scholarly journals Aboriginal Ceramic Wares from Sites in the Yegua Creek Drainage of the Brazos River Basin, East Central Texas

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttul
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Brazos River ◽  
East Central ◽  
Post Oak ◽  
Central Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Ceramic Sherd ◽  
Trade And Exchange

Sherds from aboriginally-made ceramic vessels have been recovered on sites dating after ca. 2000 years B.P. in the Yegua Creek drainage of the Brazos River basin in the Post Oak Savannah of Burleson, Lee, and Washington counties in east central Texas (Figure 1). These sherds are from several different wares, including sandy paste Goose Creek Plain sherds made by Mossy Grove peoples, ancestral Caddo tempered and decorated wares made in East Texas, bone-tempered sandy paste wares that may be representative of a local ceramic tradition, and bone-tempered sherds from Leon Plain vessels made by Central Texas Toyah phase peoples. None of the ceramic sherd assemblages from the 18 sites discussed herein are substantial, ranging only from 1-72 sherds per site (with an average of only 13.3 sherds per site), indicating that the use (much less their manufacture) of ceramic vessels by Post Oak Savannah aboriginal peoples was not of much significance in their way of life, but may signify interaction, trade, and exchange between them and other cultures, such as the Caddo, inland and coastal Mossy Grove, and Toyah phase peoples that relied on ceramic vessel manufacture and use as key parts of their subsistence pursuits. It is likely that the benefits of trade (ceramics being just one of the items that was being traded) between these different peoples was to help establish cooperative alliances, and reduce competition and violence in the region, and such alliances were established and maintained by aboriginal peoples over a long period of time in the region.

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 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 Another Look at the Urbankte Site (41CV26) in Coryell County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Harry J. Shafer
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Brazos River ◽  
Distinctive Character ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Central Texas ◽  
Cultural Component

Perttula (2016) had analyzed ceramic sherds and other material culture remains curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) from four sites in the Brazos River basin in the Central Texas prairie that had been identified as Prairie Caddo sites by Shafer; one of the sites was the Urbankte site (41CV26). The Urbankte site is on the Leon River in Coryell County, at Belton Reservoir; the Leon River is a southward-flowing tributary to the Brazos River. The term “Prairie Caddo” used by Shafer refers to Caddo groups affiliated with Caddo communities in East Texas, most likely affiliated with the George C. Davis site in the Neches River valley, that occupied portions of the Central Texas prairies in Late Prehistoric times, from ca. A.D. 1000-1300. Each of the four assemblages in the Brazos River basin have sherds that stylistically compare closely to decorated Caddo vessels from East Texas Caddo sites, and the distinctive character of these decorated sherds suggested that the four sites were occupied between ca. A.D. 1000-1200 or to post-ca. A.D. 1200-1300 times in the case of the Urbankte site. Where these ceramic assemblages seemed to differ from East Texas Caddo ceramics, however, was in their manufacture: the grog and bone temper inclusions added to the paste of the ceramic vessel sherds from these sites had numerous, large, and coarse-grained temper inclusions, while East Texas Caddo ceramics tend to have more fine-grained temper inclusions, even in the manufacture of utility ware jars. The Urbankte site ceramics (n=118 sherds) I examined at TARL were heavily bone-tempered (88 percent) and had a considerable proportion of brushed sherds (46 percent of the decorated sherds). Both characteristics were consistent with a post A.D. 1200-1300 Prairie Caddo occupation, as was the fact that eight of the nine arrow points in the TARL collections from the Urbankte site are Perdiz arrow points. The common occurrence of both Perdiz points and brushed ceramic sherds suggested then that this Prairie Caddo occupation at the Urbankte site took place sometime after ca. A.D. 1200-1300. As Dr. Shafer mentions below, the artifacts from the Urbankte site that he had discussed in the Prairie Caddo module were from a different part of the site than the TARL collection I had documented, and were from a different and earlier cultural component. We will return to those artifacts shortly.

scholarly journals Caddo Ceramics from 41CV41A at Fort Hood, Coryell County, Texas

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Southern Plains ◽  
North Central ◽  
East Central ◽  
Economic Relationships ◽  
Fort Hood ◽  
Petrographic Analyses ◽  
Central Texas ◽  
Southeast Texas ◽  
Trade And Exchange

Prehistoric Caddo ceramics made in Northeast Texas after ca. A.D. 900 were widely traded in Texas, and other parts of the Caddoan area, being found in some quantity on North central, East central, central, and inland Southeast Texas archeological sites. They were also traded with prehistoric peoples in the Midwest, the southeastern U.S., and the southern Plains. However, the ceramic evidence for prehistoric Caddoan trade and exchange with other Native Americans has not been systematically compiled and studied for the prehistoric and historic periods. Consequently, it is impossible to confidently discuss the scope, timing, or direction of trade/exchange between Caddoan groups and surrounding non-Caddoan communities, or explore changes in the nature of social and economic relationships between particular Caddo groups and with other prehistoric peoples. Over the last several years, I have been attempting to systematically document archeological infonnation on the distribution and character of Caddoan ceramic sherds and vessels both within and outside what is considered the southern Caddoan archeological area. This documentation effort has included instrumental neutron activation analysis by the Missouri University Research Reactor, petrographic analyses, and studies of ceramic styles and pastes. Here, I discuss Caddo ceramics from 41CV4JA that were recently recovered in archeological investigations by Prewitt and Associates, Inc. at Fort Hood in Central Texas.

