Comparing Caddo and Coles Creek Pottery Using Petrographic Analysis

Pottery classified as “Coles Creek Incised” is common both to the earliest Caddo sites along the Red River and to contemporary sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Although it often is suggested that Coles Creek pottery from the two regions can be distinguished by differences in paste, no detailed comparative studies have been carried out. An initial attempt to identify variation through the use of petrographic analysis was carried out by comparing 50 samples drawn from sites in northwest and central Louisiana. Although no sharp dichotomy was noted between the regions, the study identified distinctions that support the notion that most Coles Creek pottery was made locally and different technological traditions may be represented

2008 Field Excavation Final Report Acosta-Durst-Taylor House

The Acosta-Durst-Taylor site (now known as the Durst-Taylor House) is known as one of the earliest occupations in Nacogdoches, TX. The property fronts North Street and is just to the north of Hospital Street (Figure 1). Much of the history of this plot of land and accompanying house, out structures, and other buildings associated with this land is described thoroughly in the site’s National Register of Historic Places nomination form (United States Department of the Interior 2003). What follows is a brief synopsis of the changing landscape of site 41NA182

Geophysical Determination of Unmarked Graves at 41NA140 (Old Bapist Cemetery/Zion Hill Baptist Church)

The Old Baptist Cemetery is the first organized Black Baptist cemetery (and church) in Nacogdoches County (Tindall 1976:94). It is located along the current rechanneled La Nana Creek on Park Street (Figure 1). The church/cemetery site was originally a two acre plot of land, donated by Frank and Ellen Walton, that housed a brush arbor church and the cemetery to the east side of the church (Texas Historical Commission 2008). The brush arbor church was reconstructed into a frame building and then to the current Zion Hill Baptist Church (that was later moved). The cemetery was used from 1897-1945, but fell into disrepair. The City of Nacogdoches assumed custodianship of the cemetery in the early 1970s. In November 2007, Dr. Leslie G. Cecil and Dr. Jeffery E. Roth conducted an above ground survey of the cemetery grounds and noted that there were large open areas (areas without marked graves) within the fenced area. If as Mrs. McNeil states is true and the graveyard was filled to capacity, then these open areas could hold the unmarked graves of those individuals. The only way to determine if there were unmarked graves without conducting shovel tests or excavations was through the use of geophysical surveying methodologies. We obtained a permit from the Texas Historical Commission (#4825) to conduct a below ground survey using electromagnetic technology (EM-31)

The Contact Period of Central Peten, Guatemala in Color

When Bernal Díaz del Castillo passed by Nojpeten with Hernán Cortés in 1525, he remarked upon the Itza capital’s brilliant whiteness, even from a great distance (Jones 1998:69). However had he stood in the central plaza, he would have discerned that the sun’s reflection eclipsed artifacts and architecture of a variety of colors. The archaeological record is frequently similarly whitewashed by our focus upon form, weight, and distribution. Nevertheless, color helped imbue the Contact period (AD 1525-1697) world of the Maya of the Petén lakes region of Guatemala with significance. This paper investigates the colors of ritual paraphernalia encountered in Contact period ritual contexts in the Kowoj region of Petén, Guatemala with special concern with architecture, ceramics, and beads. These artifacts indicate the significance of particular colors and possibly the avoidance of the color yellow

Field Excavation Report Season 1: 2018 Summer Field School Millard’s Farmstead 41NA416 Permit #8424

