Late Caddo Period Research Articles

A Preliminary Comparison of Two Caddo Mound Sites in Southwest Arkansas

Previous Arkansas Archeological Survey excavations at the Hedges site in the Ouachita River valley and the Hughes site in the Saline River valley uncovered evidence of burned structures adjacent to the mounds. An overview of the artifact analyses indicates that the sites were roughly contemporaneous, with intensive use by ancestral Caddo Indians during the Late Caddo period, between the AD 1400s and 1600s. This presentation summarizes the research findings to emphasize comparisons in timing, activities, and community plans.

Current Research: Organic Residues on Engraved Vessels from Ancestral Caddo Sites in East Texas

In the course of recently documenting ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from sites dating to Late Caddo period Titus phase contexts (ca. A.D. 1430-1680) in East Texas, specifically on sites in the Big Cypress Creek and Sabine River basins, I have encountered a significant number (ca. 9.6 percent) of more than 1790 engraved fine ware vessels that have an exterior organic residue (Table 1), including carinated bowls, compound bowls, jars, bowls, and even bottles. In some cases, the exterior residue on certain carinated bowls and compound bowls is so thick that the engraved design is obscured and almost completely covered with the organic residue (Figure 1a- c). If engraved fine wares from ancestral Caddo sites were used in daily life for the serving of foods and liquids, how did they accumulate an exterior carbonized residue by the time they were placed in burials as funerary offerings?

Titus Phase Ancestral Caddo Vessels from Sites in the Big Cypress Creek and White Oak Bayou Basins in East Texas

This article is a summary of the findings from the documentation of 889 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from 20 sites in the Sulphur River and Big Cypress Creek basins in Camp, Franklin, Harrison, Marion, Morris, Titus, and Upshur counties in East Texas. Four vessels are from an Early Caddo period burial at the J. E. Galt site (41FK2), but the remainder are from Late Caddo period Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1430-1680) burial features. In the comparisons of Titus phase vessel assemblages that follow, the focus will be strictly on the larger Titus phase vessel assemblages in the documentation study, namely those from sites with more than 23 vessels, thus including the vessels from the P. S. Cash (41CP2), Jonah C. Atkinson Farm (41FK1), J. E. Galt, Mattie Gandy (41FK4), R. L. Cason (41MX1), Joe Justiss (41MX2), Hooper Glover (41MX4), Russell Bros. (41TT7), W. O. Reed (41UR1), and J. M. Riley (41UR2) sites.

Current Research: Recent Documentation of Ceramic Vessels and Other Funerary Objects in the Titus Phase Cemetery at the Tuck Carpenter Site, Camp County, Texas

Recently, we had the opportunity to complete the documentation of Late Caddo period Titus phase ceramic vessels and other funerary offerings from the Tuck Carpenter site (41CP5) in the Big Cypress Creek basin in Camp County, Texas. This portion of the funerary assemblage from the site has been in the hands of R. W. Walsh since the 1960s. Unable to properly care for the assemblage, he recently donated his collection to an anonymous individual, who graciously allowed us to fully document these funerary offerings. The Tuck Carpenter site (41CP5), on Dry Creek several miles from its confluence with Big Cypress Creek, is perhaps the best known Titus phase cemetery in the Big Cypress Creek basin in East Texas. This is due to the careful analysis and reporting of the recovered funerary offerings and remains from 45 burials excavated by Robert L.Turner and R. W. Walsh between 1963-1967. More than 95 percent of the graves had the bodies of single individuals laid in an extended supine position on the floor of the pit, but two burial features had two individuals placed side by side in the burial pit.

The Ancestral Caddo Cemetery at the H. R. Taylor (41HS3) Site, Harrison County, Texas

The H. R. Taylor site (41HS3) is an ancestral Caddo community cemetery in the lower reaches of the Big Cypress Creek basin in East Texas. The cemetery was used by Caddo peoples affiliated with the Late Caddo period Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1430-1680), probably between ca. A.D. 1600-1680, an archaeological construct. Its affiliation with a specific named Caddo group or tribe is not known, and by the early 18th century much of the Big Cypress Creek basin was not inhabited by Caddo peoples, or peoples of any other American Indian group. The H. R. Taylor site is one of more than 146 Titus phase cemeteries, both family and community in organization and scope, identified from archaeological investigations over the last 100 years of the region’s archaeological record and Titus phase mortuary practices.

