In this article, we discuss three engraved marine shell ear disks from two protohistoric (ca. A.D. 1670-1700) Caddo sites on Stouts Creek in Hopkins County, Texas. These rather unique engraved marine shell disks have only been reported from three other archaeological sites in the entire southern Caddo area. Stouts Creek is a tributary to White Oak Creek. The drainage is situated in the modern Post Oak Savanna, at the far western edge of the distribution of Late Caddo Titus phase sites in Northeast Texas.
The Stouts Creek marine shell ear disks we report on have been recovered from two different sites in the Stouts Creek valley. One came from a Caddo midden near the Culpepper site (41HP1), a protohistoric Caddo site excavated by The University of Texas in 1931. This particular marine shell disk has a central perforation and a 13.7 mm diameter engraved circle on its outer surface

Green, Lee

Perttula, Timothy K.

English

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Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State Volume 2006 Article 21 2006 Marine Shell Ear Disks from Protohistoric Caddo Sites on Stoots Creek, Hopkins County, Texas Timothy K. Perttula Center for Regional Heritage Research, Stephen F. Austin State University Lee Green Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita  Part of the American Material Culture Commons, Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, and the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Repository Citation Perttula, Timothy K. and Green, Lee (2006) "Marine Shell Ear Disks from Protohistoric Caddo Sites on Stoots Creek, Hopkins County, Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2006 , Article 21. https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.2006.1.21 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2006/iss1/21 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State by an authorized editor of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact cdsscholarworks@sfasu.edu. Marine Shell Ear Disks from Protohistoric Caddo Sites on Stoots Creek, Hopkins County, Texas Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This article is available in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2006/iss1/21 Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology, No. 25 (2006) Marine Shell Ear Disks from Protohistoric Caddo Sites on Stouts Creek, Hopkins County, Texas Timothy K. Pe1ttula and Lee Green 19 In this article, we discuss three engraved marine shell ear disks from two protohistoric (ca A.D. 1670-1700) Caddo sites on Sttouts Creek in Hopkins County, Texas. These rather unique engraved marine shell disks have only been reported from three other archaeological sites in the entire southern Caddo area. Stouts Creek is a tributary to White Oak Creek. The drainage is situated in the modem Post Oak Savanna, at the far western edge of the distribution of Late Caddo Titus phase sites in Northeast Texas (Perttula 2004: Figure 13.27). The Stouts Creek marine shell ear disks we report on have been recovered from two different sites in the Stouts Creek valley. One came from a Caddo midden near the Culpepper site (41HP1), a protohistoric Caddo site excavated by The University of Texas in 1931 (Scurlock 1962). This particular marine shell disk has a central perforation and a 13.7 mm diameter engraved circle on its outer surface (Figure 1). CM Figure 1. Marine shell disk from a Caddo site near the Culpepper site, Stouts Creek, Hopkins County, Texas. The other two shell disks (Figures 2 and 3) are from the Anglin Midden site, about 2.5 km south of the first site on Stouts Creek. These two disks arc smaller in size (12.7-22.7 rnm in width) with 8-17.0 engraved circle diameters. Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology, No. 25 (2006) 20 Figure 2. First marine shell disk, Anglin Middclll site. CM Figure 3. Second marine shell disk from the Anglin Midden site. Archaeological materials found at these Stouts Creek sites, and other associated sites in the valley, include Talco arrow points and a variety of late Titus phase (i.e., dating after ca. A.D. 1650) ceramic vessels and sherds. These ceramics include the following types: Ripley Engraved, Keno Trailed, Taylor Engraved (Figure 4), Hudson Engraved, and McKinney Plain. Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology, No. 25 (2006) 21 Figure 4. Taylor Engraved vessel from the Tuinier Farm site on Stouts Creek. At the Culpepper site, other ceramic vessels found in this late Titus phase context. include Simms Engraved, Hodges Engraved, Avery Engraved, LaRue Neck Banded, and Nash Neck Banded (Scurlock 1962). Scurlock ( 1962:296 and Figures 5h-i and 6e) also identified distinctive inverted rim carinated bowls from the Culpepper site cemetery that he suggested were Womack Engraved vessels. However, the engraved motifs on these vessels are not comparable to any Womack Engraved vessels discussed by Harris et al. (1965: Figure 6a-d) or Story et al. (1967: Figures 49-52). Rather, these distinctive Culpepper vessels are actually gracefully decorated Taylor Engraved vessels like those from the Goode Hunt site in Cass County, Texas (Suhm and Jelks 1962: Plate 751), the Cash site in Camp County (Suhm and Jelks 1962: Pilate 75o), Clements in Cass County (Perttula et al. 2005: Figures 4.7b and 4.8a), and the Tuinier Farm site on Stouls Creek (see Figure 4). Regionall Comparisons In addition to the three engraved shell disks from Stouts Creek valley Caddo sites, engraved marine shell ear disks have also been recovered from protohistoric and early historic burials at three other sites in the southern Caddo area. These are the Clements site in Northeast Texas (Perttula et al. 2005: Figure 4.24a-f; Jackson 1932), in the Chakanina phase occupation at the Cedar Grove site ou the Red River in Southwest Arkansas (Kay 1984: 197 and Figure 13-20a-b ), and in one Deceiper phase burial at the Hardman site on the Ouachita River in Southwest Arkansas (Early 1993: 138- 1.39 and Figure 83a-b ). In Journal of Nonheast Texas Archaeology, No. 25 (2006) 22 each instance, the Caddo occupations at these three sites can be dated to between ca. A.D. 1650-1700. Consequently, the marine shell disks constitute a clear ani fact horizon marker for a late l71h to very early 18m century Caddo occupation wherevenhey are found. We call them Clemenls shell disks, because they were first reponed from the Clements site ( 41 CS25) by A. T. Jackson ( 1932). The engraved marine shell disks occur in several sizes (Table 1). The largest known are from the Hardman site (57 -59.6 mm in length and 56.4 mm in width). These also have engraved circles on their outer surface: an inner and outer engraved circle (Early 1993: Figure 83a-b), while those from Stouls Creek, Clements, and Cedar Grove have only a single engraved circle. Table 1. Engraved Marine Shell Ear Disks. Site No. Length (mm) Width (mm) Thi~:kness (mm) Diam. of Engraved Cirde (mm) Clements 2 43-51 43-50.!! 1.9-3.1 21.4-24.6 4 33.5-40 33-38.7 2.3-3.1 15.5-19.5 Hardman 2 57-59.6 56.4 2.0-2.!! inner: 13.5-20.4 outer: 53.2 Cedar Grove 2 39.1 40.0 40.X 3.0 22.5-24.0 Stouts Creek 2 22-25 22.7-25.3 N/A 13.7-17.0 12.0 12.7 N/A !!.0 The Stouts Creek marine shell disks are by far the smallest of the engraved disks, with length and width dimensions ranging from only 12.0-25.3 mm (see Table I and Figure 5). The single engraved circle on the three disks is only 8-17.0 mm in diameter. The larger shell disks from Clements and Cedar Grove are 33.5-50.8 mm in length and width, with 15.5-24.6 mm engraved circle diameters. The engraved shell disks reponed by Jackson (1932) from Clements are 25-38 mm in length and width. Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology, No. 25 (2006) 23 CM Figure 5. The three Stouts Creek marine shell car disks. Similar but plain marine shell disks have been reported from three other protohistoric Caddo sites on the Red River in Northeast Texas and Northwest Louisiana- Bob Williams (Perino 1983:67), Roden (Perino 1981: Figure 4b), and Belcher (Webb 1959:173-174)-as well as the Hardman site (Early 1993: Figure 83c-d). These also have the central perforation. The plain marine shell disks have generally comparable size ranges as the engraved disks. The smallest (16 mm in diameter) are the disks from Burial Pit 2 at the Belcher site, to the larger (44.5-73 mrn diameter) disks from Bob Williams and Hardman, to the very large (90 mm) shell disks in the northern shaft tomb at the Roden site. The latter sheJJ disks are part of compound cover-covered shell and limestone ear ornaments. (Perino 1983:67). Conclusions Clements style marine sheU ear disks, both plain and engraved, have been documented as burial goods in eight Caddo archaeological sites in the Ouachita, Red, and Big Cypress stream hasins in Northeast Texas, Northwest Louisiana, and Southwest Arkansas. Ceramic vessels found in burials from these s~tes indicate that the Caddo occupations there took place from ca. A.D. 1650-1700 during the latter part of the Titus, McCurtain, Belcher, Ch<:Lkanina, and Deeeiper phases. The Clements style shell disks are an excellent protohistoric Caddo horizon marker wherever they have been found. Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology, No. 25 (2006) 24 Refel"ences Cited Early. A.M. (editor) 1993 Caddoan Saltmakers in the Ouachita Valley: The Hardman Site. Research Series No. 43. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville. Harris, R. K., I. M. Harris, J. C. Blaine, and J. Blaine 1965 A Preliminary Archeological and Documentary Study of the Womack Site, Lamar County, Texas. Buller in ofthe Texas Archeological Society 36:287·363. Jackson, A. T. 1932 Exploration of a burial site on Clements Bros. Farm in Cass County, Texas. MS on file, Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University ofTexas at Austin. Kay,M. 1984 Late Caddo Subtractive Technology in the Red River Basin. In Cedar Grove: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of a Late Caddo Farmstead in the Red River Valley, edited by N. L. Trubowitz, pp. 174-206. Research Series No. 23. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville. Perino, G. I 981 Archeologicallnvestigalions at the Roden Site, McCurlllin County, 0/..:lahoma. Publication No.1, Potsherd Press. Museum of the Red River, Idabel, Oklahoma. 1983 Archaeological Research at the Bob Williams Site (41RRI6), Red River County, Texas. Potsherd Press. Museum of the Red River, Idabel. Oklahoma. Perttula, T. K. 2004 The Prehistoric and Caddoan Archeology of the Northeastern Texas Pineywoods. In The Prehistory ofTexas, edited by T. K. Perttula, pp. 370-407. Texas A&M University Press, College Station. Perttula, T. K., B. Nelson, R. L. Cast, and B. Gonzalez 2005 TheW. T. Scott Collection at the American Museum of Natural History. In A Rediscovering of Caddo Heritage: The W. T. Scoll Collection at the Americm'l Museum of Natural History and other Caddo Collections from Arkansas and Louisiana, by B. Gonzalez, R. Cast, T. K. Perttula, and B. Nelson, pp. 25-53. Historic Preservation Program, Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, Binger, Oklahoma. Scurlock, J.D. I 962 The Culpepper Site, A Late Fulton Aspect Site in Northeastern Texas. Bulletin of the Texa5 Archeological Society 32:285-316. Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology, No. 25 (2006) 25 Story, D. A., B. Barber, E. Barber, E. Cobb, H. Cobb, R. Coleman, K. Gilmore, R. K. Harris, and N. Hoff richter 1967 Pottery Vessels. In The Gilbert Site: A Norteno Focus Site in Northeastern Texas, edited by E. B. Jelks. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 37:112-187. Suhm, D. A. and E. B. Jelks (editors) 1962 Handbook o.fTe.:cas Archeology: Type Descriptions. Special Publication No. I, Texas Archeological Society and Bulletin No.4, Texas Memorial Museum, Austin. Webb, C. H. 1959 The Belcher Mound: A Stratified Caddoan Site in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Memoirs No. 16. The Society for American Archaeology, Salt Lake City. 

Marine Shell Ear Disks from Protohistoric Caddo Sites on Stoots Creek, Hopkins County, Texas

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Marine Shell Ear Disks from Protohistoric Caddo Sites on Stoots Creek, Hopkins County, Texas

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