Abstract
The 14th century Caddo Leaning Rock site was initially discovered in the Fall of 2004. It was located during reconnaissance to search out a location for the survey portion of the Texas Archeologica! Society's Academy IO I held in Tyler in February 2005. This was not a formal survey with transect lines. nor one using regularly spaced shovel tests. but was rather more of a "windshield"' type survey, consisting of driving across pasture lands looking at gopher mounds and checking fore, evidence of archeological deposits on likely looking landforms. !n this area. landform and soil type seem to be the major determining factors in locating Caddo sites. The sandy soils in the scattered gopher mounds appeared almost white. especially in droughty conditions that prevailed at the time. causing an area with darker mounds of soil to catch my attention. Pocket gophers (G. breviceps) can play havoc with buried archeological deposits but can also be useful in bringing buried soils along with archeological materials to the surface from their underground tunnel system. While this dark area could have been the result of past historic land clearing and burning activities. a closer inspection revealed burned bone. mussel she!L and Caddo sherds mixed in the dark brown soils in the scattered gopher mounds. The next step was to record the site with the State of Texas, obtaining the trinomial 41SM325. It is common practice to also gin: sites informal names and after recording several hundred sites, selecting a name becomes a challenge. One large sandstone slab, pan of the R-horizon that is exposed around the margins of Leaning Rock. was unearthed during prior landclearing activities and pushed up against a lonely pine tree on the northern margins of the site: consequently the nom de plume "Leaning Rock."
Highlights
Survey using a cesium magnetometer was conducted in order to identify potential prehistoric Caddo archeological features at the Leaning Rock site (41 SM325 )
Of the 20 sherds analyzed from the Leaning Rock Site, 12 are assigned to the Titus reference group, three are tentatively assigned to that group, and five are unassigned
Both clay samples are unassigned, but one (TKP824) might be slightly related to the Titus reference group. These findings should be considered preliminary until the reanalysis of the entire Caddo database, currently underway, is completed
Summary
Survey using a cesium magnetometer was conducted in order to identify potential prehistoric Caddo archeological features at the Leaning Rock site (41 SM325 ). Data was collected with a Geo Metrics 858 dual sensor cesium magnetometer and a Geo Metrics 856 portable proton procession magnetometer base station. Two grids totaling 2.500 1112 (0.6 acres) were collected. Thi s section presents the findings from this survey and compares it to findings from the archeological excavations Iground penetrating radar studies were done at Leaning Rock by Bergstrom et al.. A Sokkia set 5a total data station The site datum was used (NI 00 EI 00) and the southwest corner of the area was N90 E60. Collection area corners were laid out using the TDS. The result is a sub-meter (or better) UTM reading
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