Archaeological Investigations at 41AN115

Ed Furman,Clyde Amick

doi:10.21112/.ita.2005.1.24

Abstract

41AN115 is located in the northwestern part of Anderson County, Texas, on a western terrace of Town Creek approximately nine miles from the Trinity River. It is a multi-component prehistoric occupation, and the artifacts found here indicate it has been used from Late Paleoindian to Woodland period times. The late Paleoindian occupation is represented by Dalton and San Patrice dart points; the Archaic occupations are marked by Bell, Bulverde, and Yarbrough dart points; while the Woodland period occupation includes Gary points and sandy paste pottery. The site was used intermittently over thousands of years as a hunting camp and later as a seasonal campsite. The tool kit included flake knives, gravers, spokeshaves, punches, and scrapers, along with many ground stone tools. The lithic materials chosen for tool use are a combination of local and non-local material with cherts, fine-grained quartzite, ferruginous sandstone, and petrified wood. One Late Archaic occupational features has been found at the site.

Highlights

In November 1999, we received a call from Jason Wacha telling us he had Indian artifacts in his possession
Site 41 AN115 is located in Anderson County, nine miles west of Palestine in Anderson County. This camp sits on a north-northwestern-trending terrace with sandy loam sediments above Town Creek (Figure 1); the creek drains into the Trinity River
Of the 90 dart points, eight arrow points, and 74 fragments, 37 are on local lithic raw material, and 47 points are made of cherts brought in from other sources outside the local area

Summary

Introduction

In November 1999, we received a call from Jason Wacha telling us he had Indian artifacts in his possession. Mr Wacha hauls sand for an asphalt company He showed us a single grooved axe and three chert blades that were approximately 10-15 em long. He had found six dart points, and he told us his boss had discovered another axe and several other artifacts. After several weeks of surface collecting, we determined the areas of prehistoric occupation at the site (41 AN I 15) to be at least 400 m long and approximately 60 m wide on an alluvial termce This area is within the Pineywoods, with a hardwood-pine forest, and an area of rolling hills and creeks that flow into the Trinity River

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion