Archeologists use the term “Caddo” to refer to the many archaeological sites and abundant material remains that the ancestors of the modern Caddo peoples left behind over a large area of four different states, including eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma, traditionally centered on the Red River and its tributary streams. That record is marked by the remains of farmsteads, hamlets, villages, family and community cemeteries, and many small and large mound centers with public structures on and off mound platforms, plazas, and the burials of the social and political elite in and off mounds, as well as a rich material culture, especially their well-crafted ceramic wares. The peoples that lived in this area shared a common cultural heritage and native history that spanned more than a millennium
