bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Radiocarbon Date from a Middle Caddo period Habitation Site on Hickory Creek, Houston County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The National Forests and Grasslands (U.S.D.A. Forest Service) in Texas (NFGT) conducted Passports in Time (PIT) projects in 2006 and 2007 on Hickory Creek in the Davy Crockett National Forest, Houston County, Texas. The work took place at four prehistoric archeological sites: 41HO13, HC-1, Hickory Creek #2 (HC-2), and HC-3, with the majority of the work occurring at the Hickory Creek #2 site. Following discussions with the NFGT, the NFGT agreed to turn over the collections and available notes/records to me for the purposes of completing a volunteer analysis of these collections and preparing a report on the analytical findings.

During the course of the analysis, I learned that a radiocarbon sample of animal bone had been submitted to Beta Analytic, Inc. by the NFGT in 2007, but the dating specifics of that sample were not available until after Perttula and Nelson completed their report on the Hickory Creek collections. The purpose of this article is to provide the results of the radiocarbon analysis of this one sample, and consider its chronological and cultural implications for prehistoric Caddo sites in this area of East Texas.
Some Notes on Replicating Prehistoric Pottery
Authors: Miller John
Published: May 2019

My interest in pottery replication began about 30 years ago. As an archeologist, I was often required to analyze collections of prehistoric pottery. My analytical techniques were limited but standard for the day and usually involved classifying pottery according to previously defined pottery types and varieties. While this type of classification helps archeologists develop chronologies and determine cultural affiliation, it provides little understanding of how pottery was actually made. I felt that I might be able to enhance my analytical skills and possibly glean a little more from the archeological record if I could learn more about how pottery was made. So in 1978, I gathered some alluvial clay from the Arkansas River floodplain and began my long journey. My primary objective has been to try and reproduce, as closely as possible, what I see in the archeological record in hopes that it might give me and others a better understanding of all the processes involved in the manufacture of prehistoric pottery. I sometimes find that I can’t see what I am looking at in sufficient detail until I am faced with the task of having to draw or make it. Replication forces us to take a closer look at things and then allows us to see a little more clearly. Replication also connects you to the past and allows you to learn directly from the original artist. For me, it was simply not enough to just study pottery – I had to experience it.

During my journey, I have drawn information from a variety of resources. These include a careful analysis of prehistoric pottery, an extensive review of archeological and ethnographic documentation regarding Indian pottery manufacture in the Southeast, studying modern cultures that still use traditional pottery making techniques, consulting with Indian potters, archeologists other replicators and through trial and error coupled with careful observation and comparison (basic Experimental Archeology).
Analysis of the 19th Century Historic Archaeological Material Culture Remains from the Browning Site in Smith County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

The Browning site (41SM195A) is located on a 3800 m2 alluvial terrace that overlooks the Auburn Creek floodplain in eastern Smith County, Texas. This setting is near the headwaters of a stream system in the Harris Creek drainage; Harris Creek meets the Sabine River ca. 34 km to the north. In the vicinity of the Browning site, the valley, being narrow with steep valley walls, offers few locations suitable for either prehistoric or historic occupations. Soils here arc Entisols; they vary in depth from 30-70 em across the landform, terminating at a sandstone C-horizon. These arc soils that formed mostly under forest vegetation and are dominantly sandy or loamy. The Browning site falls within the Pineywoods vegetation area and represents the western extent of the pine and deciduous forests of the Southeastern U.S. coastal plain.

Archaeological investigations at the Browning site have been carried out intermittingly for several years by the junior author. That work has led to the recognition that it is a stratified site with two very distinct occupations, an early to mid-19th century assemblage of historic artifacts primarily in an upper zone (0-20 em bs) overlying a buried (20-50 em bs) Late Woodland period occupation. The historic occupation is in the center of the terrace, covering approximately 500m2• The historic artifacts arc found primarily in the upper sediments, but due probably to pedoturbations, they have been found as deep as 50 em in the underlying prehistoric archaeological deposits.

Excavations at the Browning site have consisted of 41 1 x 1 m units (with a total excavated volume of 20.4 m3) and 22 shovel tests. Surface collections were obtained from the site in 1996 and 2002.

