Caddo Ceramic Research Articles

Understanding the Rise of Complexity at Cahokia: Evidence of Nonlocal Caddo Ceramic Specialists in the East St. Louis Precinct – CORRIGENDUM

Understanding the Rise of Complexity at Cahokia: Evidence of Nonlocal Caddo Ceramic Specialists in the East St. Louis Precinct – CORRIGENDUM

Understanding the Rise of Complexity at Cahokia: Evidence of Nonlocal Caddo Ceramic Specialists in the East St. Louis Precinct

AbstractThis article investigates the rise of social complexity of Cahokia's multiethnic city through a robust stylistic grammar analysis of early Caddo fine ware vessels at Cahokia's East St. Louis Precinct. We explore ceramic production and distribution to shed light on whether Caddo-like fine wares were produced by Caddo potters who lived and crafted at Cahokia, were produced by local Cahokia potters who copied Caddo motifs, or were imported to Cahokia from the southern Caddo area. This investigation helps us better understand the nature of Caddo connections at the beginning of Cahokia's development and provides a means of identifying and interpreting new levels of social interactions between the Caddo world and Cahokia. The stylistic grammar results show that the majority of the Caddo-like vessels at Cahokia have identical stylistic grammar as vessels from the Caddo world. This strongly suggests that Caddo craft specialists migrated to, lived, and crafted their homeland vessels at Cahokia and thus were key social actors in its development.

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Traditions ed. by Duncan P. McKinnon, Jeffrey S. Girard and Timothy K. Perttula

Reviewed by: Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Traditions ed. by Duncan P. McKinnon, Jeffrey S. Girard and Timothy K. Perttula Harry J. Shafer Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Traditions. Edited by Duncan P. McKinnon, Jeffrey S. Girard, and Timothy K. Perttula. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2021. Pp. 376. Illustrations, references, index.) The Caddo cultural area encompasses parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, within which its largest geographic area is East Texas. The ceramic tradition is one of the main material hallmarks of the Caddo. This welcome, comprehensive study of ancestral Caddo ceramics by eighteen contributors presents new perspectives and incorporates not only traditional approaches such as typology and decorative variations but also addresses such topics as technology, ceramic exchange, ideology, and world view. The book is organized into three parts. Part I covers the history of archaeological studies of Caddo ceramics, beginning in the early twentieth century with Clarence B. Moore’s and Mark R. Harrington’s descriptive studies. Woodland period ancestors, who originated Caddo ceramic traditions, began to make pottery some three thousand years ago. Part II covers a variety of topics including ceramic variation, social interactions, stylistic analysis, three-dimensional geometric analysis, and technological [End Page 196] sourcing using instrumental neutron activation analysis. Part III addresses the revival of traditional ceramics by contemporary Caddo potters. Most previous studies of Caddo ceramics in the late-middle twentieth century were typological and were either state- or site-specific. These early efforts were brought together by the original type descriptions published in the Texas Archeological Society’s Introductory Handbook of Texas Archeology (volume 25, 1954). Since that time, much work has been done in the Caddo area as referenced in part I of this book, which then goes far beyond the original typological studies and brings the study of Caddo pottery into contemporary archaeological and anthropological perspectives. Rather than viewing the Caddo area as a whole, the geographic focus now is along specific river systems where ancient tribal units and stylistic variations were concentrated: the Red (chapters 2 and 3), the Ouachita (chapter 4), the Arkansas (chapter 5), and the Sulphur, Neches, and other Texas streams (chapter 6). The book includes historical backgrounds, well-dated chronological schemes for each drainage, and the ceramic typology. New approaches in the study of Caddo ceramics are presented in chapters on non-typological approaches. Chapter 7 addresses vessel function related to salt production and specialized craft production of Caddo fine wares such as Holly Fine Engraved, Spiro Engraved, Hickory Engraved, and Crockett Curvilinear. In chapter 9, we see that interregional interaction and long-distant exchange of fine wares produced by cottage-level craft specialists yielded surprising results. Ross C. Fields presents an interesting and model study of microscale variation in Titus Phase Ripley Engraved bowls in chapter 10 and explores the potential of that approach. In chapter 11, Eloise Frances Gadus considers the scroll, one of the most common design motifs, as a cosmogram “representing the multilevel world theme with the axis mundi at the center” (239). Caddo pottery was made for cooking, storage, and serving. Both utility and fine wares were produced for consumption and exchange. Robert Z. Selden Jr. takes innovative approaches to the study of network analysis of ceramic assemblages in chapter 12, and in chapter 13 examines the morphology of Caddo bottle shapes. Jeri Redcorn’s personal story of the Caddo fine-ware pottery revival and tribal history comprises chapter 14, and Caddo artist, potter, and tribal ambassador Chase Kahwinhut Earles explains in chapter 15 his approach to creating traditional Native American art, his important relationship with archaeologists, and how the art and relationships strengthened his own identity in his culture and past. The book is highly recommended for scholars and archaeologists interested in ceramic analysis in general and Caddo area specifically. While the chapters cover Caddo ceramics in all four states, eastern Texas holds the largest and most diverse regional clusters of ancient Caddo cultures. Furthermore, Caddo pottery distribution extends well into Central Texas. But more specifically, the book provides new perspectives for archaeologists [End Page 197] studying Caddo pottery by addressing the great variety in form and design from ancient to modern times. Harry J. Shafer Witte Museum, San Antonio...

