A Study of Chipped Stone Artifacts from the Redwine Site (41SM193), Smith County, Texas

This article presents a detailed analysis of chipped stone artifacts from the Redwine Site (41SM193), a Middle Caddo mound and village site located on the headwaters of Auburn Creek, a tributary of the Sabine River. The collection includes chipped stone recovered from the surface, test excavations, and arrow points associated with two adult burials. The site was investigated by avocational archeologist Sam Whiteside in the 1960s and more recently by Mark Walters and Patti Haskins under the direction of John Keller of Southern Archaeological Consultants. The investigations and material culture have been briefly described. This study is designed to take a closer look at the lithics with an emphasis on technological, material, contextual, and typological analyses of the lithic artifacts, and to compare the findings to the lithics at the nearby and possibly contemporaneous Leaning Rock site (41SM325). Archaeologists generally have not focused on Caddo lithic technology, and this class of material culture remains only cursorily studied. Rather, ceramics have received the vast amount of attention with little emphasis on other types of material culture. One reason for a lack of attention to lithics may be that East Texas generally lacks the resources from which well-crafted artifacts could have been made. Small chert cobbles or pebbles, and pebbles of orthoquartzite and silicified wood constitute the major sources for chipped stone. Lacking are outcrops of excellent chert (such as the Edwards Plateau) or novaculite (eastern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas). Artifacts of from these two sources are introduced into East Texas in finished form. Edwards chert and novaculite debitage found in East Texas sites is likely from recycling broken finished artifacts. When lithics are reported, they are generally relegated to brief descriptive treatments with an emphasis on artifact classification and raw material distribution. Detailed technological treatments are rare (for exceptions. It is preferable in archaeological studies to integrate all classes of material culture in analysis and interpretation to see what sets of material co-occur both functionally, technologically, stylistically, and symbolically. Rarely is this extended effort even attempted in archaeological studies in Texas, but until all surviving aspects of material culture are integrated and interpreted as a cultural whole and within the known context of Caddo culture and life way, only fragments of past cultures will be stressed with the risk of gross misinterpretation. While it is acknowledged that this study treats only a fragment of the material culture from the Redwine site, I will attempt to integrate the findings in such a way as to relate it to extant information from the site available to me from other sources. Another objective of this study is to examine the lithics from the Redwine site and compare them with the sample from the nearby Leaning Rock site. Both collections are assumed to be approximately the same age and may be from the same extended Middle Caddo community. I will specifically emphasize the technological styles of the formal tools and the implications of the debitage with regards to technology and raw material

Leaning Rock Site (41SM325) Lithics

The intent of the lithic analysis from the Leaning Rock site (41SM325) in Smith County, Texas, is to glean all possible information from the artifacts. Lithic studies have taken the back seat in materials analysis from sites and projects in East Texas where archaeologists focus primarily, if not exclusively, on formal tool analysis, if any analysis is done at all. Stone tools often had complex histories, and reading these histories can provide some useful, if not the only source for, insights into tool technologies, function, style, and social inferences. Stone tools were used in entirely different functional contexts than were ceramics, and provide complimentary and often unique information not provided by any other material artifact class. The lithic analysis was conducted first to provide a descriptive report of the sample, and second to assess stylistic, chronological, functional, and behavioral information where possible. Smith County is an impoverished region in terms of lithic natural resources (Banks 1990). The materials available to the prehistoric Woodland and Caddo populations consisted mainly of orthoquartzite pebbles from extensively reworked Uvalde Pliocene gravels, small chert pebbles, silicified wood, ferruginous sandstone, and hematite. The orthoquartzite, chert, and silicified wood occur as secondary deposits in local streams. Imported chert, or rarely novaculite, can often be identified in finished artifacts such as dart points, arrow points, and finely finished biface knives. In the latter cases, the artifacts themselves were most likely introduced in finished form. Ground stone artifacts such as celts also were imported in finished form from Caddo populations that had access to the lithic resources found in the Ouachita Mountains of eastern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas. Given the impoverished nature of the locally available lithic resources, one of the objectives of the debitage analysis was to plot the raw material types. Technological information was limited because of the very small and fragmentary nature of the flakes and other debitage. Despite this shortcoming, some interesting observations regarding technology were possible, such as the identification of punch-produced thinning flakes and bipolar technology. The latter may have been primarily associated with silicified wood and chert pieces used as wedges to split wood. More on this topic is presented below with the discussion of “battered pieces” or wedges

Archaeological Testing and Collecting at Choke Canyon Reservoir, Nueces River Project, Texas

This monograph reports the findings made during the summer of 1977 of test excavations and/or surface collections at 17 prehistoric archaeological sites in the Choke Canyon Reservoir area. The work was carried out by Texas A&M University for the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio. The field work was conducted to assess the archaeological potential of each site in order to advance recommendations for further investigations. The artifact samples, although meager, are described and these data are incorporated with other information from each site towards an overall site evaluation. Recommendations for further work are also included at the end of the report