The 22 shovel tests excavated at the site were conducted first to better ascertain the limits of the site and identify areas of concentrated cultural activity; ST 4, 8-9, 12, and 19 contained 19th century historic artifacts. Once a buried prehistoric occupation zone was identified, units were placed primarily in cardinal directions to better define the occupation zone's boundaries and levels of occupational intensity, and also sample the overlying 19th century component. The I x 1 m units were excavated in arbitrary l 0 em levels and the soil was dry-screened for artifacts through I /4-inch hardware cloth except for a fine screen sample from Unit I that was water-screened through I /32-inch mesh. A level sheet was completed at the end of each level. Profiles were drawn of one wall of each unit or a common wall when several units were joined. The shovel tests followed the same procedures, except they were excavated in arbitrary 20 em levels.

One feature had four refined earthenware sherds (as well as two prehistoric artifacts) and 15 small pieces of animal bone. This was a shallow pit with a very dark grayish-brown sandy loam fill (with charcoal flecks) and a rounded bottom that was 63 em in diameter and extended from 22-29 em bs.
The Wa'akas Site (41CP490) at Lake Bob Sandlin, Camp County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo
Published: May 2019

The Wa'akas site (meaning Cow in the Caddo language) is located on a small toe slope (330ft. amsl) overlooking a small and unnamed tributary to Big Cypress Creek. The channel of Big Cypress Creek lies about 1 km to the north. The toe slope landform is normally inundated by the waters of Lake Bob Sandlin but became exposed during an episode of lowered water levels (about LO feet below the normal pool elevation of 337ft. amsl) at the lake due to drought conditions from late 2005 to early 2007. A large number of prehistoric artifacts were exposed on the landform over a ca. 2500 square meter area (0.6 acres), according to the site form, among them 490 sherds, several arrow points and dart points, as well as some pieces of lithic debris. The site was then inundated again, but a renewed drought in 20 II re-exposed the site. A moderately-sized collection of artifacts found at the site, primarily Caddo pottery sherds, at that time have been recently documented, and are reported on in this article.
July 1, 1835: What did the Caddo Believe they were Selling, and was the Price Paid Fair?
Authors: Tiller Jim , Gong Gang
Published: May 2019

Most Caddo scholars interested in the tribe’s last years in Louisiana would probably agree that the above questions are largely settled business. The authors, both geographers, would tend to concur that a consensus has probably been reached on these questions; however, those with a desire to get at the truth of the matter might want to at least consider the array of archival documentation that paints a somewhat different picture of this aspect of the land cession. In the pages that follow, a case will be presented that, from the Caddo perspective of the mid-1830s, the tribe knew exactly what they intended to sell the United States, and that ultimately the per-acre price paid to them was greater than they proposed to the treaty negotiator. Certainly in hindsight the Caddo got the short end of the stick, but in terms of conditions on the ground at the time, period materials suggest that the deal made was fair, reasonable and clearly desired by both sides.
Woodland Period Archaeology as seen from the Attoyac Bayou Basin in East Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The character of the archaeological record of the Woodland period (ca. 550 B.C.-A.D. 800) in East Texas is discussed in the context of the findings from excavations at four Mossy Grove Culture Woodland period sites at Lake Naconiche in the Attoyac Bayou basin. Of particular concern is information obtained from these sites on local Woodland period settlement patterns and features, and hints of a developing sedentism in the latter part of the period (after ca. A.D. 500/600), subsistence strategies and the use of cultivated plants, their material culture (chipped and ground stone tools and the manufacture and use of ceramic vessels), and evidence in the archaeological record for exchange and interaction between neighboring Woodland groups. The Mossy Grove Culture Woodland period groups that lived at the Lake Naconiche sites were relatively parochial huntinggathering foragers with a mobile settlement system characterized by intermittently occupied camps, and a material culture dominated by plain sandy paste pottery, dart points and bifaces, and expedient tools.
A Preliminary Temporal Analysis of the East Texas Archaic
Authors: Selden Robert Z.
Published: May 2019

This article presents preliminary findings of a temporal analysis of the East Texas Archaic based upon the examination of radiocarbon 14C dates from sites that have deposits that date to the period. All assays employed in this effort were collected from research and cultural resource management reports and publications, synthesized, then recalibrated in version 4.1.7 of OxCal using IntCal09.

