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 The Sanders Site (41LR2): A Middle to Historic Caddo Settlement and Mound Center on the Red River in Lamar County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Bo Nelson ◽  
Mark Walters ◽  
Robert Z. Selden
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Red River ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
European Trade ◽  
The University ◽  
Sabine River ◽  
Early 18Th Century

The T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) is one of the more important (although still not well known or intensively studied) ancestral Caddo sites known in East Texas, primarily because of its two earthen mounds and the well-preserved mortuary features of Caddo elite persons buried in Mound No. 1 (the East Mound). Archaeological work began at the site in 1931 by The University of Texas at Austin, with sporadic work by members of the Dallas Archeological Society in the 1940s and 1950s. Archaeological and bioarchaeological interpretations of the findings from this work at the Sanders site began with Krieger’s analyses of the burial features and associated funerary objects (including marine shell gorgets, shell beads, arrow points, and ceramic vessels). These analyses and studies continue to the present day, and rely upon the reanalysis and reinterpretation of the archaeological and bioarchaeological materials recovered in the Pearce and Jackson and Jackson's work. Although the Sanders site is not dated by radiocarbon analyses, the general consensus is that the main Caddo occupation took place around ca. A.D. 1100-1300, contemporaneous with related sites downstream along the Red River near its confluence with the Kiamichi River, and other sites in the Sabine River basin. A late 17th-early 18th century Caddo occupation is also present at the Sanders site, but remains poorly known. Harris and Harris commented that European “trade material is exceptionally scarce” at the Sanders site, but they do note that 478 glass beads had been found at the site. Harris had previously stated that several Caddo burials with European trade goods had been found along Bois d’Arc Creek south of Mound No. 2, the larger or West Mound. According to Edward B. Jelks, an Historic Caddo area investigated by Lester Wilson (an avocational archaeologist from Wylie, Texas) was about 100 m south of the two mounds at the Sanders site. This may be one of the areas identified by Jackson between ca. 90-150 m south of the mounds where he noted concentrations of triangular arrow points, small end scrapers, flint awls, and other stone tools. A 1971 map in the TARL files drawn by Dee Ann Story locates the historic Caddo settlement east of Bois d’Arc Creek and south of Mound No. 2.

scholarly journals Correspondence between George T. Wright and A. T. Jackson Regarding Late 1930s-Early 1940s Excavations at the Sam Kaufman Site (41RR16)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Red River ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Railway System ◽  
The University ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Early 18Th Century

In the 1930s and 1940s George T. Wright was a landowner (Kiomatia Plantation) and Vice-President of the Kiomitia Mercantile Company: General Merchandise in Kiomatia and Paris, Texas. He was also an avid Indian artifact collector at sites along the Red River in Red River, Texas, and also dug at sites he knew in the area, including the Wright Plantation site (41RR7), which he owned, and the Sam Coffman site (now known as Sam Kaufman, 41RR16, and for a short time known as the Arnold Roitsch site), a few miles downstream along the Red River. Both sites are large ancestral Caddo mound and village sites. Little professional archaeological work has ever been conducted at the Wright Plantation site, but there have been a number of archaeological investigations in mound (East and West mounds), habitation, and burial features at Sam Kaufman since the 1950s. The site was occupied by Caddo peoples as early as ca. A.D. 1000 to as late as the early 18th century. Between 1941-1942, Wright was engaged in considerable correspondence with Alvin T. Jackson (1895-1974), a newspaperman turned archaeologist for The University of Texas at Austin (UT). Jackson worked for UT from 1929-1942, after which he spent about 13 years working for the Austin Railway System. Jackson apparently met Wright in 1931 when UT was investigating the Sanders site (41LR2) in Lamar County, Texas. The correspondence on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL) between Jackson and Wright concerned investigations Wright and friends had recently been involved in at the Sam Coffman site. This work has not been previously discussed in the archaeological literature regarding the Sam Kaufman site, but is presented herein because it sheds new light on the archaeology of the site, especially the archaeology of the East Mound.

scholarly journals Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Womack Site (41LR1), Lamar County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
Red River ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
North Central ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University ◽  
Analysis And Study

The Womack site (41LR1) is an ancestral Caddo settlement situated on an alluvial terrace in a horseshoe bend of the Red River in north central Lamar County in East Texas. Harris completed the analysis and study of their 1938-mid-1960s investigations at the site, but the findings from the earlier archaeological investigations conducted at the site by the University of Texas (UT) in 1931 have only been recently published.

