scholarly journals Magnetic Gradient Survey at the M. S. Roberts (41HE8) Site in Henderson County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan McKinnon ◽  
Timothy Perttula ◽  
Arlo McKee
Keyword(s):  
Sandy Loam ◽  
Aerial Survey ◽  
Cotton Field ◽  
Magnetic Gradient ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Landscape Modification ◽  
Yellow Sand ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River ◽  
Cultural Features

The M. S. Roberts site is located in Henderson County, Texas and it represents one of the few known Caddo mound sites in the upper Neches River Basin in northeast Texas (Figure 1). The site is situated along Caddo Creek – an eastward-flowing tributary of the Neches River (Perttula et al. 2016; Perttula 2016; Perttula and Walters 2016). The site is located southeast of Athens, Texas. When first recorded, the single mound at the site was approximately 24 m long and 20 m wide and roughly 1.7 m in height (Pearce and Jackson 1931). Directly west of the mound was a large depression, which has since been mostly filled, and likely represents the borrow pit for mound fill. The mound is situated at the southern end of an elevated alluvial landform. The site was first reported to Dr. J. E. Pearce of the University of Texas in September 1931. In October of the same year, archaeologists from the University of Texas began investigating the mound and defining the extent of the associated settlement (Pearce and Jackson 1931). Researchers obtained a surface collection from the site and excavated an unknown number of trenches in the mound where portions of at least one burned and buried Caddo structure was identified. Their excavation notes document that the mound began as a 25 cm deposit of yellow sand constructed on the undisturbed brown sandy loam that defines the alluvial landform. A structure had been built on the yellow sand and then at some point had been burned. The burned structure was then covered with mound fill at least a meter in depth. Materials collected from the surface as part of the 1931 investigations indicate the presence of a Caddo habitation area surrounding the mound and suggest the site was occupied from the fourteenth to the early fifteenth centuries (Perttula et al. 2016; Perttula 2016; Perttula and Walters 2016). At that time, the landscape around the mound was a used as a cotton field and subject to extensive plowing. Today, the landscape is part of a residential ranch development where landowners are stewards of the site with a focus on preservation and research. In January 2015, with the permission of the landowners, renewed interested in the site began with a surface collection and the examination of the artifact collections from the 1931 work held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (Perttula et al. 2016; Perttula 2016; Perttula and Walters 2016). A series of shovel tests and auger holes were then dug in the mound and surrounding habitation area in mid-2015. Shovel tests and auger holes documented organically-stained and charcoal-rich areas within the mound that were thought to represent the remains of several burned Caddo structures, and also identified non-mound habitation deposits at the site. An initial aerial survey was also conducted to map the landform topography, estimate the extent of the current mound dimensions and borrow pit, and to reconstruct changes in the shape and size of the mound since it was first recorded in 1931 (Perttula et al. 2016). The survey employed a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to map the roughly 20-acre property surrounding the site at a 2 cm per pixel resolution. The aerial survey of the mound and surrounding landscape and the creation of a high-resolution digital elevation model reveal that the mound dimensions have changed significantly from what was reported in 1931 (Perttula et al. 2016). For example, aerial data document both the mound and borrow pit features and show that the mound measures 43 m North-South and 26 m East-West, and is roughly 1 meter above the surrounding terrace surface (Perttula et al. 2016). The aerial survey demonstrates that the mound has elongated over the last century since it was first recorded, likely related to historic landscape modification. In January 2016, the site was again revisited. The purpose of the fieldwork was to better define the spatial extent of archaeological deposits in the non-mounded habitation area and investigate the stratigraphy of mound deposits, identify cultural features in the mound, and hopefully obtain charred plant remains or unburned animal bones from these deposits for AMS dating. To help evaluate and identify the distribution of cultural features in the mound and the surrounding non-mounded habitation area, an area just over 1 hectare or 2.8 acres was surveyed using magnetic gradient and a second aerial survey was completed to refine the overall landscape topography (Figure 2). The magnetic gradient results document the subsurface location of at least two interpreted structures within the mound, the possible locations of three 1931 UT trenches, and several possible pit features proximate to the mound. The combination of aerial and geophysical data and the excavation results are revising our understanding of the archaeological remains and preservation conditions of the site.