The date combination process is used herein to refine site-specific summed probability distributions, illustrating— for the first time—the temporal position of each dated archaeological site with an assay that falls within the Archaic. Seventy-three radiocarbon dates from 34 sites serve as the foundation for this analysis of the East Texas Archaic period (ca. 8000-500 B.C.) (Table 1). All dates used in this analysis come directly from the East Texas Radiocarbon Database (ETRD). Within the sample, there are 19 sites with a single radiocarbon sample that dates to the Archaic, eight sites with two dated samples, one site with three dated samples, three sites with four dated samples, one site with five dated samples, and one site with 14 dated samples. Of the 73 14C dates from the ETRD used in this analysis, one dates to the Early Archaic period (ca. 8000-5000 B.C.), eight date to the Middle Archaic period (ca. 5000-3000 B.C.), and the remaining 64 date to the Late Archaic period (ca. 3000-500 B.C.) (temporal divisions follow Perttula and Young).
A Frankston Phase Settlement and Cemetery at the H. C. Slider Site on the Neches River in Cherokee County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo
Published: May 2019

The H. C. Slider site is a previously undocumented Late Caddo habitation site and cemetery in the Neches River valley in western Cherokee County, in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was found and investigated by Buddy Calvin Jones in November and December 1967. His notes and collections from the site are curated at the Gregg County Historical Museum in Longview, Texas.

According to Jones' notes, the site is on three sandy knolls along a Neches River terrace, approximately 11 miles southwest of the city of Jacksonville. These knolls (A-C) have midden deposits with ceramic sherds and lithic artifacts. Knoll A has a cemetery, and Jones excavated four burials (Burials 1-4) at the northern end of the knoll.
The Mud Creek Site in the Angelina River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo
Published: May 2019

There are four vessels in the Buddy Jones collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum from the Mud Creek site, also known as the Damon Ramey site; it has not been formally recorded and does not have a state trinomial. This site is near Reklaw, Texas, by U.S. 84 where it crosses Mud Creek, a major southward flowing tributary to the Angelina River. Bill Young, now deceased, had told the senior author several years ago about a Caddo cemetery at this approximate location on Mud Creek.

According to Jones, a total of five burials were excavated here, although it is not known if all five burials were excavated by Jones or instead by other unknown individuals. The four vessels documented from the site are from Burials 3 and 4.
Archaeological Investigations at the Pine Snake Site, an Allen Phase Settlement on Flat Creek in Northwestern Cherokee County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo , Walters Mark , Feathers James
Published: May 2019

The Pine Snake site is a recently discovered late 17th to early 18th century Caddo Indian archaeological site located on private land in the northwestern part of Cherokee County, Texas, in the valley of a westward flowing tributary to the Neches River. This is an area of the Pineywoods of East Texas that contains extensive numbers of Caddo archaeological sites along all major and minor streams. Post-A.D. 1400 Frankston phase and post-A.D. 1650 Historic Caddo Allen phase sites, especially cemeteries dating to either phase, are particularly abundant in this part of East Texas. This article summarizes the findings from archaeological investigations we completed at the Pine Snake site in late 2008. They have produced important information on the domestic archaeological record at a well preserved Allen phase habitation site.
Analysis of a Small Sample of Caddo Ceramic Sherds from the T. M. Sanders Site (41LR2), Lamar County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

This article documents several small collections of Caddo ceramic vessel sherds from the T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) in northwestern Lamar County, in East Texas. These vessel sherds were collected from the surface in 2011 and 2012, and provided to the author for analysis.
The Classification of Late Caddo Period Utility Ware Jars from Sites in the Big Cypress Creek Basin of East Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

Much of the decorated utility wares found in Titus phase mortuary vessel assemblages in the Big Cypress Creek basin of East Texas has been typologically identified over the years as "Miscellaneous Fulton Aspect [Late Caddo] Utility Pottery," which has hindered the full appreciation of the stylistic, temporal, and stylistic diversity that exists among theses sites in the region, or to the extra-local region. The diversity apparent in the decorated utility wares from Titus phase sites has a considerable potential to she light on the existence and spatial distribution of communities of Caddo potters sharing or not sharing utility ware decorative practices and traditions from both short-term and long-term temporal scales, if only more useful classification of the decorative elements found on these wares can be devised.
Ancestral Caddo Ceramics in East Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Selden Robert Z.
Published: May 2019

The most distinctive material culture item of the ancestral Caddo groups that lived in East Texas from ca. A.D. 900 to the 1830s were the ceramics they manufactured primarily for cooking, storage, and serving needs. The decorative styles and vessels forms of the ceramics found at sites in the region hint at the variety, temporal span, and geographic extent of a number of ancestral Caddo groups that lived in this area. The diversity in decoration and shape of Caddo ceramics is considerable, both in the utility ware jars and bowls, as well as in the fine ware bottles, carinated bowls, and compound vessels. Ceramics are quite common in domestic contexts on habitation sites across the region, and whole vessels also occur as grave goods in mortuary contexts.

