Aboriginal Ceramic Wares from Sites in the Yegua Creek Drainage of the Brazos River Basin, East Central Texas

Timothy Perttul

doi:10.21112/ita.2019.1.39

Abstract

Sherds from aboriginally-made ceramic vessels have been recovered on sites dating after ca. 2000 years B.P. in the Yegua Creek drainage of the Brazos River basin in the Post Oak Savannah of Burleson, Lee, and Washington counties in east central Texas (Figure 1). These sherds are from several different wares, including sandy paste Goose Creek Plain sherds made by Mossy Grove peoples, ancestral Caddo tempered and decorated wares made in East Texas, bone-tempered sandy paste wares that may be representative of a local ceramic tradition, and bone-tempered sherds from Leon Plain vessels made by Central Texas Toyah phase peoples. None of the ceramic sherd assemblages from the 18 sites discussed herein are substantial, ranging only from 1-72 sherds per site (with an average of only 13.3 sherds per site), indicating that the use (much less their manufacture) of ceramic vessels by Post Oak Savannah aboriginal peoples was not of much significance in their way of life, but may signify interaction, trade, and exchange between them and other cultures, such as the Caddo, inland and coastal Mossy Grove, and Toyah phase peoples that relied on ceramic vessel manufacture and use as key parts of their subsistence pursuits. It is likely that the benefits of trade (ceramics being just one of the items that was being traded) between these different peoples was to help establish cooperative alliances, and reduce competition and violence in the region, and such alliances were established and maintained by aboriginal peoples over a long period of time in the region.

Highlights

Sherds from aboriginally-made ceramic vessels have been recovered on sites dating after ca. 2000 years B.P. in the Yegua Creek drainage of the Brazos River basin in the Post Oak Savannah of Burleson, Lee, and Washington counties in east central Texas (Figure 1)
This article considers the occurrence and character of aboriginal ceramic vessel sherds found in sites in the Yegua Creek and Brazos River basins in Burleson, Lee, and Washington counties in the Post Oak Savannah of East Central Texas, and their implications with respect to the development of local ceramic traditions as well as the interaction and exchange between aboriginal peoples represented by sherds from different ceramic wares
There are four different ceramic wares represented in the assemblages from Yegua Creek and the Brazos River basin in present-day east central Texas, dating from as early as ca. 2000 years ago to at least 500 years ago

Summary

Introduction

Sherds from aboriginally-made ceramic vessels have been recovered on sites dating after ca. 2000 years B.P. in the Yegua Creek drainage of the Brazos River basin in the Post Oak Savannah of Burleson, Lee, and Washington counties in east central Texas (Figure 1). Unspecified rim and body sherds, a bone-tempered sandy paste body sherd with a single tool punctation (possibly Goose Creek Punctated), and two grog-tempered rim and body sherds from ancestral Caddo vessels (McWilliams et al 2014:Table 2). Three ceramic vessel sherds from this aboriginal site near Middle Yegua Creek were collected during the Lake Somerville archaeological survey (Honea 1961:25). The sherds are plain bone-tempered sandy paste wares This site, between Nails and Cedar creeks, both tributaries of Middle Yegua Creek, had one ceramic vessel sherd in a surface collection. It is a grog-tempered sherd (Honea 1961:27) likely from an ancestral East Texas Caddo vessel. The sherds are from three different wares: sandy paste Goose Creek Plain, var. unspecified rim and body sherds (n=5); tempered rim and body sherds from ancestral Caddo vessels (n=7); and bone-tempered (probably Leon Plain) body sherds (n=6) (Table 1)

Body Body

Summary and Conclusions