Abstract
This paper describes a set of artifacts collected from the West Island site, a poorly known Titus phase cemetery in Ellison Creek Reservoir. The site is on a small knoll adjacent to a small spring branch that flows into the now-inundated Ellison Creek, a tributary of Big Cypress Creek. The site knoll is now no more than one foot (30 em) above the normal pool elevation of Ellison Creek Reservoir, and it is usually totally submerged. Up to five feet (1.52 meters) of white sand caps the knoll, and overlies the clay subsoil. Due to continued submergence, the knoll is being eroded by the reservoir, anq. consequently many stone tools and pieces of lithic debris are present along the water's edge. Dart points and arrowpoints have been found at the site, along with some pottery sherds, but no grounds tone implements. Small amounts of charcoal were found around the top of the knoll in pockets of modern mussel shell and gravels, but its association with the site deposits is unknown. No middens are known to be present on the knoll. The West Island site has been previously dug by private collectors sometime before 1965. Turner had examined some of the site collections, and reported that, ceramic vessels of the types Avery Engraved, Bailey Engraved, Bullard Brushed, Cowhide Stamped, Harleton Appliqued, Hodges Engraved, Karnack Brushed-Incised, Maydelle Incised, Ripley Engraved, Simms Engraved, Taylor Engraved, and Wilder Engraved were present in an unknown number of burials. These types of decorated ceramics are characteristic of the Titus phase, which dates from about 1400 to the 1600s.
Highlights
This paper describes a set of artifacts collected from the West Island site, a poorlyknown Titus phase cemetery in Ellison Creek Reservoir
The site is on a small knoll adjacent to a small spring branch that flows into the now-inundated Ellison Creek, a tributary of Big Cypress Creek (Figure 1)
Our 1986 investigations conf'nmed that a severely disturbed Late Caddoan period cemetery was present at the site, as remnants of two burials with diagnostic Titus phase ceramics (Suhm et al 1954; Turner 1978) were identified there
Summary
Part of the American Material Culture Commons, Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, and the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Cite this Record King, Kevin and Turner, Mike (1993) "The West Island Site (41MXI65)," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol 1993, Article 12. This article is available in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol1993/iss1/12
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