scholarly journals 41AG9 and 41AG10: Ancestral Caddo Sites on Percella Creek in the Angelina River Basin in East Texas

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The Core ◽  
Good Surface ◽  
Ceramic Vessel

Both 41AG9 (ET-609) and 41AG10 (ET-610) were identified and recorded by Gus E. Arnold in late 1939-early 1940 under the auspices of the very successful WPA University of Texas archaeological survey of East Texas; they are only ca. 400 m apart. The sites are on elevated alluvial landforms in the Percella Creek valley; Percella Creek is an eastward-flowing tributary to the Angelina River, and joins the river about 3 km to the east of the sites (Figure 1). During Arnold’s archaeological survey, he collected substantial numbers of ceramic vessel sherds from both sites, and the sites were in plowed fields with good surface visibility. 41AG9 was estimated to cover ca. 1.5 acres, and had midden deposits, as well as disturbed remnants of Caddo burial features. Midden deposits and remnants of possible disturbed Caddo burial features were also noted at 41AG10, and the core of the site covered a ca. 60 x 60 m area (ca. 0.9 acres).

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 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 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 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.

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 41NA197, the Sam Stripling Site, on Bayou Loco in Nacogdoches County, Texas

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Works Progress Administration ◽  
East Texas ◽  
East Side ◽  
Ceramic Assemblage ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
The University

The Sam Stripling site (41NA197) is an ancestral Caddo settlement on a series of alluvial knolls in the floodplain on the east side of Bayou Loco in the Angelina River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was first located by Robert L. Turner, Sr. and Jr. in 1938, and in 1939 they told Gus Arnold of the University of Texas about the site when Arnold was conducting a Works Progress Administration (WPA)-sponsored archaeological survey of East Texas. Arnold collected a large sample of ceramic vessel sherds from the site (ET-601) during his 1939 survey work, and these collections are held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin; the Turner’s had also amassed a substantial collection during their work; and in 1996 Tom Middlebrook returned to the site and officially recorded it, noting a well-preserved midden deposit in one part of the site, while also inventorying the Turner’s collection. In this article, I discuss the specific character of the ancestral Caddo ceramic assemblage from the Sam Stripling site recovered during Arnold’s work. Analyses by Middlebrook of the other known collections from the site are in progress.

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 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 The Woodland Period Component at the Wolfshead Site (41SA117), San Augustine County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Early Archaic ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Late Paleoindian ◽  
The University ◽  
Plow Zone

The Wolfshead site (41SA117) was excavated by the Texas Archeological Salvage Project at The University of Texas in the fall and winter of 1960 prior to the inundation of the site by the waters of Lake Sam Rayburn in the Angelina River basin in East Texas. The site was located on a sandy terrace and covered ca. 1 acre in size; the sandy deposits were a maximum of ca. 60 cm in thickness below an historic plow zone. The excavations were in the northern and southern parts of the site, and indicated that the Wolfshead site had an extensive Late Paleoindian–Early Archaic San Patrice culture occupation dating ca. 10,500–9800 years B.P., as well as a Woodland period (ca. 2500–1150 years B.P.) occupation in both site areas. The latter occupation is a component of the inland and deep East Texas Mossy Grove culture defined by Story. This component is recognized by the occurrence of sandy paste Goose Creek Plain ceramic vessel sherds, contracting stem dart points (in the earlier part of the Woodland period), and various stemmed arrow points (after ca. A.D. 700 in the Woodland period).

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.

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