in the Sabine River Basin, Harrison County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University ◽  
Sabine River ◽  
Habitation Site

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).

scholarly journals The Brooks-Lindsey Site (41CE293), a Probable Post-A.D. 1650 Caddo Site in the Neches River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

The Brooks-Lindsey site is a probable post-A.D. 1650 Caddo settlement in the Neches River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was brought to professional archaeological attention in 1986, when collectors who were working the site contacted archaeologists at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL), and allowed them to examine the ceramic vessel sherd collection they had assembled at that time from surface collections and various excavations.

scholarly journals Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Fred Yarbrough Site (41VN6) in the Upper Sabine River Basin, Van Zandt County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Works Progress Administration ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Initial Description ◽  
The University ◽  
Sabine River

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.

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