bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Cache of Maud Arrow Points and Other Artifacts from the Jim Clark site, Red River County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

In the winter of 2010, I was contacted by Robert Perino, son of the late Greg Perino, a well-known archaeologist who had worked extensively since the late 1960s along the Red River in southwest Arkansas, southeastern Oklahoma, and northeast Texas in the Caddo archaeological area. According to Robert Perino, Greg Perino had found a cache of 30 Maud arrow points at the Jim Clark site in Red River County, Texas, in 1975, and recorded the discovery in a journal, along with a ground stone celt and a ceramic vessel. It is not known with certainty if this cache was associated with a Caddo burial eroding out of the site, but it seems likely that this is the case, as burials are common in Caddo sites along the river in various archaeological contexts, and that these artifacts were all that were either exposed, or remained, of a particular disturbed burial. The purpose of this article is to put these findings on record, in the hope that they provide a measure of useful information for those studying the native history of the Caddo peoples that lived along this section of the Red River before A.D. 1700.

The discovery of the cache has not been previously reported in the Caddo archaeological literature, and the Jim Clark site itself has not been formally recorded. Its exact location was not noted by Greg Perino in his journal , but it is likely that it is along a Red River alluvial terrace or natural levee not far from the Bentsen-Clark site (41RR41) (or perhaps even part of it), as a portion of that Early and Late Caddo period cemetery and village site is on land owned by Jim Clark. Other prehistoric Caddo sites in the immediate vicinity of the Bentsen-Clark site that have been recorded include 41RR74 and 41RR75, although whether these sites have Caddo burials, or when they were occupied in the Caddo era, is not known. The Rowland Clark site (41RR77) is only a few miles upstream on the Red River.
Notes on the Hudnall-Pirtle Site (41RK4) in the Buddy Calvin Jones Collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Hudnall-Pirtle site (41RK4) is an important Early Caddo (ca. A.D. 900-1200) period multiple mound center and large village situated on an alluvial terrace of the Sabine River in East Texas. Although best known through the archaeological investigations conducted by the Texas Historical Commission (on behalf of the Archaeological Conservancy) at the site in 1989 and 1990, Buddy Calvin Jones, then of Longview, completed his own investigations at the site in the 1950s and early 1960s, although he never published any of the archaeological findings from his work, and is has not been clear from the available records and anecdotal information where he conducted his excavations.

At the 1963 Caddo Conference, Jones described the Hudnall-Pirtle site (which he called the Bivins Farm site) as follows: there is one big mound site (Bivins farm) located in the Sabine bottomlands of northeast Rusk County. It is composed of five mounds arranged around a plaza; they consist of two large rectangular temple mounds and three large circular mounds. I would guess this site to be primarily of Alto origin although tests in the village area revealed Alto and Coles Creek sherds.

Since the Hudnall-Pirtle site is now known to actually have eight mounds, it would be useful to present-day Caddo archaeologists to know which mounds Jones was referring to in his description, and how their layout and placement compared to current maps of the site. It would also be helpful if information was available on where Buddy Jones conducted excavations at Hudnall-Pirtle, and what he may have found in that work.

Until just a few months ago, all that was known or conjectured about the Buddy Calvin Jones excavations at the Hudnall-Pirtle site consisted of information gleaned in conversations with his mother, who mentioned trench excavations in Mound C, thought to be a burial mound, and other trenches excavated in village areas and at least one mound in 1958 and 1959. Fortunately, however, Buddy Calvin Jones maps and profiles from his work at the Hudnall-Pirtle site have been recently donated to the Gregg County Historical Museum (GCHM), although it is not known if all the notes, maps, and profiles compiled by Jones are now in the GCHM collections. This article discusses the Buddy Calvin Jones notes on his 1956-1961 work at the Hudnall-Pirtle site.
The Pickett Switch Site (34PN1) and the Presence of Arkansas River Basin Caddoans in East Central Oklahoma
Authors: Brooks Robert L.
Published: May 2019

The expansion of Arkansas River Basin Caddoans westward along the Canadian River remains an intriguing subject of study. This paper examines the presence of Caddoans living in the Ada vicinity, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. The focus is on the Pickett Switch site excavated by Herbert Antle from 1930-1934. This paper examines the work of Herbert Antle, the history of his excavations as well as others at the Pickett Switch site, and describes a collection from the Pickett Switch site at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Concluding comments continue to seek refinement in our understanding of the settlement practices of Arkansas River Basin Caddoans living on the western frontier.
The Killdeer Site (41SM379): A Middle Caddo Site in Northern Smith County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

