Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Sam Kaufman Site (41RR16) in the R. K. Harris Collection at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Abstract

Over the years, R. King Harris and his Dallas Archeological Society colleagues excavated a number of ancestral Caddo burials (Burials 1-19) from cemeteries exposed along the eroding bank of the Red River at the Sam Kaufman site (41RR16) and have published their findings. These burials are from upper and lower cemeteries of McCurtain phase and Historic Caddo age both north and east of the principal mound at the Sam Kaufman site on the Red River. During a 2005 documentation visit to the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution (NMNH), I had the opportunity, along with Bo Nelson, Mark Walters, Robert Cast, and Bobby Gonzalez, to examine vessels from the Sam Kaufman site in the R. King Harris collections. His collections included vessels from Burials 20, 21, 22, and 25 at the Sam Kaufman site, and information and images of these vessels (or for that matter, information about the burial excavations) have not been previously put on record. This article provides the available information on the eight vessels known to have been included as funerary offerings with these four burials; no information could be found for any vessels or other funerary offerings in Burials 23 and 24.