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 Frankston Phase Ceramics from the Alcoa #1 (41AN87) Site, Mound Prairie Creek, Anderson County, Texas

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
Ceramic Assemblage ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Texas Department ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Ceramic Sherd ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

In 1990, Amick investigated a well-preserved Late Caddo Frankston phase midden deposit at the ALCOA #1 (41AN87) site on Mound Prairie Creek, about 7 km northeast of Palestine, Texas. During the course of that work, more than 900 Caddo ceramic vessel sherds and a few pipe sherds were recovered, but they were only cursorily described by Amick. That was unfortunate at the time because it appeared then, and is still evident now, that the ALCOA #I site was a single component 15th century A.D. Frankston phase settlement, and detailed study of the recovered ceramic assemblage would have provided unique insights into the stylistic and technological character of the ceramic vessels being made and used for culinary purposes by the prehistoric Caddo in this part of the Neches River basin. With the renewed study of the archaeology of the Frankston phase occasioned by the Texas Department of Transportation-sponsored excavations at the Lang Pasture site (41AN38) and the recovery there of a substantial ceramic sherd assemblage-and the reexamination of sherd and vessel collections from Frankston phase collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin, I returned to the detailed study of the ALCOA # 1 ceramic assemblage. The assemblage of ceramic vessel sherds from the Amick work is sufficiently robust that it is possible to characterize with some precision the use of fine wares, utility wares, and plain wares by the 15th century A.D. Caddo that lived at the site.

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 The Westerman Mound Site (41HO15), Houston County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Woodland Period ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The North ◽  
School Director ◽  
Field School ◽  
Field Schools ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

The Westerman site is located in the middle Neches River basin in the Pineywoods of East Texas. The site, first recorded in 1969, is on an alluvial terrace lying between Armstrong Creek to the south and Cochino Bayou to the north; these are eastward-flowing tributaries to the Neches River. The site has a single earthen mound and an associated settlement that is estimated to cover ca. 10-15 acres; there are several areas at the site where aboriginal artifacts were noted at the surface, on each side of the mound. The mound, which was well preserved when it was visited in 1969, 1970, and 1986 by archaeologists from the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL), is estimated to be 20 x 25 m in size, rectangular-shaped, with a level top that covers a ca. 10 x 5 m area; the height of the mound has not been established as it has never been mapped. The character of the archaeological deposits in the mound or the associated settlement has also not been established because no shovel tests or other forms of subsurface explorations have ever been conducted at the site. Only two small potholes were noted in the mound in 1969, and the mound and site were well preserved and protected by the landowners through the last visit by TARL personnel in 1986. TARL archaeologists had speculated that the mound may have been constructed during the Woodland period (between ca. 2500-1250 years B.P.); Woodland period mound sites are rare in East Texas. To investigate this possibility, or to establish that the mound may have been built by ancestral Caddo peoples native to East Texas, TARL had made plans to hold their annual field school at the Westerman site in both 1975 and 1976, with Dr. Dee Ann Story as the field school director. However, due to various circumstances, including sale of the property in April 1976, these field schools were unfortunately never held at the site. In 1986 Dr. Dee Ann Story and Janice A. Guy visited the Westerman site and completed a reconnaissance of the site to assess its current condition and obtain a surface collection of artifacts from the mound and associated settlement. The Westerman site does not appear to have been visited by professional archaeologists since that time.

scholarly journals Current Archeological Research in East Texas: Documentation of WPS-Gus Arnold Archeological Survey Collections

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Works Progress Administration ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Sherd ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River ◽  
Sabine River

Gus Arnold identified and recorded many ancestral Caddo sites during his 1939-1940 Works Progress Administration (WPA)-sponsored archeological survey of East Texas. Currently, I have been engaged in studying the artifact collections from 51 WPA sites in Angelina, Cherokee, Gregg, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Sabine, and San Augustine counties, especially the ceramic sherd assemblages, held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas. The sites are located in the Sabine River, Neches River, Angelina River, and Attoyac Bayou stream basins.

scholarly journals 41SM91: A Frankston Phase Settlement on the Neches River at Lake Palestine, Smith County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Large Reservoir ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River ◽  
Habitation Site ◽  
Smith County