The Caddo manufactured ceramics in a wide variety of vessel shapes, and with an abundance of well-crafted and executed body and rim designs paired with smoothed, burnished, or polished surface treatments. From the archaeological contexts in which Caddo ceramics have been found, as well as through inferences about their manufacture and use, it is evident that ceramics were important to the ancestral Caddo in: the cooking and serving of foods and beverages, for the storage of foodstuffs, as personal possessions, as incense burners, as beautiful works of art and craftsmanship (i.e., some vessels were clearly made to never be used in domestic contexts), and as social identifiers. In the case of the later, certain shared and distinctive stylistic motifs and decorative patterns on ceramic vessels marked closely related communities and constituent groups.
Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the McSpadden Site
Authors: Selden Robert Z.
Published: May 2019

The McSpadden site (unrecorded and with no site trinomial) is located on the outskirts of Frankston, Texas, in Anderson County, where three Caddo vessels were recovered during the construction of a local roadway during the early 1950s. These vessels are currently curated in a private collection in College Station, Texas. All come from the same small area, and based upon their stylistic character and vessel forms, appear to date to the Late Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1400-1650) in this part of East Texas.
The Distribution of Passenger Pigeon on Caddo Sites in the Trans-Mississippi South
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nightengale Laura , Jurney David H.
Published: May 2019

Following up on the discovery of 10 passenger pigeon elements from one bird in a Caddo burial feature (Burial 52) at the Mitchell site (41BW4) on the Red River in Bowie County, we have documented the distribution of passenger pigeon on Caddo sites in the Trans-Mississippi South. To date, we have identified 10 Caddo sites dating between ca. A.D. 1160-1710 with passenger pigeon bones, along with two Woodland period sites (generally predating ca. A.D. 800-900) in the region. These sites range as far east as the Saline River basin in Southwest Arkansas, as far west as the George C. Davis (41CE19) and Spike (41DT16) sites in East Texas, as far north as the Spiro site (34Lf40) in eastern Oklahoma, and as far south as the McLelland site (16BO236) in Northwest Louisiana, primarily situated in the Pineywoods. As Jackson and Jackson have noted, the passenger pigeons found on Caddo sites appear to reflect a “southward and westward extension of their range during the Late Woodland period (ca. A.D. 700-1000) that continues into the Caddo era (ca. A.D. 1000-1500), likely reaching East Texas sometime shortly after A.D. 1000.”
Plant Remains from Shelby Mound (41CP71), Camp County, Texas
Authors: Bush Leslie L.
Published: May 2019

Nine lots of botanical samples collected during 1988 and 1992 excavations at the Shelby Mound site (41CP71) were submitted for identification prior to their eventual curation at Stephen F. Austin State University. Some botanical samples from these excavations have been previously reported. Excavations at Shelby Mound were conducted in a 10 x 10 ft. unit divided into four 5 x 5 ft. squares. Botanical samples were recovered using 1/4-inch screen. Shelby Mound, also known as the Tracy site and the Greasy Creek site, is a large Late Caddo village, community cemetery, and mound center. Most of the community cemetery at the site was destroyed by looters more than 30 years ago.
The Millsey Williamson (41RK3), Bead Burial, and L. N. Morwell Farm Sites on Martin Creek: Historic Caddo Settlements along Trammels Trace, Rusk County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo
Published: May 2019

There are collections of ceramic vessels and other artifacts from the Millsey Williamson (41RK3), Bead Burial, and L. N. Morwell sites in the Buddy Jones collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum. The purpose of this article is to put the documentation of these collections on record, as this documentation provides previously unavailable detailed information on the material content of probable 18th century Nadaco Caddo/Kinsloe phase historic sites in East Texas.

Based on the limited available information from the Bead Burial and L. N. Morwell Farm sites, it is probable that all three sites are different names for the same Historic Caddo site situated along the Rusk and Panola County line in East Texas on Trammel’s Trace that was reported on by Jones. The Bead Burial site is reported to be ca. 5 miles south of Tatum along the Rusk-Panola County line, and the Millsey Williamson site is well known for the quantity of glass trade beads found there. The L. M. Morwell Farm site was excavated by C. W. Bailey in 1940, and a tag accompanying two ceramic vessels recovered from a Burial 4 at the site describe it as “Rusk Co. Martin Creek old trading post on Trammels trace.”