Current Research: A Pilot Study in the Use of pXRF Analysis of Caddo Ceramics

Wilson "Dub" Crook III's paper presented to the East Texas Archeological Conference concerning the use of X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) in sourcing turquoise artifacts sparked an interest in utilizing pXRF to resolve an old Caddo ceramic research question. While XRF has been used in archaeology for more than 60 years, and there have been applications in ceramic studies, a recent review of the 9th Edition of The Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Ethnohistory, and History of the Caddo Indian Peoples of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, a comprehensive bibliography, did not yield a single reference to a pXRF study in Caddo ceramics. This article will summarize: (1) the research question arising from work at the Morse Mound Site (41SY27), (2) an overview of how pXRF works, and (3) the data analysis from this pilot study.

An Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel from the Mack Spence Site (41CS6) in the Sulphur River Basin in East Texas

There is a single ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel in the vessel collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin from the Mack Spencer site (41CS6) near the Sulphur River in Cass County, in East Texas. The 2D documentation of the vessel is put on record in this article.

The Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherd and Ceramic Pipe Sherd Assemblage from the A. C. Saunders Site (41AN19) in the Upper Neches River Basin, Anderson County, Texas

The A. C. Saunders site (41AN19) is an important ancestral Caddo settlement in the upper Neches River basin in Anderson County in East Texas. The site is one of only a few ancestral Caddo sites with mound features in the upper Neches River basin, particularly those that are known to date after ca. A.D. 1400, but this part of the upper Neches River basin, including its many tributaries, such as Caddo Creek just to the south and west, was widely settled by Caddo farmers after that time. These Caddo groups left behind evidence of year-round occupied settlements with house structures, middens, and outdoor activity areas, impressive artifact assemblages, as well as the creation of numerous cemeteries, most apparently the product of use by families or lineage groups.

The Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Two Sites in Camp and Upshur Counties in the Cypress Creek Basin in East Texas

In the early 1930s, University of Texas archaeologists obtained ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from probable burial features at two Caddo sites in Camp and Upshur counties in the Big Cypress Creek basin of East Texas. The vessels from the Sam G. Roberts (41CP8, n=1) and the J. H. Brown (41UR7, n=4) sites in the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) vessel collections are fully documented in this article.

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in Harrison and Titus Counties, Texas

This article puts on record the documentation of 17 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from five sites in Harrison and Titus counties in East Texas in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. This documentation is part of the overall and larger effort to develop an ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel database as well as build online ceramic vessel galleries on the Index of Texas Archeology website by Dr. Robert Z. Selden, Jr.

The Analysis of an Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel from 41NA16 in Nacogdoches County in East Texas

Included in the ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) whole vessel collection is one vessel from a reported site in the Attoyac Bayou basin: 41NA16 (H. G. Moore) in Nacogdoches County in East Texas. The Attoyac Bayou is a major southward-flowing tributary to the Angelina River. The vessel is fully documented in this article.