The Killdeer site was reported in July 2007 by Mark Walters, based on a surface reconnaissance of the site area and a small surface collection of artifacts, primarily prehistoric Caddo pottery sherds. The site is situated on a lower upland slope (410 feet amsl) about 190m northeast of Loves Branch, a small stream in the Harris Creek drainage in the Sabine River basin. Soils are a Redsprings very gravelly sandy loam, 8-25% slopes. Darkly-stained sediments and burned animal bone suggest that there is a Caddo midden deposit at the northern end of the site.
Trends in Archaic and Woodland Period Use of the Middle Sabine River Basin Based on Dart Point Proportions
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Young William L.
Published: May 2019

In this article, we use the varying proportions of a large sample of Archaic and Woodland period dart points to explore trends in settlement and occupational intensity from ca. 10,000 to 1200 years B.P. in the Pineywoods and Post Oak Savannah of East Texas. These darts were collected from sites in Gregg, Harrison, Rusk, and Smith counties, Texas, mainly on sites in the middle reaches of the Sabine River basin.
Artifacts in the Raymond Powell Collection from East Texas
Authors: Girard Jeffery S. , Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

In March 2010, Raymond Powell of Mansfield, Louisiana, allowed the examination and photographic documentation of several artifacts in his possession. The specimens were given to him approximately 60 years ago by a friend who reportedly excavated them from a burial located in either Cass County or Titus County in East Texas. The collection consists of six ceramic vessels and three stone artifacts. The vessels appear to relate to both the Late Caddo Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1430-1680) as well as to contemporaneous sites in Bowie and Cass counties on the Red River near the Great Bend area, and the lower Sulphur River, that have been associated with the Nasoni Caddo.
The Buckner Dam Site (41CE339) and Four Other Caddo Sites on Gum Creek in the Upper Neches River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

Due to recent droughty conditions in East Texas in 2010 and 2011, the water levels on the man-made lakes and reservoirs in the region have been steadily lowering. This decreasing water levels is exposing considerable areas along the lakes that not only have been underwater for considerable periods of time since the lakes were constructed, but this new land exposure is also exposing and eroding archaeological sites that are now along the new lake shore boundaries. Such is the case at Lake Jacksonville, a small lake on Gum Creek in Cherokee County, Texas, and newly recorded archaeological sites have been found along its shores. This article is a summary of efforts to document archaeological collections that have been reported from five sites at Lake Jacksonville.
Caddo Sites in the Saline Creek Basin in Northern Smith County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

This article concerns the documentation of the artifacts from four prehistoric Caddo sites in the Saline Creek drainage basin in the Post Oak Savannah in northern Smith County, Texas. Saline Creek is a northward-flowing tributary to the Sabine River. The Caddo sites are ca. 10 km south of the confluence of Saline Creek with the Sabine River. Saline Creek enters into the Sabine River about 6 km east (downstream) of the confluence of a major tributary, Lake Fork Creek, with the river.
The Marcus Kolb Site (41CE438), Cherokee County, Texas, Part 2
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Marcus Kolb site is an early to mid-19th century occupation on an upland ridge adjacent to an intemiittent tributary of Gum Creek in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. The recovered artifacts from the site, especially black transfer-printed pearl ware sherds, a worked stoneware sherd, and possibly a cut and crimped copper-based artifact, suggested that the site could have been occupied as early as the 1820s-early 1830s, during the time when this part of East Texas was occupied by the Cherokee. The tantalizing possibility of a Cherokee Indian occupation is negated to some extent by the chronological evidence that can be drawn from the decorated whiteware sherds from the site, as the preponderance of that evidence is more consistent with a ca. 1840-1860 occupation, one that postdated the Cherokee occupation of East Texas. That would mean that the historic occupation of the Marcus Kolb site is most likely the product of an Anglo-American settlement.

Subsequent to the analysis of the Marcus Kolb artifacts described above, additional historic artifacts from the site were provided for study by the Kolb family. These artifacts came from surface collections on the slope south and southwest of a test unit near what was described as a "House Site Area." The location of this area relative to the other identified archaeological deposits at the site is not known. The size of the test unit is also not known, but its coordinates (N6-8 and E 1-4 as well as W3) suggests it may have been 3 x 7ft. No depth measurements were specified for the test unit excavations.
Early 1960s Excavations at the Sam Kaufman Site (41RR16), Red River County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark , Nelson Bo
Published: May 2019

The Sam Kaufman site (41RR6, also known as the Arnold Roitsch site for a time) is a well-known Caddo Indian village along Mound Prairie and the Red River in Red River County, Texas. There have been a number of reported archaeological investigations, as well as bioarchaeological studies, at the site, and at other nearby sites since the 1930s.

