scholarly journals 2016 Archaeological Investigations at the T. M. Sanders Site (41LR2), Lamar County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula ◽  
Bo Nelson ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Smithsonian Institution ◽  
Red River ◽  
Large Collection ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
The West ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Geophysical Investigations ◽  
Surface Examination ◽  
The University

On March 4th and 5th, 2016, Bo Nelson and Mark Walters returned to the T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) to inspect the property after Julia Trigg Crawford, the main landowner of the site, informed us that the fields at the site had been prepped for this year ’s planting. This article summarizes the findings from these archaeological investigations, which also included the surface examination of the 40 acres of the Sanders site owned by the Sanders family. The Sanders site is a large and impressive ancestral Caddo mound center and village situated on an alluvial terrace (450 ft. amsl) at the mouth of Bois d’Arc Creek and the Red River (Figure 1). The Sanders site was first investigated by archaeologists from the University of Texas in 1931 (Chelf 1939; Jackson 2000; Jackson et al. 2000; Krieger 1946, 2000; Pearce and Jackson 1931), where the work concentrated on the excavation of a number of burial features in Mound No. 1 or the East Mound, the trenching of Mound No. 2 or the West Mound, and the trenching of thick midden deposits that were present between the two mounds. The collections from this work are at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. Members of the Dallas Archeological Society excavated burial features and obtained surface collections in the 1940s-1950s (Hanna 1950; Harris 1953; Housewright 1940) from the Sanders site. R. King Harris, in particular, amassed a large collection of artifacts from the Sanders site that are now held by the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution (Perttula et al. 2015). Other than a number of bioarchaeological studies of the human remains from the East Mound burial features (Hamilton 1997; Maples 1962; Wilson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997; Wilson and Cargill 1993), there were no professional archaeological investigations conducted at the Sanders site again until 2011, when survey and/or test excavations were carried out in the proposed right-of-ways for the Keystone pipeline where they crossed non-mound habitation areas (Acuna et al. 2011; Perttula and Marceaux 2011; Peyton 2013). This work renewed attention to the significance of the Caddo archaeological deposits at the Sanders site, including both mound and non-mound areas, and with the permission of the Crawford family and the Sanders family, periodic archaeological and geophysical investigations have been conducted across much of the 200+ acres of the Sanders site since 2013 (Perttula 2013; Perttula et al. 2014, 2015, 2016; Perttula and Nelson 2016; Walker and Perttula 2016). The 2016 work represents a continuation of this effort.

scholarly journals Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the T. M. Sanders Site (41LR2) on the Red River in Lamar County, Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters ◽  
Bo Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Red River ◽  
Silt Loam ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
Alluvial Sediments ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Special Publication ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University

The T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) is one of the more important ancestral Caddo sites known in East Texas, primarily because of its two earthen mounds and the well-preserved mortuary features of Caddo elite persons buried in Mound No. 1 (the East Mound). The Sanders site is located on a broad alluvial terrace just south of the confluence of Bois d’Arc Creek and the Red River. The terrace has silt loam soils, which have a shallow dark brown silt loam A-horizon overlying thick B- and C-horizons that range from dark reddish-brown, reddish-brown, dark brown, to yellowish-red in color. These soils formed in loamy alluvial sediments of the Red River. In this Special Publication, we discuss the analysis and documentation of the 78 ceramic vessels from the T. M. Sanders site in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. Our concern is in documenting the stylistic and technological character of these vessels, and assessing their cultural relationships and stylistic associations; almost 80 percent of these vessels are from burial features excavated by University of Texas archaeologists in Mound No. 1 (East Mound) in July and August 1931; others are from excavations in midden deposits between the two mounds. We also consider and revise the current ceramic taxonomy for a number of the vessels from the T. M. Sanders site.

scholarly journals A Caddo Ceramic Vessel from the Atkinson Farm Site (41RR1), Red River County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Red River ◽  
The West ◽  
Alluvial Valley ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University

The Atkinson Farm site (41RR1) is an ancestral Caddo settlement on the Mound Prairie area of the Red River alluvial valley, about midway between the Wright Plantation site (41RR7) to the west and the Sam Kaufman site (41RR16) to the east. The site was investigated by B. B. Gardner of The University of Texas in 1930. At that time, he exposed and investigated the remains of three burials, one of which had five ceramic vessels placed with it as funerary offerings; the vessels had been damaged and broken by previous plowing. One of the vessels from this burial remains in the collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas.

scholarly journals Armstrong Landing Site (41CS37): An Ancestral Caddo Site on the Sulphur River, Cass County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Wave Action ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The University ◽  
Cass County

The Armstrong Landing site (41CS37) is an ancestral Caddo site on an alluvial terrace of the Sulphur River at Lake Wright Patman. It was formally recorded by Briggs and Malone (1970) prior to a planned enlargement of Lake Wright Patman. According to records on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin (TARL), collectors from the Texarkana area had worked the site in the early 1960s, digging four burials there and noting extensive midden deposits. The site remains above the normal conservation flood pool of the lake at present, but is subject to erosion from wave action.

scholarly journals Correspondence between George T. Wright and A. T. Jackson Regarding Late 1930s-Early 1940s Excavations at the Sam Kaufman Site (41RR16)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Red River ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Railway System ◽  
The University ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Early 18Th Century