Site 41SM91 is an ancestral Caddo habitation site on an upland landform east of the Neches River, in the area of Lake Palestine, a large reservoir constructed on the Neches River in the East Texas Pineywoods; the dam is located about 11 km south of the site. The site was found and recorded during a 1957 survey of the proposed reservoir flood pool, and Johnson described it as “a large Frankston Focus habitation site located in a cultivated field on the slope of a large hill to the east of the Neches floodplain”. A large assemblage of ceramic vessel sherds were collected from the surface of the site during the archaeological survey, and these sherds are in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin.

scholarly journals Native American Ceramic Assemblages from Sites in Tyler County, in Southeast Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Southern Boundary ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Southeast Texas ◽  
Funded Project ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

As part of a WPA-funded project, Gus E. Arnold of the University of Texas carried out archaeological survey investigations in Tyler County, Texas, between October 1939 and August 1940. During that time he recorded three sites in the Neches River basin with Native American ceramic vessel sherd assemblages, in an area just south of the known southern boundary of the Southern Caddo Area in East Texas. These ceramic assemblages, curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL), are the subject of this article.

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 41CE291: An Historic Caddo Settlement in the Neches River Valley in East Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Small Surface ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Wooded Area ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

Site 41CE291 was visited by H. Perry Newell and A. T. Jackson in March 1940, and they made a small surface collection of artifacts at that time; the surface-collected artifacts are in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). The site is on a large terrace of the Neches River, about 0.4 km east of the George C. Davis site (41CE19); the two sites are divided by a small valley of a southward-flowing spring-fed tributary of the Neches River; Forman Branch flows along the east side of this terrace. Newell noted about the site that “A. T. Jackson and I found some fragments of what may possibly be Spanish bricks in a heavily wooded area near a spring, about a mile east of the mound,” the mound namely being Mound A at the George C. Davis site. Notes by Newell in the site file for 41CE291 provide more detail about the finds there, which he suggests are from a Spanish mission, namely Mission Nuestra Padre San Francisco de Tejas or San Francisco de los Nechas, occupied by Spanish missionaries from 1716-1719 and then again from 1721-1730. Mission site on hill adjacent to spring (N) and prehistoric village to S of Branch. Mission site contains Spanish sherds and fragments of Spanish brick with a few flint artifacts. Old village some 200 yds. (S) shows no evidence of white contacts but has Indian potsherds and artifacts. Newell further indicated that there was a shack standing on the mission site, and he provided a more detailed inventory of what he and Jackson noted or collected from the site. This included a few animal bones on the old Indian village site, as well as one end scraper, one side scraper, four projectile points, two plain rim sherds, two gouges, one punctated sherd, 28 combed [brushed] sherds, two Spanish sherds, nine incised sherds, four Spanish bricks, and 30 plain sherds. In July 1969, George Kegley and Dan Witter surveyed the site while looking for other Caddo settlements that may be associated with the ca. A.D. 900-1300 occupation at the George C. Davis mound center. They noted that there was a stone marker on the terrace marking the site as the location of Mission San Francisco de Tejas or de los Nechas, but the collection of artifacts they gathered from the terrace (which was recorded at the time as 41CE54) did not contain any European artifacts, only Caddo sherds, Late Archaic to Woodland period dart points, lithic flakes, and ground stone tools. Given that the location of Mission San Francisco de Tejas or de los Nechas has not been definitively located by archaeologists, I wanted to examine the collections gathered by Newell and Jackson in 1940 to determine what evidence they had found of Spanish use of 41CE291. If there were Spanish artifacts from 41CE291, their discovery may be the first real indication that the mission was on this Neches River terrace. At the same time, early 18th century Spanish ceramics (ca. 20 sherds from Puebla Blue on white majolica sherds from several vessels) and lead balls and lead shot have recently been rediscovered in the collections from the George C. Davis site from a place several hundred meters south of Mound A at the site, and this area may also be considered a possible location of Mission San Francisco de Tejas.

scholarly journals Documentation of Artifacts from Sam Whiteside Collection from Sites in the Sabine and Neches River Basins, Upshur, Smith, and Cherokee Counties, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
TImothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
River Basins ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

Sam Whiteside was an active avocational archaeologist in East Texas in the 1950s and early 1960s, and investigated a number of important ancestral Caddo sites in Smith and Upshur counties. Much of his collection of artifacts and notes has been donated to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas, and there have been several published studies of the archaeological findings from these sites. In this article, I document select collections that have recently become available for study from sites in the Sabine and Neches River basin in Upshur, Smith, and Cherokee counties.

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