Griffin Mound Site (41UR142) Faunal Analyses

The investigation of the Griffin Mound site (41UR142) in the Little Cypress Creek basin in Upshur County, Texas, yielded 394 faunal specimens with a total assemblage weight of 127.71 grams. This sum includes all turtle shell, antler, and bone fragments. Faunal material was recovered from the site surface, four shovel tests, and four units in a 2 x 2 m excavation at this Middle Caddoan site, consisting of midden deposits and a large storage pit feature. The following sections of this article discuss the methods employed in the faunal analysis, results of taxonomic identification and quantification, and distribution of these remains

Analysis of the Hardin A Site (41GG69) Faunal Remains

The excavation of the Hardin A site (41GG69), a late 14th to early 15th century A.D. period Caddo site in Gregg County, Texas, yielded 495 faunal specimens. This sum includes all bone fragments, and pieces of antler and turtle shell. Total weight of the assemblage is 266.6 grams. Faunal material was recovered from 15 levels in a single 1 x 2 m unit comprised of a midden deposit and feature fill. The remainder of the article discuss the methods employed in the faunal analysis, results of taxonomic identification and quantification, and the distribution of these remains

Analysis of Faunal Remains from Selected Contexts at the Shelby Mound Site (41CP71): Results from Mound Excavations

Additional faunal material from earlier mound deposits at the Titus phase Shelby Mound site (41CP71) on Greasy Creek in Camp County, Texas, total 459 faunal specimens, weighing 339.8 grams. Sixty-one (13.3%) bone fragments are identifiable, and 201 specimens are burned (43.8%). Standard zooarchaeological identification techniques have been employed in this analysis, using comparative skeletal collections. Attributes that have been examined for each of the bone fragments include taxon, element, and portion of that element, symmetry, burning, and weight. This analysis focuses on identifying general preferences of animal exploitation at this site during the Late Caddo Titus phase. Table 1 summarizes the results of analysis

The Sam D. Carpenter Bottom Site (41CP495) in the Big Cypress Creek Basin, Camp County, Texas

Robert L. Turner, Jr. obtained a surface collection of ancestral Caddo material culture remains from the Sam D. Carpenter Bottom site (41CP495) an unknown number of years ago. With records provided by Turner, Bo Nelson has recently recorded the site, and provided the artifacts from the surface collection for analysis. The Sam D. Carpenter Bottom site (41CP495) is situated on a broad and cleared alluvial fan (280 feet amsl) in the Big Cypress Creek valley, with the Prairie Creek valley not far to the south and the Dry Creek valley not far to the north. There are short, intermittent tributaries to the creek on either side of the alluvial fan, and these flow roughly north and northeast to Big Cypress Creek, the current channel of which is ca. 2 km to the northeast. The Sam D. Carpenter Garden Plot site (41CP496), a Caddo site of similar age and character, is about 1 km to the west

Archaeological Investigations at the New Hope Site (41FK107) at Lake Bob Sandlin, Franklin County, Texas

The New Hope site (41FK107) is a prehistoric site located on a toe slope landform overlooking the Big Cypress Creek valley, the latter now inundated by Lake Bob Sandlin. An old creek channel lies about 100m to the east. Previous investigations reported by Nelson and Perttula indicate that the New Hope site covers about 2.5 acres, and was occupied during Late Paleoindian, Middle-Late Archaic, Woodland, and post-A.D. 800 Caddo times. The Caddo occupation was the principal occupation of the site. Nelson and Perttula noted at least 20-30 grave-sized looter holes there, and there have been reports that prehistoric burials have eroded out along the Lake Bob Sandlin shoreline. Two vessels in a private collection from the site are small bowls (5.2-5.5 em in height and 12.3-14.4 em orifice diameters) with tab tails on opposing sides of the vessel lip. One of the vessels has five horizontal engraved lines on the rim, and the other is plain