In the summer of 2018 (June 4-July6), SFA Archaeological Field School (ANT440) was lead by Dr. Leslie G. Cecil and Laura Short (adjunct professor at the time) and had 10 students and one volunteer. The site selected was the Millard’s Farmstead located behind the Nacogdoches ISD Agricultural Center on the Northwest Loop in Nacogdoches, TX. The site is approximately 1.62 acres in area of which only 28 m2 were excavated. Alton Frailey (the NISD superintendent at the time) approved the excavation of the site for multiple field seasons. The site currently sits on NISD property. A pedestrian survey in April 2018 located the farmstead’s fireplace and excavations were conducted around it to best determine the placement of the house. The house had been razed during the 1970s; however, the crib barn still stood. At the end of the field season, representatives moved the crib barn to Millard’s Crossing under George Avery’s supervisions. A total of 9026 artifacts were recovered and are curated at the SFA Anthropology and Archaeology Laboratory. Future research at the site will continue once COVID-19 is no longer an issue in order to capture other information about this time period in Nacogdoches history

Arbor Groves 41HO02 Final Report

Arbor Groves, located in the heart of the Piney Woods and west of multiple large bodies of fresh water, was most likely a sanctuary for woodland animals and early Americans. In fact, artifacts from the Clovis period (ca. 10,000 BP) to the modern era have been excavated from the site. Most of the artifacts excavated during the 2016 field season dated to the late Archaic period (8000-500 BC) to the early Woodlands period (beginning approximately 500 BC). The amount of lithic debris and projectile points found strongly suggest that Arbor Groves was a lithic manufacturing site. The manufacture of projectile points and other tools result in many lithic flakes discarded from the parent material (Morrow 1996). Because manufacturing and disposing of the waste are often in the same area, evidence for these sites also include the presence of broken projectiles, cores, and various pecked cobbles. Rarely does one find complete points or the hammerstone and tools used to produce the objects, as those are carried by the maker

The Little Paint Site: A Classic Toyah Camp on the South Llano River, Kimble County, Texas

On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted testing and data recovery investigations at the Little Paint site (41KM226), a prehistoric multi-component site in the US 377 right-of-way along the South Llano River in Kimble County, Texas. While the site revealed Archaic and Late Prehistoric components, the earlier components were stratigraphically intermixed. Consequently, data recovery focused almost entirely on a discrete Toyah component, which, based on earlier test excavations conducted in August and September 2006, had previously been determined to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and as a State Archeological Landmark. SWCA performed the investigations under Texas Antiquities Permits 4184 and 4318. Kevin A. Miller served as Principal Investigator. The excavations recovered approximately 102 m2 of a stratigraphically-discrete Toyah component consisting of rock-lined hearths, Perdiz points, Cliffton points, a bird-bone bead, bone-tempered ceramics, bifaces, scrapers (notably end scrapers on blade-flakes), various informal lithic tools, drills, awls, debitage, and faunal remains. Based on the assemblage, the site is interpreted as a Toyah basecamp as indicated by a diversity of tool forms and site furniture. The component has good integrity, is vertically and horizontally discrete, and contains a substantial amount of archaeological materials. The suite of 16 radiometric dates indicates intermittent Toyah occupations between 240 and 570 years ago, a time range that is generally consistent with recognized span of the Toyah assemblage. The archaeological assemblage and site structure, however, suggests a possible single Toyah occupation. While not a focal point of the data recovery investigations, the excavations also recovered mixed Archaic components below the Toyah component. Artifacts include diagnostic point styles that indicate Late Archaic to early Late Prehistoric occupations, representing 1,000 to 2,000 years of the regional cultural chronology compressed within a thin stratum. Based on the findings, the depositional conditions below the Toyah component, as was previously determined by the testing data, were found to be generally not conducive to the formation of stratigraphic separation of the successive occupations. This compression resulted in intermixing of components and poor integrity. Below the mixed Archaic zone, deeply buried Middle to Early Archaic deposits were identified. These retained a better potential for significant isolable strata, but these deeper deposits were beyond the project impacts and therefore were not the subject of mitigative efforts. The deeper deposits are preserved by avoidance. As previously determined and further substantiated by the data recovery investigations, the Little Paint site, because of the Toyah component and perhaps earlier deposits, is eligible for National Register of Historic Places listing under Criterion D, 36 CFR 60.4, and eligible for State Archeological Landmark designation under Criteria 1 and 2 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure for the Antiquities Code of Texas, 13 TAC 26.8. The excavations have mitigated the adverse effects of the US 377 bridge replacement by recovering the vast majority of the Toyah component within the area of potential effect of the roadway undertaking. No further archaeological work is recommended. Portions of the site outside of the right-of-way have not been fully evaluated. The artifacts and records from the project are curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University