This article reports on previously unknown investigations conducted by Buddy Calvin Jones in December 1961 through January 1962 at the Sam Kaufman site. His notes on the work-which primarily consist of burial plan drawings and a map or two-have recently been provided to the Gregg County Historical Museum (GCHM). Some of the collection of archaeological materials from the site have also been located at the GCHM, and in May 2011, we had the opportunity to document those materials (all ceramic vessels). Other vessels from the Jones investigations, but not in the GCHM collections, at the Sam Kaufman site are discussed in Perttula and Perttula.
Watershed Times for the Caddo Peoples of the Far Southeast
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

A.D. 1450 was a watershed year in the native history of the Caddo Indian peoples of the Far Southeast (southwest Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas). For the first time, recognizable and relatively geographically coherent socio-political polities in several areas can be identified that arose out of the distinctive archaeological traditions of the Caddo area that first are recognizable about A.D. 900. These new Caddo polities that came into existence at ca. A.D. 1450 apparently lasted until at least A.D. 1680, if not later, but did not survive sustained European contact with the same socio-political organization intact that they started with in those watershed times.

This dynamic development among Caddo peoples occurred in tandem with a more uniform intensification of maize agriculture in prime Far Southeast habitats after ca. A.D. 1300, extensive intra-areal movements of Caddo groups in combination with the abandonment of agriculturally marginal regions, possible new religious developments heralded by indirect archaeological evidence for the use of peyote and other psychotropic drugs among some East Texas Caddo peoples after ca. A.D. 1430, and widespread trade and exchange with indigenous Southern Plains and Southeastern cultures. The introduction of epidemic diseases by the early 1690s, along with slave raiding from tribes east of the Mississippi River (see Ethridge 2009), took a terrible toll on the Caddo peoples in the years to come, but the dissolution of several pre-contact Caddo sociopolitical polities, and the transformation of them into new Caddo cultural identities, did not occur until well into the 18th century, about 1730.
Documentary Evidence for the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Location of the Adaes Indians
Authors: Pleasant Darryl
Published: May 2019

The location of the habitation sites of the Adaes Indians has not been thoroughly investigated by archaeologists and historians. Most researchers have placed Adaes habitation sites in the general vicinity of Los Adaes simply because the presidio and mission were named after the Adaes Indians. This paper will focus on historical documentation to provide a better understanding of the location of the habitation sites of the Adaes Indians during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The earliest accounts presented are narratives of travels along the Red River in the early 18th century. While they unfortunately have no definitive geographical data such as plat maps or land claims, they still provide relational information which can be interpreted along with the more precise geographical documentation of the latter 18th century. All of the late 18th and early 19th century documents reviewed for this paper are primary sources such as conveyances, successions and land claims.

The evidence presented in this paper will reveal that the “homeland” of the Adaes was in southern Desoto Parish, Louisiana and extreme northern Natchitoches Parish. This area is approximately twenty miles north of Los Adaes, which agrees with the Spanish documents and with John Sibley’s location of the Adaes. Archaeologically, there is an abundant sample of historic sites that date to the 18th and 19th centuries in that region. These appear as pure aboriginal sites or mixtures of aboriginal and European components.
Preliminary Comments on Dog Interments from Archeological Sites in Northeast Texas: Folklore and Archeology
Authors: Todd Jesse
Published: May 2019

Dogs have been associated with humans for thousands of years, and dog interments—either associated with human interments or as separate interments—also have an antiquity of thousands of years. This brief paper will summarize dog burials in a worldwide context, and then focus on the folklore, ethnology, and archeology of dogs among the Caddo. The information for the dog in Caddo culture will be summarized from George A. Dorsey’s Traditions of the Caddo and John R. Swanton’s Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians. Then, dog interments from northeast Texas will be listed and discussed. By examining the folklore, ethnology, and archeology of the dog in Caddo contexts, it is hoped that a greater understanding of the role of dogs in prehistoric Caddo culture might be attained.
Landscape as a Ritual Object: Exploring Some Thoughts on Organized Space in the Great Bend Region in Southwestern Arkansas
Authors: McKinnon Duncan P.
Published: May 2019

This paper proposes a testable model to explore humanistic interpretations of landscapes that have been deliberately arranged, organized, executed, and modified based upon a particular suite of highly integrated political, social, economic, and ideological rules and aspirations about space. This model examines the landscape as a ritual object, embedded with cosmological meaning, purpose, and vision. Using data from archaeogeophysical surveys, excavations, and surface collections, some thoughts on organized space in the Great Bend region in southwestern Arkansas are presented with respect to regional site distributions, cardinal directionality, and intra-site spatial relationships as they exist across the cultural landscape.
The McDonald Site: An Analysis of WPA Excavations at a Caddo Site in the Glover River Drainage, McCurtain County, Oklahoma
Authors: Reginer Amanda L.
Published: May 2019