Jones indicates that the Millsey Williamson site is an 18th century Nadaco Caddo settlement and cemetery situated on an alluvial terrace on the east side of Martin Creek, a northward-flowing tributary to the Sabine River. Some portions of the site are now covered by the waters of Martin Creek Lake, constructed in the 1970s. The site was first known in the 1930s, when at least 11 historic Caddo burials were excavated in the cemetery at the western end of the landform, and there was a habitation/village area on the highest part of the landform, east of the cemetery. Jones excavated a disturbed historic burial at the site in 1955, and also occasionally collected glass beads from the surface of the site. The funerary offerings placed with this disturbed burial are not clearly enumerated by Jones, as his description of artifacts from the site includes artifacts he examined in several other collections.

He did note 275 sherds from the surface of the site and 12 whole or restored ceramic vessels from an unknown number of burials (Jones 1968:Table 1). Most of these sherds were grog- (52%) or bone-tempered (43%), but 4% were tempered with shell. There were also clay and limonite pipes, ochre and vermillion, animal teeth, glass beads, metal gun parts, gun flints, iron knives, iron arrow points and awls, and a variety of brass objects: a brass tinkler, coils, hawk bells, and unworked pieces of sheet brass.
Glade Creek at Oil Lease Grave Site, Gregg County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Glade Creek at Oil Lease Grave site is reported by Buddy C. Jones to have been a large Caddo cemetery that was found and excavated by a Mr. C. W. Bailey sometime before 1954. Jones labeled the site as GC-23 in his site recording system. As far as can be determined from the available notes, the site was located on Glade Creek, a small spring-fed stream that is a tributary to Witcher Creek, in the Little Cypress Creek basin in the northern part of Gregg County, Texas, in the East Texas Pineywoods.

A single ceramic vessel from the site is in the Buddy Jones collections at the Gregg County Historical Museum in Longview, Texas. The vessel was documented in July 2013.
The Lizzie Hill Site (41CP494), Camp County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Lizzie Hill site (41CP494) is one of a number of archaeological sites that Robert L. Turner, Jr. surface collected from in Camp County, Texas in the 1950s and 1960s. Bo Nelson and Turner formally recorded the site in July 2012. The analysis of the surface collection of ceramic and lithic artifacts from the site, as well as a few historic artifacts, is the subject of this article.

The site was located in a cultivated field when Turner found it and gathered his collection of artifacts, but now is in pasture, along a small tributary to Walkers Creek in the Big Cypress Creek basin. The site is estimated to cover a ca. 160 x 80 m area (ca. 3 acres) on an upland slope (360-380 ft. amsl).
Documentation of Ceramic Vessels and Projectile Points from the C. D. Marsh Site (41HS269) in the Sabine River Basin
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

A total of at least eight Caddo burials were excavated at the C. D. Marsh site on Eight Mile Creek, a southward-flowing tributary to the Sabine River, by Buddy C. Jones in 1959-1960. This includes Burial 1, an historic (dating after ca. A.D. 1685) Nadaco Caddo burial; European trade goods found with this burial include two small silver disks. The other burials (Burials 2-8) are part of an earlier Caddo cemetery that is thought to be associated with the ca. A.D. 1350-17th century Pine Tree Mound community along the Sabine River and its tributaries. Jones suggests that these latter burials are from a ca. A.D. 1200-1500 Caddo cemetery.

According to Jones and notes on file at the museum, Burials 2-8 are located ca. 120 m east-southeast from the one Historic Caddo burial at the site. The burials were placed in extended supine position in north-south oriented pits in rows, with the head of the deceased at the southern end of the burial and facing north. Funerary offerings included ceramic vessels and mussel shells. In this article, we describe eight ceramic vessels in the Gregg County Historical Museum collections from Burials 1, 4, and 7, as well as projectile points from habitation contexts at the C. D. Marsh site; the location of Burial 7 relative to Burial 4 is not known.

There are also six other ceramic vessels from the ca. A.D. 1200-1500 burials at the site that are unassociated funerary objects in the Gregg County Historical Museum collections. This includes one vessel each from Burials 5 and 8; the provenience of the other vessels at the site is unknown.