Selected Prehistoric Caddo Sites in the Upper Sabine River Basin of Northeast Texas

Some years ago, I commented that the upper Sabine River basin in Northeast Texas had “a highly significant and diverse archaeological record, one that has intrigued professional and avocational archaeologists alike for at least 75 years. At the same time, I noted that “we still know very little about the prehistoric and early historic Caddoan groups who lived in the basin, and unfortunately it has been a number of years since dedicated archaeologists, professional or avocational, turned their attention to this region. In this article, I present information on five different prehistoric Caddo sites in the upper Sabine River basin, specifically in Smith and Wood counties, Texas. What these five sites share besides the fact that they are prehistoric Caddo sites is that the findings from the archaeological work completed at them has not previously been made available to, or shared with, the archaeological community, despite the work having been done more than 20-30 years ago. Each of the five sites is important in its own right as a place where the prehistoric heritage of the Caddo peoples has been preserved, and together they help illuminate the native history of the Caddo in the upper Sabine River basin of their traditional homelands

Titus Phase Archeology at the S. Stockade Site (41TT865) on Tankersley Creek, Titus County, Texas

The S. Stockade site was discovered on a small rise (330 feet amsl) in the Tankersley Creek floodplain during a recent archeological survey for the Texas Department of Transportation. Tankersley Creek is a southward-flowing tributary to Big Cypress Creek, and enters that creek’s floodplain a few miles below the Lake Bob Sandlin dam. There is a dense concentration of prehistoric archeological sites throughout the Tankersley Creek valley, particularly post-A.D. 800 Caddo Indian sites. This paper discusses the archeology of the S. Stockade site, a Late Caddoan Titus phase settlement. The rise at the S. Stockade site is grass-covered (with a surface visibility of less than 10%), except along the eroded slopes, where the clay B-horizon subsoil is exposed. The old creek channel immediately to the west of the rise has recently been channelized, and between the rise and the channelized creek are several low-lying marshy areas with standing water

Certain Caddo Sites on Stone Chimney Creek, Cherokee County, Texas

Limited archaeological investigations coupled with private landowner’s surface collections on Stone Chimney Creek in northwestern Cherokee County, Texas has resulted in the recording of nine new Caddo sites, several of which appear to have been occupied after ca. A.D. 1650 in the Allen phase. The landowner had collected artifacts on his farm and contacted the Texas Historical Commission (THC) about getting information about them, who in turn contacted the author, a member of the Texas Archeological Stewardship Network. The landowner was interested in learning more about the native inhabitants who had once called this portion of Stone Chimney Creek home. Stone Chimney Creek originates in northern Cherokee County and flows in a southerly direction before joining the Neches River under present day Lake Palestine. The study area is some 4.8 km north of the confluence of Stone Chimney Creek and the Neches River. Stone Chimney Creek, in the study area, is deeply entrenched with a narrow floodplain and steep valley walls. Therefore, in the study area, there are no good alluvial settings for archaeological sites. Rather, archaeological sites are located on upland slopes or on top of upland landforms paralleling Stone Chimney Creek. Some of the site settings are unusual, being at the head of dry drainages and gullies, as they are in the adjoining Flat Creek basin and long distances (in terms of easy access to water) from Stone Chimney Creek proper. The soils in the study area are of the Nacogdoches series, which are the principal red soils in the Redlands section of East Texas. The iron and red pigments in these soils permeate everything: skin, clothing, the outside of houses, even artifacts. Depending on the degree of slope, soil layers and fertility vary across the study area; the steeper slopes are heavily eroded. Parent material is greensand marl or glauconitic sandy clay and clay. Certain locations in the study area have been mined of soil for construction purposes. There is evidence of old farming activities, such as farming terraces, but currently large portions of the study area have been cleared and developed for pasture. This land clearing and mining provided good surface visibility at certain sites, resulting in some large surface collections from those areas. Shovel tests were conducted at six of the recorded sites and a 1 x 1 m test unit was placed in a midden deposit at 41CE426. This article characterizes the work to date on these Stone Chimney Creek sites, focusing mainly on five sites with the largest surface collections. The article concludes with a discussion of the broader character and cultural affiliation of these sites with respect to the recently defined Upper Neches River cluster of Historic Caddo sites