Between December 1941 and March 1942, the final federally-sponsored WPA excavations in Oklahoma were conducted at the McDonald site, located along the Glover River. Because federal funds for analysis dried up as the country entered into World War II, the recovered artifacts were never fully analyzed. Between 2008-2009, I analyzed the non-mortuary artifacts, which are curated at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (SNOMNH) in Norman, and conducted an analysis of recovered stone and ceramic artifacts. Using previously unknown information from a recently unearthed final WPA Quarterly report, in this article I describe excavations and present the results of my analysis. I also incorporate Elsbeth Dowd’s previous analysis of the whole vessels recovered from burials into my study and compare the McDonald site material to the assemblages from two downstream mound sites, Clement and A.W. Davis.
The Ear Spool Site (41TT653): A mid-15th to early 17th Century A.D. Caddo site in the Sulphur River Basin, Titus County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Ear Spool site (41TT653) is a rather unique ancestral Caddo Settlement in the East Texas Pineywoods. More specifically, it is situated along a small tributary to East Piney Creek, itself a northward flowing tributart to White Oak Creek in the Sulphyr River Basin.

What makes the site unique is its diverse architectural charter as seen in the archaeological evidence of four buildings in two different Late Caddo period, Titus phase occupations, separated by as much as 2-3 generations, from the mid- 15th to early 17th century A.D. In, particular, it is the construction of two specialized structures in the earlier Caddo occupation in shallow pits that is most notable, along with evidence of marker posts in two different intra-site contexts. Both of these structures were deliberately destroyed by burning and burial with sediments. The later structures were larger circular residential structures, one of which was deliberately burned down, but not covered with any sediments. Galan and Perttula and Sherman has discussed the archaeological investigations of the Ear Spool site in detail, characterizing the site's archaeological features and findings. However, these publications are very limited in distribution, basically being limited to Cultural Resource Management archaeologist working in Texas, but I believe that the findings from the Ear Spool site warrant broader consideration because of its distinctive and dual scared and secular nature.
The McMinn Ranch Site (41CP72) in the Dry Creek Valley, Camp County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The McMinn Ranch site (41CP72) is a small (less than an acre) prehistoric site on an alluvial terrace along the north side of the lower reaches of Dry Creek, an important eastward-flowing tributary to Big Cypress Creek. In addition to a cluster of several Late Caddo Titus phase settlements and small cemeteries in this part of the valley, there are Middle and Late Caddo settlements and a large Titus phase cemetery at the nearby Harold Williams site (41CP10) as well as a large Titus phase community cemetery at the Tuck Carpenter site (41CP5). This article is a discussion of the McMinn Ranch site based on the recent analysis of an assemblage of artifacts in a surface collection gathered by Robert L. Turner, Jr. some unknown number of years ago.
A Late Caddo Cemetery at the A. Davis Site in the Little Cypress Creek Basin, Upshur County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo
Published: May 2019

The A. Davis site is a previously unreported Late Caddo period Titus phase cemetery in the Piney woods of the Little Cypress Creek basin in Upshur County, Texas. There are notes and collections from the site in the Buddy Jones collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum, and our analysis of those materials are presented in this article.
Additional Ancestral Caddo Ceramic and Lithic Artifacts from the Three Mounds Creek Site, Gregg County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Three Mounds Creek site is an ancestral Caddo multiple mound center along a southern-flowing tributary to the Sabine River in the Longview, Texas area. Buddy Jones recorded the site in 1956, and noted that it had three mounds. His notes fail to describe the mounds in any fashion, nor their relationship to each other or the landform they were built on, and no map is available that shows the location of the three mounds with respect to where he collected artifacts from the site.

In April 1956, Jones excavated a 9.5 x 12 ft. (2.9 x 3.6 m) unit at the site, in an old cotton field. It is unknown if this unit was placed in one of the three mounds, or what the vertical, horizontal, or depositional context of the artifacts was from the site. Perttula described a collection of 264 artifacts from that work that are in the Gregg County Historical Museum (GCHM), and these were primarily ceramic sherds (n=242, 92%). Two additional collections from the site were subsequently identified in the GCHM, and these were analyzed in January 2013. The results of those analyses are presented in this article.
The Chasteen Site (41UR18) on Big Cypress Creek, Upshur County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Chasteen site (41UR18), also known as the W. S. Chastain site appears to be an early Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1450-1550) mound center and village (with an associated cemetery) on an upland landform overlooking Big Cypress Creek. The small mound (18m in diameter and 1.5 m in height) at the Chasteen site, apparently constructed over an important building, is part of a larger complex of Titus phase mound centers at this locale, including the Harroun (41UR10), Camp Joy (41UR144), and the Dalton (41UR11) sites.