Analysis of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in Anderson and Cherokee Counties, Texas

In this article, I document 28 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from seven sites and one general collection in the whole vessel collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). These sites and general collection are in Anderson and Cherokee counties in East Texas (Figure 1), specifically the: Rube Beard site (41AN18, n=2), the Edward W. Ellis site (41AN36, n=1), the Ray Lookabaugh site (41AN37, n=1), the R. E. Daly site (41AN39, n=9), the Jasper Tucker/Mrs. Joe Watkins Farm site (41AN44, n=11; see also Perttula and Selden [2015]), the W. T. Todd site (41AN52, n=1), the N. B. Ruggles site (41CE40, n=2), and one vessel from the Cherokee County general collections. The methods of ceramic vessel analysis follow those specified in Perttula (2018:2-4), among other publications on Caddo ceramic vessel documentation, methods consistently employed since the 1990s in the documentation of ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in East Texas sites.

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherds from Sites in the White Oak Creek Basin, Hopkins County, Texas

The ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel sherd assemblages discussed in this article are from five sites in the White Oak Creek basin in the Blackland Prairie of East Texas (Figure 1). They are the E. B. Minter Farm (41HP2), R. H. Taylor Farm (41HP4), Hilman Hathcoat (41HP9), Avery Rasurer (41HP10), and Tom Cannon Farm (41HP11) sites. They were investigated by archaeologists from The University of Texas in 1931 or 1934 who were in search of whole Caddo vessels and burial features, and the collections obtained from the sites (including donated or purchased collections) are held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). The collections include ceramic vessel sherds from each of the sites, elbow pipes from two of the sites, and a few vessels from the E. B. Minter and R. H. Taylor Farm sites.

The Occurrence of East Texas Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherds in Central Texas Archaeological Region Sites, ca. A.D. 900 to the late 18th Century

The Occurrence of East Texas Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherds in Central Texas Archaeological Region Sites, ca. A.D. 900 to the late 18th Century

Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherd Assemblages from Sites in the Sabine River Basin, Harrison County, Texas

Ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel sherd assemblages from three sites in the Sabine River basin in Harrison County, Texas, are documented in this article. The sherds from the three sites (n=272 total sherds) are held in the collections of the Gregg County Historical Museum in Longview, Texas.

Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels and Other Artifacts from East Texas Sites in the George T. Wright Collection at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

From the early 1900s to the mid-1940s George T. Wright was a landowner (Kiomatia Plantation) and Vice-President of the Kiomitia Mercantile Company: General Merchandise in Kiomatia and Paris, Texas. He was also an avid Indian artifact collector at sites along the Red River in Red River County, Texas, as well as in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, especially the collection of Caddo ceramic vessels, and also dug at sites he knew in the area, including the Wright Plantation site (41RR7), which he owned, and the Sam Coffman site (now known as Sam Kaufman, 41RR16, and for a short time known as the Arnold Roitsch site)

The Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel and Vessel Sherd Assemblage from the Nawi haia ina Site (41RK170) in the Angelina River Basin, Rusk County, Texas

The Nawi haia ina site (41RK170), translated as “Our mother dwells below” (Mooney 1896:1096) in the Caddo language, contains habitation features and midden deposits from an ancestral Caddo residential occupation, as well as a small and spatially discrete cemetery (Perttula and Nelson 2003). These deposits date, based on the OxCal calibration of 11 C14 dates, between cal. A.D. 990-1190, A.D. 1185-1270, and A.D. 1297-1410 for the midden area and the Feature 2 burial, and between cal. A.D. 1432-1527 (see Selden and Perttula 2013) for the two investigated burials in the cemetery. The small cemetery appears to be contemporaneous as well as postdate the habitation deposits, and our excavations identified the extended burials of two adult Caddo women in reasonably good health. The excavations in the residential areas at the site documented a large midden, pit features, and post holes from one probable Caddo house, along with a large assemblage of utility ware and fine ware ceramics, the subject of this article. Also recovered were stemmed arrow points of Perdiz style and preforms, as well as expedient flake tools, and a smattering of lithic debris from tool manufacture. Faunal and floral remains indicate that the Caddo people here had a diverse diet that relied on deer, turtle, and small animals and birds, as well as maize, hickory, and walnut nuts. There was a heavy reliance on forest mast products, but the stable isotope analyses of the two adult burials indicates that maize comprised about 40-50 percent of the diet. These Caddo living, and buried, at the Nawi haia ina site, were part of a larger community living in the middle Sabine River basin.