Life on Jackson Creek, Smith County, Texas: Archeological Investigations of a 14th Century Caddo Domicile at the Leaning Rock Site (41SM325)

The 14th century Caddo Leaning Rock site was initially discovered in the Fall of 2004. It was located during reconnaissance to search out a location for the survey portion of the Texas Archeologica! Society\u27s Academy IO I held in Tyler in February 2005. This was not a formal survey with transect lines. nor one using regularly spaced shovel tests. but was rather more of a windshield \u27 type survey, consisting of driving across pasture lands looking at gopher mounds and checking fore, evidence of archeological deposits on likely looking landforms. !n this area. landform and soil type seem to be the major determining factors in locating Caddo sites. The sandy soils in the scattered gopher mounds appeared almost white. especially in droughty conditions that prevailed at the time. causing an area with darker mounds of soil to catch my attention. Pocket gophers (G. breviceps) can play havoc with buried archeological deposits but can also be useful in bringing buried soils along with archeological materials to the surface from their underground tunnel system. While this dark area could have been the result of past historic land clearing and burning activities. a closer inspection revealed burned bone. mussel she!L and Caddo sherds mixed in the dark brown soils in the scattered gopher mounds. The next step was to record the site with the State of Texas, obtaining the trinomial 41SM325. It is common practice to also gin: sites informal names and after recording several hundred sites, selecting a name becomes a challenge. One large sandstone slab, pan of the R-horizon that is exposed around the margins of Leaning Rock. was unearthed during prior landclearing activities and pushed up against a lonely pine tree on the northern margins of the site: consequently the nom de plume Leaning Rock

Data Recovery Investigations: Murvaul Creek Site (41PN175), Panola County, Texas

This report summarizes the archeological findings of the 2011 data recovery investigations at the Murvaul Creek site, 41PN175, in far northeastern Texas in Panola County. The site is located along Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 10 approximately 1 mile north of Gary, Texas (Figure 1). Geo-Marine, Inc. (GMI), performed this work under contract to the Texas Department of Transportation, Environmental Affairs Division (TxDOT ENV) under the Texas Antiquities Permit Number 5879 (Work Authorization [WA] 579 06 SA005; WA 590 08 SA005; CSJ:1222-01-014; Geo-Marine project numbers 22005.00.06 and 22005.00.09). The fieldwork for this project was conducted in advance of the planned widening of FM 10 that was to replace three bridges and a culvert over Murvaul Creek with a larger structure and shift the road approximately 26 meters (m; 85 feet [ft]) to the east. Since the planned improvements of FM 10 would result in the loss of information at the Murvaul Creek site—a site that was recommended eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and for designation as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL; formerly State Archeological Landmark)—the current data recovery investigations were initiated. The data recovery investigations were conducted between February 7, 2011, and April 3, 2011. During this period, the fieldwork was conducted in several stages: site clearing, geophysical survey, 50-x-50-centimeter (cm) excavations, block excavations, and mechanical site scraping. With the exception of the site clearing stage, the results of each of the fieldwork stages are reviewed individually in this report. The investigations resulted in the documentation of numerous features that appeared to have been the remains of a small Middle-to-Late Caddo settlement or farmstead situated on the edge of an interfluve south of the Murvaul Creek floodplain. Additionally, materials pertaining to the Archaic period were documented across the site. Although the site has been intensively studied within the TxDOT right-of-way (ROW), both the current investigations and previous work were limited to the ROW (cf. Cliff and Perttula 2002). Hence, the site is very likely larger than has been adequately documented