One of the unassociated funerary object ceramic vessels at the C. D. Marsh site is a Ripley Engraved, var. McKinney carinated bowl. Such vessels would not be expected in a ca. A.D. 1200-1500 Caddo cemetery, and although this type of fine ware is commonly seen on post-A.D. 1600 Titus phase sites in the region, it is rarely found in association with European trade goods. Therefore, it may represent a burial from a third temporal component (ca. A.D. 1600-1685) at the site.
The J. M. Snow Site (41CE8) in the Neches River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

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.
Ceramic Petrographic Analysis of Sites 41CP71, 41BW2, 41BW5, and 41SM442, Northeast Texas
Authors: Robinson David G. , Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

A total of 61 ancestral Caddo ceramic sherds from four village sites in Northeast Texas were studied by ceramic petrographic methods in 2014. The sample sherds were excavated from their sites under controlled conditions and were either archived at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (41BW2), Stephen F. Austin State University (41CP71), or remain in private hands (41SM442). Recently, they were selected for combined petrographic and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), although only the sherds from the Alligator Pond site (41SM442) have actually been submitted and analyzed by INAA at this time. This combination of approaches is part of a change in Northeast Texas ceramic technological studies termed a second generation by some (Robinson 2014), although such multiple combined approaches have long been advocated and applied in general archaeological literature. The approach looks at the geochemical and petrological characteristics of ceramics in tandem to gain a broader and more informative background on the character of ancient pottery. This study is the petrographic branch of the overall approach; the objective here is to gain clues or suggestions on local, community, and regional scales of Caddo ceramic production and distribution. Part of this effort is to attempt to identify localities and types of clay beds used in ceramic manufacture.
Woodland and Caddo Period Sites at Toledo Bend Reservoir, Northwest Louisiana and East Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

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.
Diversity in Ancestral Caddo Vessel Forms in East Texas Archaeological Sites
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

Ceramic vessels from ancestral Caddo sites in East Texas are diverse in form, size, manufacture, and decoration, both spatially and temporally. Variation in these attributes, including vessel form, also “is connected with particular local and regional traditions." In this study, I am concerned with defining the character and formal identification of Caddo vessel forms on sites in the region. To both appreciate and understand the meaning of vessel form diversity in Caddo vessel assemblages in East Texas— or any other part of the much larger southern Caddo area—the consistent identification of different vessel forms and vessel shapes is crucial. The formal identification of the diverse vessel forms and vessel shapes, in conjunction with other vessel attributes, most notably decorative motifs and elements, present in Caddo vessel assemblages should contribute to delimiting the existence and spatial distribution of communities of Caddo potters that were sharing or not sharing ceramic practices and traditions in both short-term and long-term spatial scales, and illuminating small or expansive networks of social groups tied together through regional interaction.
The Forest Mound Site (41CE290) on Larrison Creek, Cherokee County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Forest Mound site (41CE290) is an ancestral Caddo site on a sandy knoll on an alluvial terrace of Larrison Creek, a southward-flowing tributary to the Neches River in the East Texas Pineywoods. Raymond Ring, an avocational archaeologist, found and investigated the site in 1962, and amassed a small collection of ceramic sherds and one arrow point that he subsequently donated to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL).
41HO70 on Stowe Creek in the upper San Pedro Creek Basin, Houston County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

Site 41HO70 in the East Texas Pineywoods is an ancestral Caddo settlement that was extensively looted by a well-known East Texas looter in 1985. The available information about the site discussed in this article is gleaned from the records and a 1986 artifact collection held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL).
The Womack Site (41LR1), an Ancestral Caddo Settlement on the Red River in Lamar County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

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 not been previously published. In this article I discuss the 1931 investigations by UT at the Womack site, and also summarize the character of the artifact assemblage recovered at the site during this work. Lastly, I consider the occupational character and settlement history of the Womack site—particularly its history of settlement by ancestral Caddo peoples—and define a Womack phase for the ca. A.D. 1690-1750 archeological components at the Womack, Sanders (41LR2), Goss Farm (41FN12), and Harling (41FN1) sites along the upper Red River and the Gilbert (41RA13) and Pearson (41RA5) sites in the upper Sabine River basin.
The A. S. Mann (41HE7/41AN201) and M. S. Roberts (41HE8) Sites in the Upper Neches River Basin, Henderson County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Troell Waldo
Published: May 2019

The upper Neches River basin in East Texas has been the scene of archaeological research since the early 1900s, with a particular focus on the post-A.D. 1000 archaeological record of the Caddo peoples in the region. The A. S. Mann (41HE7) and M. S. Roberts (41HE8) sites are ancestral Caddo sites located in the modern-day Pineywoods that were investigated by University of Texas (UT) archaeologists in the 1930s. I want to thank Waldo Troell for bringing these sites to my attention.
Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Artifacts in the Jesse Martin Glasco Collection from Upshur County, Texas, at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

Jesse Martin Glasco, or J. M. Glasco, lived in Gilmer in Upshur County, Texas, between the mid- 1840s and 1886. During most of those years he served as Upshur County surveyor and deputy surveyor, as well as deputy county clerk, postmaster, and tax assessor, and he also represented Upshur County in the 11th Texas legislature. Between 1859-1861 and 1867-1873, he was a meteorological observer for Upshur County for the Smithsonian Institution, and also collected Native American pottery for the Smithsonian’s collections from the Gilmer area.
Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Assemblage from the Spoonbill Site (41WD109) in the Lake Fork Creek Basin, Wood County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Skiles Bob D.
Published: May 2019

Ancestral Caddo habitation sites are common in the upper Sabine River basin in East Texas, as well as along tributaries of the Sabine River, including Lake Fork Creek. In this article we discuss the ceramic vessel sherd assemblages from the Spoonbill site (41WD109) that was investigated in the area in the 1970s. The site is in the Lake Fork Creek basin in the immediate vicinity of Lake Fork Reservoir.
Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherds in a 2004 Surface Collection from the Sanders Site (41LR2), Lamar County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

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), as well as its extensive (200+ acres) habitation deposits and material culture remains of the Middle Caddo and Historic Caddo period components. The T. M. Sanders site is located on a broad alluvial terrace just south of the confluence of Bois d’Arc Creek and the Red River.
Obsidian Artifacts from East Texas Archaeological Sites
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Hester Thomas R.
Published: May 2019

Obsidian artifacts are one of the few material culture remains on East Texas sites that provide direct evidence of distant links between East Texas’s native American peoples and native American communities in the Southwest or the Northwestern Plains. Other such material culture items include marine shells from the Gulf of California, turquoise from New Mexico sources, and sherds from ceramic vessels made in the Puebloan Southwest. Such artifacts, however, are rarely recovered in East Texas archaeological sites. In this article, we summarize the available information on obsidian artifacts from East Texas archaeological sites, much of it gathered from Hester’s Texas Obsidian Project (TOP), including obsidian source data when it is available.
The 7-J Ranch Site (41HO4) in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas, Houston County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The 7-J Ranch site (41HO4) is a multi-component Woodland period and Early Caddo period habitation site on a natural rise in the Trinity River floodplain in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas. It is in an area of the middle reaches of the Trinity River where Woodland period sites (dating from ca. 500 B.C. to A.D. 800) are notably common on alluvial landforms, in particular Holocene Terrace-1 and alluvial rise landforms.

The site appears to be a midden mound built up from the accumulations of habitation debris along the edge of the modern floodplain and the modern river channel. The midden mound is between 2-3 m in height and may cover as much as a 90 x 45 m area. The midden soil has been described as a black sandy soil with abundant amounts of preserved organic remains.

The 7-J Ranch site has received no excavations since it was first recorded in the early 1960s, but several surface collections have been obtained from the site by University of Texas archaeologists in 1960, 1962, and 1977. These collections are curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin.
Analysis of a 1940 Caddo Sherd Assemblage from the Millsey Williamson Site (41RK3), Rusk County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Millsey Williamson site (41RK3) is an 18th century Nadaco Caddo settlement and cemetery situated on an alluvial terrace on the east side of Martin Creek in the Sabine River basin. Some portions of the site are now covered by the waters of Martin Creek Lake, constructed in the 1970s. The site was first investigated in the 1930s, when at least 11 historic Caddo burials were excavated in the cemetery at the western end of the landform. In 1940, Jack Hughes, then an East Texas resident, but later a prominent Texas archaeologist, gathered a small collection of sherds from the Millsey Williamson site, and the analysis of these sherds is the subject of this article.
Ceramic Sherd Assemblages from the Hawkins Bluff (41CS2), Snipes (41CS8), and 41CS44 Sites on the lower Sulphur River at Lake Wright Patman, Cass County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

Many documented sites on the lower Sulphur River in the East Texas Pineywoods were occupied by Caddo peoples, and there are a number of such sites at Lake Wright Patman, including better known sites such as Knight’s Bluff (41CS14) and Sherwin (41CS26). These sites appear to have been small villages with family cemeteries, occupied between ca. A.D. 1200-1400. In this article, I discuss the ceramic sherd assemblages from three less well-known Middle Caddo period occupations at other sites at Lake Wright Patman.
How the Ji’kmaqn Came to Spiro: Possible Additions to the Inventory of Sound-Making Instruments Depicted in the Spiro Engravings
Authors: Rees James A.
Published: May 2019