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

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

An Ancient Maya Hafted Stone Tool from Northern Belize

In 1974, the late Dennis Puleston excavated a hafted stone artifact from the mucky fill of an ancient canal near San Antonio, Orange Walk District, in northern Belize. The artifact consists of several pieces of a wooden handle and a large chipped stone biface originally set in a mortise haft through the handle

Millican Bench (41TV163) A Multicomponent Site in Travis County, Texas

Between September of 1970 and February of 1971, the Texas Highway Department, now the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), carried out extensive hand and mechanical excavations at 41TV163, the Millican Bench site. The highway maintenance crew was ably directed by Frank Weir. Millican Bench represented the first archeological site excavated by the then Texas Highway Department (THD) under their archeological program. In 2001, TxDOT contracted with the Center for Archaeological Research at The University of Texas at San Antonio to provide an assessment of the documents and data and develop research topics that may be successfully pursued with the materials from the site. Based on the assessment it was determined that dependent on data types, four broad analytical units could be defined (Late Prehistoric, and Late, Middle and Early Archaic), and two diachronic and one synchronic research topic would be pursued: changes in subsistence strategies and lithic technological organization, and the evaluation of Feature 3, a possible structure noted at the site. The analysis of the faunal material from the site and comparison with other archeological collections indicates that hunter-gatherers may have pursued a broad-spectrum adaptation, even when bison were present in the region. The lithic assemblage, characterized by predominantly expedient and minimally retouched tool forms, supports this contention. The percentages of what we think are nonlocal raw materials increases through time. This increase hints at changes in the level or scope of mobility. Patterns in projectile point discard and replacement strategies suggest some premium on preventive tool replacement. Although the photographic documentation strongly supports the likelihood of Feature 3 representing a structure, we have little surviving direct data in support of this possibility. The artifactual data that we can investigate suggests, however, that the circular area may have at least represented some type of maintained space. All artifacts retained, in consultation with the Texas Historical Commission and TxDOT, and all site documentation are permanently curated at the Center for Archaeological Research. The remains of the single skeleton recovered from the site are also permanently curated at the Center

Lithic Morphological Organization: Gahagan Bifaces from Texas and Louisiana

This study is focused upon an analysis of Gahagan biface morphology and enlists the three largest samples of these bifaces, to include that of the type site (Gahagan Mound) as well as the Mounds Plantation and George C. Davis sites. Results indicate a significant difference in Gahagan biface morphology at the Mounds Plantation site when compared with Gahagan bifaces from the Gahagan Mound and George C. Davis sites. A test of morphological integration indicates that the bifaces are significantly integrated, meaning that those traits used to characterize their shape (blade and base) vary in a coordinated manner. Tests for allometry and asymmetry were not significant. Results confirm that Gahagan biface production at Mounds Plantation differs significantly when compared with industries at Gahagan Mound and George C. Davis. Results augment previous inquiries, and provide additional evidence for a north-south divide based upon the morphology associated with communities of practice for Gahagan bifaces. When viewed in concert with similar shifts in Hickory Fine Engraved and Smithport Plain bottle morphology, multiple lines of evidence lend support to an increasingly robust argument for two previously unrecognized and morphologically-unique Caddo communities of practice

Royal Coachman (41CM111) An Early Middle Archaic Site along Cordova Creek in Comal County, Texas

The Royal Coachman site, 41CM111, is bisected by FM 306 near the highway’s eastern crossing of the Guadalupe River. Archeologists from the Texas Department of Transportation conducted extensive excavations at the site in 1980 and the Center for Archaeological Research carried out fieldwork related to geomorphic assessment of the deposits in 2002. The site contains at least three archeological components, an upper zone that may be of late Middle Archaic age and two commingled lower zones that are early Middle Archaic in age and contain a mix of Nolan/ Pandale and Bell-Andice/Early Triangular points. The deeper, more strongly manifested archeological components are associated with a dense burned rock sheet midden composed of two in situ features among a dense scatter of highly disturbed burned rock. Radiocarbon assays place this zone at between 5320–5880 years BP. The lithic assemblage is suggestive of tool manufacture and retooling activities and the projectile point collection is dominated by Early Triangular points and preforms. It is the recommendation of CAR that site 41CM111 warrants designation as a State Archeological Landmark and is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places because of its significant contribution to a better understanding of the regional archeological record. We believe that these investigations have resulted in an appropriate level of work to evaluate the archeological property within the highway ROW and no further work is currently recommended. We also recommend that TxDOT consider avoidance as an option during future construction activities to avert impact to remaining deposits. In addition, if new ROW is acquired, additional work is warranted to determine the extent and significance of currently unidentified material. This work was conducted under Texas Antiquities Committee Permit No. 2807

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