Continued Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from East Texas Caddo Sites in the Buddy Jones Collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum

In this article, we document 33 recently acquired ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels to the Buddy Jones Collection held by the Gregg County Historical Museum in Longview, Texas. These vessels had until recently been kept separate from the remainder of the collection. We documented this part of the vessel collections in April 2018.

Current Research: Ceramic Production and Distribution during the Formative Caddo Period: A Stylistic and Provenance Investigation of the Arkansas River Valley

The Formative Caddo Period (A.D. 850-1100) of eastern Oklahoma was marked by dramatic material and ritual changes, culminating in the construction of aggregated villages and ceremonial centers. Formative Caddo groups are notable for their highly complex and ritually-charged ceramic vessels that were unlike anything archeologists have seen in the American Southeast. Tracing the rapid development and spread of this early fine ware assemblage across a variety of social, ritual, and mortuary contexts is key to understanding the shared religious and ritual traditions of the pre-Columbian Arkansas River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages. Yet despite nearly 60 years of archeological research, insight is still lacking into the organization of Formative Caddo ceramic production and the mechanics of exchange between the northern and southern Caddo areas. While archeologists have shown Formative Caddo fine wares were locally produced in the Red River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages, they have assumed that Caddo people in Arkansas River valley and Ozark Plateau locally produced them. However, they are not recovered from the same contexts across both Caddo areas. Formative Caddo pottery is commonly found in both domestic and ritual contexts at Coastal Plain sites but are restricted to ritual contexts at ceremonial centers on the Ozark Plateau. The ritual contexts in which Formative Caddo ceramics are recovered are also quite different. At Coastal Plain ceremonial centers, such as George C. Davis in Texas and Crenshaw in Arkansas, Formative Caddo ceramics were deposited in off-mound, on-mound, and mortuary contexts. Yet, at ceremonial centers of the Ozark Plateau, such as Spiro, Harlan, and Brackett in Oklahoma, Formative Caddo ceramics were deposited exclusively in mortuary contexts. The marked contrast between Formative Caddo pottery use and deposition between the northern and southern ceremonial centers provides insight into the development of Formative Caddo ritual practices and traditions. It suggests there may be fundamental differences in the ritual programs of the northern and southern Caddo areas. To examine the emergence and spread of these traditions, I am conducting a regional-scale study of the production and distribution of Formative Caddo pottery in the northern and southern Caddo areas. This project has two major components. First, it involves the analysis of clay chemical composition of 264 fine ware sherds from five ceremonial sites in the Arkansas River Basin. I applied for and was granted a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant to pay for Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) on these sherds. Once the INAA is completed, I will compare the Arkansas Basin results with previously generated elemental sourcing data from the Coastal Plain region. Secondly, this project involves a stylistic analysis of the forms and designs on 199 fine ware vessels to understand their overall design grammar and structure. The sites to be studied include Spiro, Harlan, Norman, Reed, and Brackett in the Arkansas River drainage and Crenshaw, Boxed Springs, George C. Davis, and Mounds Plantation in the Gulf Coastal Plain region. I hypothesize that either (1) Formative Caddo fine wares found in the Arkansas River basin were imported from the Red River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages, where they were fabricated, or (2) Formative Caddo vessels were manufactured in the Arkansas River Basin, but intended use was restricted for mortuary purposes. Whether the first or second hypothesis is supported by this research, it will determine whether this is a single or separate communities of practice, and will have major implications for how we view the integration of these communities and the origins of Caddo ritual traditions.

Asymmetry of Caddo ceramics from the Washington Square Mound site: An exploratory analysis

While pursuing a study of 3D geometric morphometrics for ceramic burial vessels that often articulate with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) from the ancestral Caddo region, there have been no shortage of potentially meaningful observations, one of which–rotational asymmetry in coil-built vessels–is discussed here. Using Geomagic Design X (reverse-engineering software) and Geomagic Control X (inspection software), metrics associated with rotational asymmetry were generated then analyzed. Results indicate variable asymmetry among the different vessel shapes (i.e., bottles, jars, etc.), which may augment and strengthen studies and discussion of vessel form. Future directions include the incorporation of directional and–possibly–fluctuating asymmetry measures for the widest vessel profiles. Preliminary results point toward substantive analytical gains that can be used to augment more traditional ceramic analyses as well as geometric morphometric studies of ceramic vessel shape.