Current Research in the Sabine Mine’s Rusk Permit, Rusk County, Texas

In 2014–2015, Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted test excavations at seven Native American sites—41RK674, 41RK680, 41RK693, 41RK695, 41RK703, 41RK704, and 41RK729—in northeast Rusk County, Texas. These sites are in Area W of the South Hallsville No. 1 Mine’s Rusk Permit, which is operated by North American Coal Corporation–Sabine Mine. The excavations consisted of 92 m2 (80.7 m3) of hand-dug test units and 63 backhoe trenches (702 m2). Testing determined that the sites have components dating as early as the Middle Archaic period (ca. 3500 B.C.) and as late as the Late Caddo period (late A.D. 1400s), with Late Archaic, Woodland, Early Caddo, and Middle Caddo components represented as well. Four sites have moderate to high densities of cultural materials representing substantial Native American occupations, although none have middens indicating especially prolonged use. Sites 41RK674 and 41RK693 are interpreted as Late Caddo and Middle Caddo farmsteads, respectively, albeit briefly occupied ones. Site 41RK703 has prominent Middle Archaic and probably Late Archaic components representing repeated use as a campsite, with lesser Woodland and Early Caddo components indicating non-residential use. The primary component at 41RK704 represents repeated use during the Woodland period as a special-purpose campsite, and a secondary Early Caddo component reflects less-intensive use as a procurement/processing location or short-term campsite. The other three sites were used less intensively, with 41RK680 having a Woodland component, 41RK695 having a Late Caddo component, and 41RK729 having an unidentified Caddo component; these sites likely were used as procurement or processing locations or short-term campsites.

Late Caddo Titus Phase Ceramics from the McKay Site (41TT730), Titus County, Texas

The McKay site (41TT730) is a multi-component site on an upland landform about 100 m east of Hart Creek, a southward-flowing tributary of Big Cypress Creek. During house construction in 1990, archaeological deposits covering about 5 acres of the landform were exposed, and these deposits include occupations that date from as early as the Paleoindian and Archaic periods to as late as Early to Late Caddo period times (ca. A.D. 900-1680). The principal ancestral Caddo component at the McKay site belongs to the Late Caddo period Titus phase, dating generally from ca. A.D. 1430-1680. This component included both habitation deposits as well as burial features in the area of house pad construction; the habitation area is at least 50 m northwest of the cemetery. At least 17 burials were excavated there by local workers after the cemetery had been exposed by land leveling, and these burials included ceramic vessels as funerary offerings, along with Talco arrow points, two ground stone celts, and a ceramic elbow pipe. The workers removed an unknown number of exposed and complete vessels, although portions of a few of these vessels were documented. Broken vessels were scattered and mixed into the fill of the house pad.

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.

Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Harold Williams Site (41CP10), Camp County, Texas

The Harold Williams site (41CP10) is a large ancestral Caddo community cemetery on Dry Creek in the Big Cypress Creek basin in Camp County, Texas. Caddo burials and associated ceramic vessel funerary offerings have been discovered and dug at the Harold Williams site since the 1940s, and in 1967 the Texas Archeological Society (TAS) held their annual field school at the site. During the course of the 1967 TAS excavations in Area A and B, several burial features were encountered and excavated, and these had associated ceramic vessels and other grave goods. These vessels were illustrated and cursorily described by Turner and Smith, and they were from Late Caddo period Titus phase graves. Recently two boxes of TAS Field School materials from the Harold Williams site were re-examined at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, and a number of whole and partial Caddo ceramic vessels from the TAS work were re-discovered. I took the opportunity to examine and document these vessels in detail, and the results of these analyses are presented in this article.

Ceramics at Three Ancestral Caddo Sites in the Upper Neches River Basin, Smith County, Texas

The upper Neches River Basin in the Pineywoods and Post Oak Savannah of East Texas is one part of the southern Caddo area where populations of ancestral Caddo groups were notably higher during the Late Caddo period, ca. A.D. 1400-1680, than at other times over their ca. 1000 year settlement of the region. The Frankston phase is comprised of farmsteads, hamlets, and small villages in the Neches and Angelina river basins in East Texas. Other Frankston phase sites are represented by small residential settlements in dispersed agricultural communities, with small family and/or community cemeteries not used for long periods of time, such as at the Lang Pasture site (41AN38). Concentrations of Frankston phase sites in the upper Neches River basin seem to comprise base settlement clusters with middens, burials, and house structures, likely representing permanent settlements on streamside flats with fertile soils in the uplands. Other site types include scattered sherds, which perhaps are gathering stations in which pitted stones are found with a few sherds, and small campsites. The ceramic vessel sherds from three Frankston phase settlements in the upper Neches River basin are the subject of this article.