Late Quaternary Floodplain History of the Brazos River in East-Central Texas

1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Waters ◽  
Lee C. Nordt
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Thick Layer ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Vertical Accretion ◽  
Brazos River ◽  
East Central ◽  
Central Texas ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quaternary History

AbstractThe floodplain along a 75-km segment of the Brazos River, traversing the Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas, has a complex late Quaternary history. From 18,000 to 8500 yr B.P., the Brazos River was a competent meandering stream that migrated from one side of the floodplain to the other, creating a thick layer of coarse-grained lateral accretion deposits. After 8500 yr B.P., the hydrologic regime of the Brazos River changed. The river became an underfit meandering stream that repeatedly became confined within narrow and unstable meander belts that would occasionally avulse. Avulsion occurred four times; first at 8100 yr B.P., then at 2500 yr B.P., again around 500 yr B.P., and finally around 300 yr B.P. The depositional regime on the floodplain also changed after 8500 yr B.P., with floodplain construction dominated by vertical accretion. Most vertical accretion occurred from 8100 to 4200 yr B.P. and from 2500 to 1250 yr B.P. Two major and three minor periods of soil formation are documented in the floodplain sequence. The two most developed soils formed from 4200 to 2500 yr B.P. and from around 1250 to 500 yr B.P. These changes on the floodplain appear to be the result not of a single factor, but of the complex interplay among changes in climate, sediment yield, and intrinsic floodplain variables over time.

Response of Herbaceous Vegetation in East-Central Texas to Herbicides

Weed Science ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Meyer ◽  
Rodney W. Bovey
Keyword(s):  
Acetic Acid ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Standing Crop ◽  
Grass Cover ◽  
Herbaceous Vegetation ◽  
East Central ◽  
Post Oak ◽  
Herbicide Treatments ◽  
Central Texas

Twenty herbicides were applied to a rangeland pasture in the Post Oak Savannah Resource Area of Texas in April 1978 and May 1979. At time of treatment, total vegetation cover was 88 to 100%, with 36% grasses and 52 to 64% broadleaf cover. From May 31 through September, total, grass, and broadleaf covers were 89 to 100, 51 to 65, and 27 to 44%, respectively. One to 2 months after treatment, grass cover generally increased except where certain herbicides, particularly bromacil (5-bromo-3-sec-butyl-6-methyluracil), dalapon (2,2-dichloropropionic acid), glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine], or hexazinone [3-cyclohexyl-6-(dimethylamino)-1-methyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4 (1H, 3H)-dione] had been applied. By September or October in the year of application only dalapon consistently reduced grass cover. In the year following treatment, grass cover was still reduced on the dalapon-treated plots. Most herbicides reduced broadleaf cover in the year of treatment. Broadleaf cover returned most rapidly to those areas treated with dalapon. During the year following treatment, broadleaf cover remained low on plots treated with picloram (4-amino-3,5,6-trichloropicolinic acid), 2,4,5-T [(2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy)acetic acid], and picloram + 2,4,5-T. For plots treated in 1978, the grass and broadleaf standing-crop weights of untreated plots were 490 and 450 kg/ha, respectively, in October 1978, and 2707 and 1033 kg/ha in October 1979. In 1978, grass weight increased with several herbicide treatments whereas only dalapon increased the broadleaf weight. For plots treated in May 1979 and harvested in September 1979, grass and broadleaf standing-crop weights of untreated plots were 2629 and 607 kg/ha, respectively.

scholarly journals Three Mid-1800s Caddo Vessels from the Brazos Reserve

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Indian Territory ◽  
Brazos River ◽  
North Central ◽  
Central Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Brooklyn Museum ◽  
Considerable Body

Although a considerable body of historic archival and documentary information is available on the Caddo Indian peoples that lived in Texas between ca. 1836 and 1859 -- the removal period -- not much archaeological evidence has been uncovered for their settlements. By the late 1830s and early 1840s, most of the Caddo groups had been removed from Northeast Texas as their traditional homelands were taken and settled by Anglo-American farmers and planters. Instead, they took up residence in Oklahoma, or settled with other affiliated groups (such as the Delaware, Cherokee, and others) on the Brazos River in north central Texas. There they continued to farm and hunt bison, even after they had been placed on the Brazos Reserve (in present-day Young County, Texas) in 1854. The Caddo peoples on the Reserve, about 1050 in number, were removed in August 1859 to the Indian Territory and the Wichita agency in western Oklahoma. In this paper, I discuss three ceramic vessels in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. They were apparently collected in the rnid-1850s from the Caddo peoples living on the Brazos Reserve. As such, the vessels provide a unique record and look at the kinds of ceramic vessels being manufactured by the Caddo immediately before they were removed to Oklahoma, and has considerable cultural and archaeological significance.

DDT Residues in Fish from the Brazos River Basin in Central Texas 1

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Kramer ◽  
Frederick W. Plapp
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Brazos River ◽  
Central Texas
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