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in the Upper Neches River Basin in Anderson and Cherokee Counties, Texas

Late Caddo period sites belonging to the Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 1400-1680) and the Historic Caddo Allen phase (ca. A.D. 1680-1800) are common in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas, including habitation sites as well as associated and unassociated cemeteries. As is well known, ancestral Caddo cemeteries have burial features with associated funerary offerings, most commonly ceramic vessels. In this article, we document 34 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) from six different sites in the upper Neches River basin, including the Ballard Estates (41AN53, n=4 vessels), O. L. Ellis (41AN54, n=15), Lee Ellis (41AN56, n=1), Dabbs Estate (41AN57, n=3), A. H. Reagor (41CE15, n=3), and John Bragg (41CE23, n=8 vessels) sites. Our first purpose is to put on record these ceramic vessels from six poorly known ancestral Caddo sites in order to better understand the history of Caddo settlement in the upper Neches River basin, including the history of burial interments at these sites. The second purpose is much broader, and is part of an effort to establish an East Texas Caddo ceramic vessel database that can be employed for a variety of research purposes. The synthesis of the stylistically diverse Caddo ceramic wares in different recognized ancestral communities across the Caddo area, including the upper Neches River basin occupied by a Hasinai Caddo group, would seem to be tailor-made for studies of ancestral Caddo social networks and social identities that rely on large regional ceramic datasets. The formal and statistical assessment of the regional variation in Caddo ceramic assemblages is currently being assembled in a Geographic Information System by Robert Z. Selden, Jr. (Stephen F. Austin State University), and the assemblages include the vessels from the six sites discussed herein. This is based on the delineation of temporal and spatial divisions in the character of Caddo ceramics (i.e., principally data on decorative methods, vessel forms, defined types and varieties, and the use of different tempers) across East Texas sites and other parts of the Caddo area, and then constructing networks of similarities between ceramic assemblages from these sites that can be used to assess the strength of cultural and social relationships among Caddo communities in the region through time and across space. The identification of such postulated relationships can then be explored to determine the underlying reasons for the existence of such relationships, including factors such as the frequency of interaction and direct contact between communities, the trade and exchange of ceramic vessels, population movement, and similarities in the organization of ceramic vessel production. In conjunction with a database on 2D/3D-scanned Caddo ceramic vessels from East Texas sites, the East Texas Caddo ceramic vessel database is made part of a digital database where comprehensive mathematical and quantitative analyses of morphological attributes and decorative elements on vessels can be conducted. Queries to such a combined database of vessels and sherds should lead to better understandings of regional Caddo ceramic stylistic and technological attributes and their spatial and temporal underpinnings. The results of past and current instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and petrographic analysis of Caddo Area ceramics, including East Texas (where there is a robust INAA database) can also be explored as a means to corroborate production locales, and establish the chemical and paste characteristics of local fine ware and utility ware ceramics in assemblages of different ages. These in turn allow the evaluation of the possible movement of ceramic vessels between different Caddo communities in East Texas and the broader Caddo world.

The Beckham (41SB35) and Print Bell (41SB36) Woodland Period and Caddo Ceramic Assemblages Collected by G. E. Arnold in 1939, Sabine County, Texas

The Beckham (41SB35) and Print Bell (41SB36) sites were recorded by Gus E. Arnold of The University of Texas in December 1939 during his WPA-sponsored archaeological survey of East Texas. Both sites have substantial ancestral Caddo deposits. The Beckham site is in the Housen Bayou basin of the larger Sabine River drainage system, while the Print Bell site is on a tributary of the Angelina River (Figure 1). Excavations were conducted at the Print Bell site in the early 1950s by Jelks (1965:88- 93) prior to the construction of Lake Sam Rayburn, but there have been no further investigations at the Beckham site after Arnold’s 1939 survey.