Bird Bone Flageolet from the Walter Bell Site (41SB50) at Lake Sam Rayburn, Sabine County, Texas

The Walter Bell site (41SB50) at Lake Sam Rayburn in the Neches–Angelina river basins in the deep East Texas Pineywoods was excavated by an National Park Service team in 1957. This was a small prehistoric Caddo farmstead or hamlet with two circular houses, a portion of a third house in the area of House 2, midden deposits, and six burials. Based on the kinds of artifacts found at the site (i.e., clay elbow pipes, a high proportion of brushed utility ware sherds from Broaddus Brushed vessels, and lower proportions of Pineland Punctated–Incised vessel sherds), the Walter Bell site was apparently occupied after ca. A.D. 1450–1500, in the Late Caddo period. Four of the burials (Burials 1–3 and 6) were in close association (either inside the house and underneath the house floor) with House 1, one (Burial 4) was inside House 2, and Burial 5 was in an open area, possibly a courtyard or work area between the two Caddo houses. Funerary offerings placed with the deceased included ceramic vessels, Perdiz arrow points, conch shell beads, deer ulna tools and deer food offerings, mussel shells, and engraved bird bone flageolets.

Copper Artifacts from Caddo Sites in the Southern Caddo Area

Copper artifacts have been found at only 18 Caddo sites in the southern Caddo area of Southwest Arkansas, Northwest Louisiana, southeastern Oklahoma, and East Texas. Most of these exotic copper artifacts are found in burial mound context in important civic-ceremonial centers, or in burials in non-mound cemeteries. About 80 percent of the known copper artifacts occur in contexts in sites that date to the Early Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1000-1200). These copper items likely are linked to the Cahokia exchange system, and represent prestige goods with ritual status acquired and displayed by leaders in different Caddo communities. By Late Caddo period times (ca. A.D. 1400-1680), copper items tend to be ear spools, especially copper-covered stone ear spools. Copper continued to be used as personal ornaments linked to specific Caddo individuals, but they no longer served for objects that may have been involved in public ritual, as there are no effigies, sheet copper hand cutouts, or maskettes from Late Caddo contexts as there were in Early or Middle Caddo period contexts.

Incised–Punctated Utility Ware Sherds from Lake Sam Rayburn Ancestral Caddo Sites

One of the more distinctive of the decorative methods represented in the ancestral Caddo ceramic assemblages from Lake Sam Rayburn sites is sherds and vessels with incised–punctated decorative elements. This diversity in the range and character of sherds and vessels with incised–punctated decorative elements is also the case in ancestral Caddo sites on the Sabine River and tributaries in the Toledo Bend Reservoir area of East Texas and Northwest Louisiana. Jelks included the incised–punctated vessels and sherds from the Lake Sam Rayburn sites in a newly defined type: Pineland Punctated–Incised. Pineland Punctated– Incised is a grog and/or bone–tempered utility ware, and occurs primarily as beaker–shaped jars as well as ollas and deep bowls. The vessels have concentric, triangular, rectangular, and curvilinear incised zones on the rim filled with tool punctation. Ollas and bowls have design elements on the vessel bodies. At Lake Sam Rayburn sites, Pineland Punctated–Incised sherds and vessels occur in both Middle Caddo (ca. A.D. 1200–1400/1450) and Late Caddo (ca. A.D. 1400/1450–1680) contexts. Based on the analyses discussed below, incised–punctated utility wares are most abundant in later Middle Caddo period components estimated to date from ca. A.D. 1300–1400/1450, and least common in post–A.D. 1400/1450 Late Caddo period components.

Titus Phase Ceramics from the Pine Tree Farm Site (41WD51) in the Lake Fork Creek Basin, Wood County, Texas

The Pine Tree Farm site, an ancestral Caddo site occupied during the Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1430- 1680), was recorded by Bob D. Skiles in June 1977, on the basis of investigations conducted there by Skiles and James E. Bruseth, then a graduate student at Southern Methodist University, as well as work done by Skiles in 1970. The site is on a flat upland landform (400 ft. amsl) ca. 300 m northeast of Myrtle Springs Branch, a tributary to Dry Creek in the Lake Fork Creek drainage in the East Texas Pineywoods. The Goldsmith site (41WD208) is ca. 0.4 km to the east on Dry Creek, and several kilometers below the dam at Lake Quitman. The Dry Creek drainage basin, as well as the Caney Creek arm of Lake Fork Reservoir, have clusters of Late Caddo period Titus phase sites. The main known feature at the site was a large trash midden or midden mound that was ca. 20 x 22 m in size and approximately 35 cm in thickness. The midden deposits contained many Caddo ceramic vessel sherds, animal bones, mussel shell, charcoal and other charred plant remains (hickory nut shells), and ash deposits. Most of the trash midden was excavated in 1970, but there were intact midden deposits along the western and southern part of the trash midden, and in June 1977, several small units were excavated by Skiles and Bruseth in those areas. The ancestral Caddo ceramics discussed herein come from Units 2-4 in the southern part of the trash midden, but are not all of the sherds that were recovered in that work.

A Late Caddo Period Vessel from the De Long Farm Site (41AN16) in the Upper Neches River Basin, Anderson County, Texas

The De Long Farm site (41AN16) is in the Caddo Creek valley in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas, about 3.2 km northwest of the small town of Frankston, Texas. A Caddo midden area was about 200 m to the east. The site was found by a local farmer after a vessel was discovered in a gully in a field after plowing. University of Texas archaeologists investigated the find spot in October 1935, but after excavating a large area around the vessel find spot, no other vessels or any evidence of burials were found. UT did purchase the one vessel from the local farmer.

The Caddo Occupation of the L. B. Miller Farm (41HE4/55) in the Post Oak Savanna and Trinity River Basin in East Texas

The L. B. Miller Farm site (41HE4/55) is a Late Caddo period Frankston phase Caddo habitation site and small cemetery on an upland landform (400 ft. amsl) in the Coon Creek-Catfish Creek drainage in the Post Oak Savannah of the Trinity River basin. The ancestral Caddo artifact collections from the site at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) include four vessels from a burial feature, sherds from two unreconstructed ceramic jars found in habitation contexts, and 178 ceramic sherds from midden deposits.

Funerary Offerings from the Keasler Site Cemetery (41HS235), Harrison County, Texas

The Keasler site (41HS235) is a post-ca. A.D. 1430 Late Caddo period, Titus phase cemetery with at least 31 burials in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was excavated by collectors in the late 1970s on the property of Sid Keasler of Hallsville, Texas. Minimal records on the burials at the site, and their contents, were provided by Red McFarland, one of the collectors, to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL). The Keasler site is near Little Creek, a northward-flowing tributary to Little Cypress Creek. It is perhaps one of the easternmost-known Titus phase cemeteries in East Texas, in an area where few Titus phase sites or cemeteries have been identified or investigated by professional archaeologists. Based on the analysis of the available records and vessel images at TARL, Perttula noted that funerary offerings in the burials primarily included ceramic vessels—both utility and fine wares—in almost all of the burials, along with clay pipes and arrow points in only a few of the graves. The subtle differences between two different burial groups in the number and kind of funerary offerings in the cemetery do not provide much evidence of differential status or social rank, and the frequency of funerary offerings as attested to in the TARL records is at the low end of the scale in Titus phase cemeteries. The burials at the Keasler site appear to be those of common members of the Caddo community living in the lower part of the Little Cypress Creek basin. The range of decorated utility ware and fine ware vessels placed in the burial features are consistent with use of the cemetery by ancestral Caddo peoples in parts of the 16th and 17th centuries A.D. Subsequent to the analysis of the available records at TARL from the Keasler site, funerary offerings from the site in the Sid Keasler collection have come to light. In July 1999, Mark Walters and Bo Nelson photo-documented the Keasler collection, which represents approximately 50 percent of the funerary offerings recovered by Red McFarland. This article summarizes the character of the funerary offerings in the collection. Walters also recorded the nearby Pine Grove site (41HS826), which may represent one habitation area associated with the use of the cemetery at the Keasler site by ancestral Caddo peoples.

The Frank Murphy Farm Site (41AN48), Anderson County, Texas

The Frank Murphy Farm site (41AN48) is a Late Caddo period, Frankston phase occupation in the upper Neches River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was investigated by University of Texas (UT) archaeologists in 1935.

The Keasler site (41HS235), a Titus Phase Cemetery in the Little Cypress Creek Basin, Harrison County, Texas

The Keasler site (41HS235) is a Late Caddo period, Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1430-1680) cemetery in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was excavated by collectors in the late 1970s, including Red McFarland, one of the more active looters of Caddo burials in East Texas. Minimal records on the burials at the site, and their contents, were provided by McFarland to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL). The Keasler site is near Little Creek, a northward-flowing tributary to Little Cypress Creek. It is perhaps one of the easternmost-known Titus phase cemeteries in East Texas, in an area where few Titus phase sites or cemeteries have been identified or investigated by professional archaeologists.

The Doug Martin Site (41AN88), a Late Caddo Period Frankston Phase Settlement in the Trinity River Basin in East Texas

The Doug Martin site (41AN88) is a Late Caddo period Frankston phase settlement on a southern-flowing tributary to the Trinity River in the Post Oak Savannah of East Texas (Figure 1). Several avocational archaeologists from the Palestine, Texas, area, principally including Clyde Amick, worked at the site in the early 1980s, and donated a collection of artifacts from the site, along with some information about the work done there, to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) in November 1985.