The village deposits at the Chasteen site are estimated to cover 3-4 acres around the mound, and contain numerous ceramic sherds and concentrations of daub from ancestral Caddo house structures contemporaneous with the house mound. Other artifacts in the village indicate some very limited use of the upland in Late Archaic and Early Caddo periods. The Robert L. Turner, Jr. surface collection from the site came from a midden area within the village.
Book Review: Evolutionary and Interpretive Archaeologies: A Dialogue
Authors: Selden Robert Z.
Published: May 2019

Originating as a seminar series at the Institute of Archaeology at the University College, London organized by the editors in 2007, and refined at the annual meeting of the Theoretical Archaeology Group in York in December of that same year, this volume represents the printed culmination of a continuation of that dialogue.
Peyoteism and the Origins of Caddo Religious Thought
Authors: Casr Robert
Published: May 2019

The Caddo Indians practiced a vibrant peyote religion long before John Wilson (Moonhead) or Quanah Parker re-ignited the Native American Church. Moreover, research has show the importance of the peyote plant to the Caddo long before any European contact. The peyote religion at the time of the Spanish mission in Texas was full of songs and dances in honor of one known today as (Aah-hi-u kuu-i'-ha) or Father Above, translated to mean home where God lives. Although Swanton proposes that the Hasinai medicine men used peyote "at the beginning of the eighteenth century" (a reference to Friar Hidalgo's Spanish account) how long had they been using this plant before any written records?
The Late Paleoindian Occupation of the Western Ouachita Mountains of Southeast Oklahoma: The Archaeology of Component V at the Quince Site (34AT134)
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Quince site (34AT134) is a well-preserved and relatively deeply stratified Ouachita Mountains archaeological site in Atoka County in southeastern Oklahoma. The site’s archaeological deposits are buried in Late Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial terrace deposits of McGee Creek, a tributary to Muddy Boggy Creek, itself a southern-flowing tributary to the Red River, that cuts through the western edge of the mountains.

Excavated in 1982 and 1983 prior to the creation of McGee Creek Reservoir by the Bureau of Reclamation, the 3.0 m deep archaeological deposits at the Quince site contained a record of prehistoric occupations spanning most of the Holocene period (from ca. 10,500 B.P to 1000 radiocarbon years B.P., or ca. 12,590 to 927 calibrated years B.P.) Woodland (Component I), Late Archaic (Components II and III), and Middle Archaic (Component IV) period occupational deposits are present in good stratigraphic order within the upper 1 m of McGee Creek alluvium. There are also a series of buried Late Paleoindian occupations (in what is defined as Component V) with features and chipped stone lithic tools recovered in situ that are recognized beginning from about 1.10 m to 3.0 m in depth below the surface. In this article, I discuss the archaeological evidence for use of the Western Ouachita Mountains by Late Paleoindian foragers as seen principally from the micro-scale; that is, from the perspective of this one well-preserved and stratified Late Paleoindian site.

Paleoindian occupations with good stratigraphic context are apparently quite rare in the Ouachita Mountains and along the edge of the Southeastern woodlands and the Great Plains in the eastern and eastcentral part of the state of Oklahoma. Much of the archaeological research dealing with Late Paleoindian peoples in this region has dealt primarily with the description and classification of isolated temporally diagnostic projectile points (and the kinds of lithic raw materials employed in projectile point manufacture) found on the surface or in mixed and relatively shallow stratigraphic contexts. The Quince site Late Paleoindian archaeological deposits provide direct and compelling evidence for the long-term and recurrent use of the western Ouachita Mountains by hunter-gatherer groups.
The Steck Site (41WD529), a Titus Phase Settlement in the Lake Fork Creek Drainage Basin, Wood County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Skiles Bob D.
Published: May 2019

The Steck site (41WD529) is a 15th to early 16th century A.D. Caddo settlement situated in the far western margins of the modern Pineywoods of East Texas, in the upper Sabine River basin in Wood County. The site is specifcally situated in the uplands more than 12m above the Dry Creek foodplain, in the upper part of the Lake Fork Creek drainage basin. Two natural springs emerge from the Queen City Eocene formation immediately below the site.

There are two midden deposits at the Steck site, as well as evidence for structures arranged around an open plaza in a small community. The archaeological investigations reported on in this article took place in 1976 in a ca. 9 m diameter trash midden deposit along the edge of the upland landform; the trash midden was ca. 30 cm in thickness. Available notes and analysis records have been used to reconstruct what was accomplished at the site and the kind and range of recovered artifacts.
Renewed Archaeological Investigations at the Sanders Site (41LR2), Lamar County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