In the 1930s and 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, Texas, 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), a few miles downstream along the Red River. Both sites are large ancestral Caddo mound and village sites. Little professional archaeological work has ever been conducted at the Wright Plantation site, but there have been a number of archaeological investigations in mound (East and West mounds), habitation, and burial features at Sam Kaufman since the 1950s. The site was occupied by Caddo peoples as early as ca. A.D. 1000 to as late as the early 18th century. Between 1941-1942, Wright was engaged in considerable correspondence with Alvin T. Jackson (1895-1974), a newspaperman turned archaeologist for The University of Texas at Austin (UT). Jackson worked for UT from 1929-1942, after which he spent about 13 years working for the Austin Railway System. Jackson apparently met Wright in 1931 when UT was investigating the Sanders site (41LR2) in Lamar County, Texas. The correspondence on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL) between Jackson and Wright concerned investigations Wright and friends had recently been involved in at the Sam Coffman site. This work has not been previously discussed in the archaeological literature regarding the Sam Kaufman site, but is presented herein because it sheds new light on the archaeology of the site, especially the archaeology of the East Mound.

scholarly journals The Harling Site (41FN1): An Ancestral Caddo Mound Site on the Red River in Fannin County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Valley ◽  
Red River ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
The West ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Red River Valley ◽  
Short Summary ◽  
Coles Creek ◽  
Length Width

The Harling site (41FN1), also earlier known as the Morgan Place, is a little-known ancestral Caddo mound site located on the first alluvial terrace of the Red River in the northeastern corner of Fannin County in East Texas. The only professional archaeological investigations at the Harling site took place in November-December 1960 by a University of Texas crew led by Dr. E. Mott Davis, in advance of proposed mound leveling by the landowner. Other than short summary articles by Davis, the results of the excavations and analyses of the recovered artifacts from the Harling site have not been previously published. The mound at the site was leveled in 1963 by the landowner, Mr. R. A. Harling. The single mound at the site was approximately 70 x 52 x 2.1 m in length, width, and height. There was a borrow pit area at the southern end of the mound. The mound at the Harling site appears to be the westernmost known of the more than 100 Caddo mounds that have been reported in East Texas. According to Davis (1996:463), the site is on the western frontier of Caddo communities in the Red River valley, and Caddo settlements are found at most only a few miles to the west of the site along the river, but are common to the east of the Harling mound. Based on the 1960 excavations of the mound and an examination at that time of the surrounding alluvial landforms—which were plowed—there was no substantial Caddo settlement at the Harling site, or any associated settlement cluster within ca. 2.5 km of the mound, although there were scattered artifacts from the surface dispersed both east and west of the mound. When R. L. Stephenson, E. O. Miller, and Lester Wilson visited the Harling site in August 1950, however, they commented that artifacts were abundant in the plowed fields around the mound. In particular they noted that the ceramic sherds were mostly plain and grog-tempered, and some of the sherds had a red slip (i.e., Sanders Plain). R. King Harris also collected artifacts from the site, primarily from an area to the west of the mound and near the edge of the alluvial terrace . He collected from this area W Gary dart points, Alba arrow points, plain sherds, and one Coles Creek Incised rim with an incised lip line. In the fields east of the mound, Harris collected a number of small triangular arrow points, suggesting that this area was where the latest Caddo occupation had taken place.

scholarly journals Selected Caddo Ceramic Artifacts from the E. H. Buchanan Plantation (41RR5), Bowie County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Red River ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Salt Lick ◽  
The University ◽  
Large Vessels ◽  
Stiff Soil

The E. H. Buchanan site is an ancestral Caddo settlement investigated by B. B. Gardner of The University of Texas in July 1930. The site lies between Pond Creek and Salt Well Slough, streams that drain into the nearby Red River, and they are not far upstream from the large Caddo mound and village center at the Sam Kaufman site (41RR16) on Mound Prairie. As described in Gardner’s notes on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at The University of Texas at Austin, the site lay adjacent to a salt lick on “Buchanan’s upper place,” on a natural alluvial mound. The archaeological deposit was ca. 20-25 cm thick, with much charcoal and ash. Furthermore, Gardner noted that “there is a spot comprising approximately 1/2 acre on which are literally bushels of potsherds, apparently from very large vessels. Unlike most of such places, it is on heavy, stiff soil.” The description provided by Gardner strongly suggests that the E. H. Buchanan Plantation is another salt-making site near Salt Well Slough, much like the Salt Well Slough site (41RR204), 41RR248, 41RR256, and 41RR257.

scholarly journals Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Womack Site (41LR1), Lamar County, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
Red River ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Alluvial Terrace ◽  
North Central ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University ◽  
Analysis And Study

The Womack site (41LR1) is an ancestral Caddo settlement situated on an alluvial terrace in a horseshoe bend of the Red River in north central Lamar County in East Texas. Harris completed the analysis and study of their 1938-mid-1960s investigations at the site, but the findings from the earlier archaeological investigations conducted at the site by the University of Texas (UT) in 1931 have only been recently published.

scholarly journals Book Reviews: The Hasinais: Southern Caddoans As Seen by the Earliest Europeans

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
West Coast ◽  
American History ◽  
Smithsonian Institution ◽  
East Texas ◽  
The West ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Present Book ◽  
Southwestern History ◽  
The University

The writing and eventual publication of The Hasinais by Herbert Eugene Bolton, the founder of Spanish borderlands studies, has had a long and storied journey that is well-laid out in an introduction by Russell Magnaghi, the editor of the original 1987 hardback and 2002 paperback editions of the book. Bolton became interested in the Hasinai Caddo peoples of East Texas shortly after he arrived at The University of Texas at Austin in 1901, as he became aware “that American history had always involved the Indians and that, as he began to study southwestern history, he also had to study the ethnology of the region." