Initial Findings from the Archeological Investigations of the Hardin A Site (41GG69), Gregg County, Texas

Abstract

The Hardin A site (41GG69) is a prehistoric Caddo Indian settlement located on a high terrace overlooking the Sabine River flood-plain in Gregg County, Texas. The modem channel of the river is about 650 m to the south, and there is a small, intermittent tributary ca. 180 m to the west. The senior author discovered the Hardin A site in 1997, after he was told about it by informants who were looting a midden and cemetery area, and he formally recorded it in February 2000. In an effort to better understand the temporal and archeological context of the prehistoric Caddo occupation at the Hardin A site, limited hand excavations (Unit 1, a l x 2 m unit) were completed in the midden area by the senior author, with the assistance of Mark Walters, Texas Archeological Steward, in the spring of 2000. That work exposed deep (+90 cm) archeological deposits in a sandy loam soil with some preserved midden, as well as part of a pit feature in the northern and eastern part of the unit. The pit feature extended to approximately 160 cm below surface (bs), and contained dark brown to very dark grayish-brown fill with large amounts of ceramics (including about 50 decorated sherds), animal bone, and charred plant remains (especially hickory nutshells). Analyses are ongoing on these remains. In this paper, we discuss the results of our radiocarbon and oxidizable carbon ratio (OCR) studies in the Hardin A midden.