At the request of one of the landowners, Ms. Julia Crawford, renewed archaeological investigations took place at the renowned Sanders site (41LR2) in November 2013. These investigations consisted solely of a pedestrian survey of the main part of the Sanders site—the location of two ancestral Caddo earthen mounds and associated habitation deposits—on a broad alluvial terrace (450 ft. amsl) of the Red River, in conjunction with a surface collection of observed material culture remains. Other recent archaeological investigations at the Sanders site have taken place more than ca. 400 m south of the main part of the site, at the extreme southern part of the site, on a higher (470-480 ft. amsl) alluvial terrace of the river.
Additional Artifact Collections from the Gardener Site (41CP55), Camp County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Nelson Bo
Published: May 2019

The Gardener site (41CP55) was first recorded by Sullivan (1977) prior to construction of Lake Bob Sandlin on Big Cypress Creek. A surface collection of sherds and daub suggested that the site was the locus of a Late Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1450-1680) settlement and burned house. However, no further archaeological work was done at the site before it was inundated by Lake Bob Sandlin in the late 1970s.

Recently, because of lower flood pool levels (about 9 ft. below normal flood pool) at Lake Bob Sandlin due to East Texas drought conditions, archaeological materials from the Gardener site have been exposed along the shoreline of the lake. Perttula documented a substantial aboriginal artifact assemblage collected from the shoreline surface of the site, and this article documents a second collection of artifacts from the Gardener site.

The Gardener site, whose overall extent is not known, is located along an upland slope (330 ft. amsl) on the west side of Picket Spring Branch, a small and northward-flowing tributary to Big Cypress Creek, in the Post Oak Savanna. The old channel of Big Cypress Creek lies approximately 1.8 km north of the site.
Additional Collections of Woodland to Caddo Period Artifacts from the Alligator Pond Site (41SM442), Smith County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Thacker Mark
Published: May 2019

The Alligator Pond site is a substantial multi-component prehistoric and historic archaeological site (ca. 1.5 acres) on an upland ridge on the east side of Saline Creek. Saline Creek is a northward-flowing tributary to the Sabine River, and the site is ca. 10 km south of the confluence of Saline Creek with the Sabine River, in the Post Oak Savannah in northern Smith County, Texas.

This is the third article that reports on the artifact assemblages from the site. Previous analyses of the artifact assemblages indicate that the principal component is a pre-A.D. 1200 Caddo habitation site, but there is also evidence from temporally diagnostic ceramic sherds and dart points that the site was used to some extent during the Woodland (ca. 500 B.C.-A.D. 800), Late Archaic (ca. 3000-500 B.C.), and Middle Archaic (ca. 6000-3000 B.C.) periods. Finally, there is an early 19th century historic component at the Alligator Pond site that is marked by blade gunflints, glass seed beads, refined earthenware rim and body sherds, possibly pearlware, that have hand-painted floral decorations, and an alkaline-glazed stoneware crock sherd.
The Sipes' Home Site (41RK603): A Late 18th to Early 19th Century Caddo Site on Martin Creek in Rusk County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Sipes' Home site (41RK603) is an Historic Caddo site on Martin Creek, near Trammel's Trace, about 20 km from its confluence with the Sabine River. It is ca. 2 km downstream from the Martin Lake dam. This site was found and investigated by Buddy C. Jones in the 1950s or early 1960s. He obtained surface collections of historic and aboriginal artifacts from the site; there are no available notes concerning this work.
The Ceramic Sherd Assemblage from the Boatstone Site in Gregg County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Boatstone site (GC-50 in Buddy Jones' site numbering system) is one of many Caddo sites that Buddy Jones investigated along the Sabine River and its tributaries in the Longview, Texas, area. In most cases, his investigations at the sites consisted of the surface collection of ceramic and lithic artifacts, and only in rare cases did Jones complete analyses or publications on his investigations. This article discusses the ancestral Caddo ceramic assemblage from the Boatstone site, which is situated near the confluence of Iron Bridge Creek and the Sabine River in southeastern Gregg County in the East Texas Pineywoods. This collection is curated at the Gregg County Historical Museum.
Revisiting a Historic Manuscript: Vere Huddleston’s Report on East Place (3CL21) Excavations
Authors: Trubitt Mary B. , Evans Linda
Published: May 2019

Vere L. Huddleston was one of several amateur archaeologists who excavated Caddo sites in Clark County, Arkansas, during the 1930s and 1940s. Huddleston took better notes about the sites and contexts of his finds than many of his contemporaries. His large collection of artifacts is now part of the Joint Educational Consortium’s Hodges Collection in Arkadelphia. A manuscript on his excavations at the East Place – the largest Caddo mound group in Clark County – is presented here with new vessel documentation and grave lot information. Since many of these artifacts have appeared in previous publications with little description, this work provides context for interpreting the site and its placement in the Caddo Indian history of this region.
An Aggregate of Spear Points from Atoka County, Oklahoma
Authors: Brooks Robert L.
Published: May 2019

Nine spear points were reported from a farm in northwestern Atoka County, Oklahoma. This aggregate of points appeared to bean isolate as no other prehistoric material was found in the vicinity. The following study discusses the setting and nature of the specimens, stylistic attributes of the spear points and their age, technological and functional characteristics of the pieces, and whether these items represent caching behavior.
The Petrographic Analysis of Sherds from the Craig Mound at the Spiro site (34Lf40), the Moore #3/Ainsworth site (34Lf31), and the Geren site (34Lf36), LeFlore County, Oklahoma
Authors: Love Lori B. , Tomka Steve A. , Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

James A. Brown commissioned James W. Porter to carry out a preliminary assessment of the paste of sherds from the Spiro site (34Lf40), as well as sherds from the nearby Geren (34Lf36) and Moore (34Lf31) sites. According to Brown, Porter’s goal was to “make assessments of the clay mineralogy and petrography of thin sections,” specifically with an “interest in discriminating between (1) grog and grit temper and (2) shell and grog temper with shell inclusions.” Twenty-nine thin sections were prepared, 27 from sherds from the Craig Mound, and one sherd each from the Moore/ Ainsworth and Geren sites, both not far from Spiro. Shortly after Ferring and Perttula completed petrographic studies of red-slipped pottery from sites in Oklahoma and Texas, Brown offered to send the thin-sections from his Spiro area studies to Ferring for more detailed petrographic studies. This he did sometime in 1987, but the 29 thin-sections were never fully studied, and they languished for years at the University of North Texas. In 2012, Ferring relocated the thin-sections and corresponding sherds and sent them to Perttula to complete the petrographic analysis of the Spiro area sherd series. The results of the petrographic analysis of a total of 23 of the 29 thin-sections are discussed in this article; there are provenience issues with the other six thin-sections.
Prehistoric Sites in the Sabine River Valley in Northeastern Smith County, Texas Timothy K. Perttula and Mark Walters
Authors: Perttula Timothy K. , Walters Mark
Published: May 2019

In the winter of 2003, the junior author completed archaeological survey investigations of a small area of the Sabine River valley in northeastern Smith County in the East Texas Pineywoods. The work consisted of limited surface collections and shovel tests, and four archaeological sites were found during the work. The sites are about 2.4-3.0 km south-southwest of the Early Caddo period Boxed Spring mound site (41UR30) on the north side of the Sabine River.

Two of the archaeological sites (41SM307 and 41SM308) are situated on alluvial landforms in the Sabine River valley at elevations of ca. 280-290 ft. amsl. The other two (41SM309 and 41SM310) are on upland landforms at elevations of 310 ft. amsl and 350 ft. amsl, respectively.
The Doug Martin Site (41AN88), a Late Caddo Period Frankston Phase Settlement in the Trinity River Basin in East Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Doug Martin site (41AN88) is a Late Caddo period Frankston phase settlement on a southern-flowing tributary to the Trinity River in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas (Figure 1). Several avocational archaeologists from the Palestine, Texas, area, principally including Clyde Amick, worked at the site in the early 1980s, and donated a collection of artifacts from the site, along with some information about the work done there, to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) in November 1985.
Traditional Caddo Potter
Authors: Earles Chase K.
Published: May 2019

Although I originally set out to find an art form that I was comfortable with and would be inspired by, for myself, I ended up discovering an ancient art form that would benefit not just myself, but the generations of Caddo people that would come after me. I feel that eventually they will see the benefit from its rediscovery. But also, I quickly realized the need to make public the distinction of our ancient pottery legacy for the sake of those Caddo that would pick up the craft. The Native American art world in the American Southeast is much different from that of the Southwest that I grew up loving. So many Native American artists are confused about what is their tribe’s specific legacy and traditional art form that many claim a broad spectrum of tribes in the region by creating artwork under the umbrella of “Mississippian” or “Southeastern Ceremonial.” It became apparent that the Caddo’s specific and unique pottery heritage is in danger of being misrepresented in the art world and to collectors. Making it all the more obvious was that I found out there was only one active Caddo member practicing pottery making, Jereldine Redcorn. I felt like although she was successful in reviving the lost art of our Caddo pottery, there is only so much one person can do and it was then that I decided that I could help expand and help spread our knowledge and our experiences so that our beautiful pottery tradition could be reborn and survive for all time, rather than become lost again in the earth.
Armstrong Landing Site (41CS37): An Ancestral Caddo Site on the Sulphur River, Cass County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Armstrong Landing site (41CS37) is an ancestral Caddo site on an alluvial terrace of the Sulphur River at Lake Wright Patman. It was formally recorded by Briggs and Malone (1970) prior to a planned enlargement of Lake Wright Patman. According to records on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin (TARL), collectors from the Texarkana area had worked the site in the early 1960s, digging four burials there and noting extensive midden deposits. The site remains above the normal conservation flood pool of the lake at present, but is subject to erosion from wave action.
41HS144, A Middle Caddo Period Settlement and Cemetery in the Sabine River Basin of East Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