The Caddo Archaeology of the San Pedro Creek Valley, Houston County, in East Texas

The Nabedache Caddo that lived on San Pedro Creek in Houston County in the East Texas Pineywoods were a prominent nation during the early years of European contact, from ca. A.D. 1687-1730, if not later. Their villages, hamlets, and farmsteads sat astride an aboriginal Caddo trail that came to be known as El Camino Real de los Tejas, and thus their community was a principal gateway to Europeans and other Native American tribes who came from the west in Spanish Texas to meet with the Tejas or Hasinai Caddo peoples. The first Spanish mission in East Texas was established amidst the Nabedache Caddo community in 1690. According to Swanton, Nabedache means the place of the thorny trees with black berries growing on them (beidatco). The “Na” is the Caddo language locative prefix meaning “the place of;” it can also “refer to the people residing at that place”. Rogers and Sabo indicate that Nabedache means “blackberry place.” The archaeology of the Nabedache Caddo, or that of their pre-A.D. 1542 ancestors, is not well understood, primarily because of the dearth of intensive investigations at a range of Nabedache Caddo sites that likely occur along San Pedro Creek as well as nearby streams in the Neches River basin. Work that has been completed, primarily on sites at Mission Tejas State Park, have included surveys and limited test excavations at a few sites that have Caddo material culture remains (sherds from ceramic vessels, chipped stone tools, etc.) and European trade goods, including glass beads, gunflints, lead balls and sprue, an iron hoe, an iron rowel, a possible strike-a-light, an iron gun cock, trigger plate, butt plate finial, and gun barrel fragments, iron cast iron kettle fragments, iron knife fragments, wrought iron nails, brass tinklers, and Spanish majolica sherds. In this article, I discuss the archaeological material culture remains from ancestral Caddo sites along San Pedro Creek, including those known to have been occupied by the Nabedache Caddo peoples after the mid-1680s

Further Investigations of a Prehistoric Caddo Habitation Site in the White Oak Basin of Northeast Texas: The James Owens Site (41TT69)

The James Owens site (41TT769) is a Middle to Late Caddo period settlement in the White Oak Creek drainage basin in Northeast Texas that was first investigated in June of 2001 at the request of the landowner, Mr. James Owens of Irving, Texas. At that time, the landowner was planning on building a house on the site, and during the course of clearing the land and constructing a gravel drive way to the future house site, he noted some archeological materials on the surface. Discussions between Mr. Owens, Bryan Boyd (Texas Archeological Steward Network), and Mark Parsons, then regional archeologist for the Texas Historical Commission, led to the limited 2001 investigations, which were designed to obtain basic information on the age of, and the range of material culture remains at, the James Owens site, and to further determine whether the site had research potential to address questions concerning the prehistoric Caddo archeology of the region. During the initial work, a ca. 20-30 cm thick midden deposit was identified in the southern part of the site, but its context remained to be fully evaluated; specifically, was the midden a trash deposit, or was it directly associated with structural and habitation features? In April 2002 and February 2003, we returned to the site before Mr. Owens constructed a house there. This additional work was designed to examine the midden deposits in more detail, so as to better estimate its size, contents, and rate of accumulation; locate other cultural features (particularly post holes and hearths from structures); and obtain more radiocarbon samples from the midden and other cultural features. The dating of additional radiocarbon samples was crucial, along with the existing radiocarbon and Oxidizable Carbon Ratio (OCR) dates obtained in the first round of work, in refining the estimated occupation span of the James Owens site. This article is a summary of these more recent, and final, investigations