Pottery from 41NA202: The Stephens Site in Nacogdoches County, Texas

Abstract

In late 1940 and early 1941, my father and I excavated the Stephens site (41NA202). The site is located on Bailey Creek approximately 5 km west of Central Heights in Nacogdoches County. The site had been identified by the land owner, who gave my father permission to excavate. The purpose of this short article is to briefly describe the ceramic assemblage from the site. The assemblage is unique for this area of East Texas. The excavated area from which the ceramic artifacts were recovered measured approximately 3 x 4.6 m with the long axis along the plow rows. The site was about 6 m north of the then stream bed and consisted of a scatter of European trade beads within the soil as well as numerous sherds of Caddo Indian manufacture. The area was excavated to the underlying clay, which was no more than 25 em or so below the surface, and the dirt was water screened in order to recover the artifacts. These artifacts consisted of European glass trade beads (more than 7420 beads of 21 different varieties) and ceramic sherds of Indian pottery. Other than two silver beads, no metal artifacts were found. Our conclusion concerning the site was that it resulted from at least one shallow grave of an individual that had been plowed up and the grave offerings scattered from the yearly cultivation of the area. One small skull fragment was the only trace of human remains.