Site 41HS144 is a Middle Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1200-1450) settlement and cemetery in the Sabine River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was excavated by collectors, including Mr. Red McFarland, a well-known collector and looter of Caddo burials, in the mid-1970s. McFarland provided to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) basic information on the site and the cultural features that he and other collectors found there, and he also donated to TARL a collection of recovered artifacts. This article is an analysis of the available records and collectors from 41HS144.
The Peterson Ranch Site (41HS253), A Late 17th to Early 18th Century Ancestral Caddo Cemetery in the Little Cypress Creek Basin, Harrison County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The Peterson Ranch site (41HS253) is a late 17th to early 18th century Caddo cemetery in the Little Cypress Creek basin in the East Texas Pineywoods. The cemetery, on Gray’s Creek, was found and excavated in 1962 by a number of collectors from the Marshall, Texas, area. In 1963 the cemetery area was destroyed by the construction of an oil well pad.

Most of the collectors kept cursory notes on their excavations at the site, which consisted of plan maps showing the orientation of the burial pits, the human remains in the graves, and the location and kinds of some of the funerary offerings placed in the grave to accompany the deceased to the House of Death in the Sky. Fray Casanas commented in 1691 that the Caddo buried “their dead with all their arms and utensils which each possesses.” The kinds of items placed in Caddo burials, especially the vessels—since they are by far the most common burial offerings—can provide unique insights into how different Caddo groups treated the dead, and what such differences may mean regarding diverse view on life and death among contemporaneous Caddo groups.

The information on the cemetery excavations and burial offerings from the Peterson Ranch site has been reconstructed from notes and drawings on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). To my knowledge, the funerary offerings from the burials at the site have not been documented by a professional archaeologist, and it is presently unknown what the current provenience(s) of the collections are.
The A. C. Gibson Site (41WD1), a Middle Caddo Period Component on the Sabine River in Wood County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The A. C. Gibson site (41WD1) is an ancestral Caddo site of probable Middle Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1200-1400) age in the Sabine River basin in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas (Figure 1). The site is on a natural alluvial knoll in the floodplain of the Sabine River and Cottonwood Creek, just north of Cedar Lake, an old channel of the river. The site has been known since the early 1930s by collectors and site looters, early University of Texas (UT) archeologists, and then by later archaeologists from UT and Southern Methodist University, but it has heretofore not been scrutinized by Caddo archaeologists to any serious degree.
The L. L. Winterbauer Site (41WD6), Wood County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The L. L. Winterbauer site (41WD6) is an ancestral Caddo habitation site in the Lake Fork Creek basin in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas (Figure 1). It is situated along a small tributary stream that flows west into Lake Fork Creek, itself a tributary to the Sabine River, about 1.5 miles west of Quitman, the county seat of Wood County. The recovered artifacts from the investigations of the Winterbauer site indicate that the site was occupied during the Late Caddo period Titus phase, dated generally between ca. A.D. 1430-1680.
The Westerman Mound Site (41HO15), Houston County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

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.
The T. M. Joslin Site (41VN3) in the Sabine River Basin, Van Zandt County, Texas
Authors: Perttula Timothy K.
Published: May 2019

The T. M. Joslin site (41VN3) is a multi-component prehistoric site that was investigated by the University of Texas (UT) in September 1940 as Works Progress Administration (WPA) Project No. 15409. The excavations began immediately after the UT WPA crew had finished work at the nearby Yarbrough site (41VN6). The site is on a sandy knoll on Caney Creek, a northward-flowing tributary of the Sabine River in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas.

Supervised by William A. Duffen of UT, a crew of 16 local laborers excavated a 100 x 100 ft. block (30.5 x 30.5 m) on the knoll between September 12-30, 1940. The local labor began their excavations with shovels at the southern end of the block, and moved north at the completion of each 10 ft. row, working from the completed vertical face of the previous row. The archaeological deposits were described by Duffen as a shallow midden overlying a red clay subsoil; the subsoil was reached between 1.0-1.3 ft. bs (ca. 30-41 cm bs) and the upper plow zone extended from 0-13 cm bs. No cultural features were identified in the WPA excavations, but a very large Canton Incised jar was reconstructed from a large sherd concentration encountered at ca. 25 cm bs. A. T. Jackson, who had first visited the site in the Spring of 1930, before he began to work at UT, had discovered in a “test hole” portions of a large ceramic bowl (36 cm in diameter) and a large water bottle, presumably from a Caddo burial feature, but he did not further explore the feature. About 15 m away he found remnants of a dog burial. It is not known where these finds were in relationship to the WPA excavations.