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 An Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel from the Molly Cameron Site (41BW18) in the Sulphur River Basin in East Texas

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University ◽  
Habitation Site

The Molly Cameron site is an ancestral Caddo habitation site with burial features in the Sulphur River basin in East Texas, specifically on Aiken Creek, a southward-flowing tributary, about one mile east of the dam at Lake Wright Patman. The site was first exposed in 1928, when plowing of the land owned by W. K. Cameron exposed several ceramic vessels and human remains. One of the vessels was purchased by The University of Texas at Austin in August 1932; that vessel is documented below.

scholarly journals Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the T. M. Sanders Site (41LR2) on the Red River in Lamar County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters ◽  
Bo Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Red River ◽  
Silt Loam ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
Alluvial Sediments ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Special Publication ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University

The T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) is one of the more important ancestral Caddo sites known in East Texas, primarily because of its two earthen mounds and the well-preserved mortuary features of Caddo elite persons buried in Mound No. 1 (the East Mound). The Sanders site is located on a broad alluvial terrace just south of the confluence of Bois d’Arc Creek and the Red River. The terrace has silt loam soils, which have a shallow dark brown silt loam A-horizon overlying thick B- and C-horizons that range from dark reddish-brown, reddish-brown, dark brown, to yellowish-red in color. These soils formed in loamy alluvial sediments of the Red River. In this Special Publication, we discuss the analysis and documentation of the 78 ceramic vessels from the T. M. Sanders site in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. Our concern is in documenting the stylistic and technological character of these vessels, and assessing their cultural relationships and stylistic associations; almost 80 percent of these vessels are from burial features excavated by University of Texas archaeologists in Mound No. 1 (East Mound) in July and August 1931; others are from excavations in midden deposits between the two mounds. We also consider and revise the current ceramic taxonomy for a number of the vessels from the T. M. Sanders site.

scholarly journals The Frank Norris Farm Site (41RR2) on the Red River in East Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
Red River ◽  
Frank Norris ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Deep Pit ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Shell Beads ◽  
The One ◽  
Local Farm ◽  
The University

The Frank Norris Farm site (41RR2) was an ancestral Caddo settlement and mound center, with an associated cemetery, on the bank of the Red River, about five miles northeast of the community of Manchester, Texas, and just southeast of the Sam Kaufman/Roitsch site (41RR16). The site was reported by B. B. Gardner of the University of Texas to have three earthen mounds. Apparently the site eroded into the Red River in 1936. The three mounds at the site were located east of a local farm road, and the bank of the Red River was a short distance to the east. Mound No. 1 was ca. 27 m in length, 23 m in width, and 3 m in height; Mound No. 2 was ca. 33.5 m in length, 24 m in width, and 3.7 m in height; and Mound No. 3 was ca. 18 m in length, 12 m in width, and 1.8 m in height. Gardner trenched Mound No. 1 in the summer of 1930 but found only a few sherds and no obvious features. A low alluvial ridge not far south of Mound No. 3 was also trenched by Gardner, and he recovered sherds from archaeological deposits there. Gardner also noted that in the Red River cut bank was an ca. 46-61 cm thick archaeological deposit with black sediments and ceramic sherds. Although Gardner’s 1930 notes are not specific, he apparently excavated at least one burial at the Frank Norris Farm. Correspondence in the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) files stated that Gardner found burials that were from 1.2-1.5 m in depth and scattered across the site. Local diggers began to search out and excavate Caddo burials at the Frank Norris Farm site in 1934 and 1935, and these diggers sold the ceramic vessels and other funerary offerings (including a spatulate celt, arrow points, and shell beads) they found to local collectors like George T. Wright. According to W. A. Rikard, an interested avocational archaeologist from the region, at least nine burials had been found and dug by collectors at the site, not including the one or more burials he excavated there. He did mention in 1935 correspondence to A. T. Jackson that one burial he excavated was in a 1.2 m deep pit and had a shell-tempered neck banded jar as an associated funerary offering. He also noted that other Caddo burials were being exposed in the eroding cut bank of the Red River, where they were easily looted.

scholarly journals The Peterson Ranch Site (41HS253), A Late 17th to Early 18th Century Ancestral Caddo Cemetery in the Little Cypress Creek Basin, Harrison County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Oil Well ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The University ◽  
Early 18Th Century

The Peterson Ranch site (41HS253) is a late 17th to early 18th century Caddo cemetery in the Little Cypress Creek basin in the East Texas Pineywoods. The cemetery, on Gray’s Creek, was found and excavated in 1962 by a number of collectors from the Marshall, Texas, area. In 1963 the cemetery area was destroyed by the construction of an oil well pad. Most of the collectors kept cursory notes on their excavations at the site, which consisted of plan maps showing the orientation of the burial pits, the human remains in the graves, and the location and kinds of some of the funerary offerings placed in the grave to accompany the deceased to the House of Death in the Sky. Fray Casanas commented in 1691 that the Caddo buried “their dead with all their arms and utensils which each possesses.” The kinds of items placed in Caddo burials, especially the vessels—since they are by far the most common burial offerings—can provide unique insights into how different Caddo groups treated the dead, and what such differences may mean regarding diverse view on life and death among contemporaneous Caddo groups. The information on the cemetery excavations and burial offerings from the Peterson Ranch site has been reconstructed from notes and drawings on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). To my knowledge, the funerary offerings from the burials at the site have not been documented by a professional archaeologist, and it is presently unknown what the current provenience(s) of the collections are.

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 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.

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