While doing research on turtle shell rattles the author stumbled onto a photograph of a rare and unusual idiophone whose exact likeness appears twice in one of the engraved shell images from Spiro. This paper describes the instrument and the Spiro image and discusses how an instrument currently found only in the Maritime Provinces of Canada may have come to be portrayed on a marine shell cup found at Spiro.
Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the S. E. Watson (41RR8) and Hook’s Ferry (41RR9) Sites, Red River County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

There are 15 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from the S. E. Watson (n=13) and Hook’s Ferry (n=2) sites in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. The S. E. Watson site is a Caddo mound center, village, and cemetery on Pecan Bayou near its confluence with the Red River. Another Caddo mound was reported at nearby 41RR67, on the Chapman Plantation, although it may have been destroyed by Red River flooding. The Hook’s Ferry site (41RR9) is situated in the Red River floodplain just east of the Jonesborough site (41RR15), north of Salt Well Slough, and ca. 3 km upstream from the large village and mound center at the Sam Kaufman site (41RR16).
Funerary Offerings from the Keasler Site Cemetery (41HS235), Harrison County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Keasler site (41HS235) is a post-ca. A.D. 1430 Late Caddo period, Titus phase cemetery with at least 31 burials in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was excavated by collectors in the late 1970s on the property of Sid Keasler of Hallsville, Texas. Minimal records on the burials at the site, and their contents, were provided by Red McFarland, one of the collectors, to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL).

The Keasler site is near Little Creek, a northward-flowing tributary to Little Cypress Creek. It is perhaps one of the easternmost-known Titus phase cemeteries in East Texas, in an area where few Titus phase sites or cemeteries have been identified or investigated by professional archaeologists. Based on the analysis of the available records and vessel images at TARL, Perttula noted that funerary offerings in the burials primarily included ceramic vessels—both utility and fine wares—in almost all of the burials, along with clay pipes and arrow points in only a few of the graves. The subtle differences between two different burial groups in the number and kind of funerary offerings in the cemetery do not provide much evidence of differential status or social rank, and the frequency of funerary offerings as attested to in the TARL records is at the low end of the scale in Titus phase cemeteries. The burials at the Keasler site appear to be those of common members of the Caddo community living in the lower part of the Little Cypress Creek basin. The range of decorated utility ware and fine ware vessels placed in the burial features are consistent with use of the cemetery by ancestral Caddo peoples in parts of the 16th and 17th centuries A.D.

Subsequent to the analysis of the available records at TARL from the Keasler site, funerary offerings from the site in the Sid Keasler collection have come to light. In July 1999, Mark Walters and Bo Nelson photo-documented the Keasler collection, which represents approximately 50 percent of the funerary offerings recovered by Red McFarland. This article summarizes the character of the funerary offerings in the collection. Walters also recorded the nearby Pine Grove site (41HS826), which may represent one habitation area associated with the use of the cemetery at the Keasler site by ancestral Caddo peoples.
Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Eli Moores Site (41BW2), Bowie County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

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.
Late Paleoindian–Early Archaic Dart Points from the Wolfshead Site (41SA117) in the Angelina River Basin in East Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

The Wolfshead site (41SA117) was excavated by the Texas Archeological Salvage Project at The University of Texas in 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 in the northern and southern parts of the site indicated that the Wolfshead site had an extensive Late Paleoindian–Early Archaic San Patrice culture occupation estimated to date between ca. 10,500–9800 years B.P. based on the radiocarbon dating of archaeological deposits with San Patrice points in sites in the Woodland and Southern Plains in south central North America. San Patrice components cluster “in the eastern half of Texas, where prairies and woodlands would have predominated."

The component at the Wolfshead site is marked by a number of distinctive dart points, as discussed in the next section, as well as scraping tools, and Albany scrapers. The Albany scrapers were made on local petrified wood, while the unifacial side and end scrapers were manufactured on both petrified wood and pebble cherts.
Bone Tools from Caddo Sites in the Angelina River Basin in East Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

In addition to the use of stone for tools, ancestral Caddo communities in East Texas also relied on organic materials for tools, including animal bones and plant parts (i.e., cane and wood). Bone tools were an important part of the technological system of Caddo groups and their study helps to understand the range of activities that occurred at Caddo sites in particular locations and regions. However, they are often not preserved in habitation deposits and features on East Texas Caddo sites due to bioturbation and erosion of sandy sediments where artifacts came to accumulate during an occupation or series of occupations. Several ancestral Caddo sites in the Lake Sam Rayburn area in the Angelina River basin do have well–preserved animal bone tools, and we consider their function and use in the remainder of this article.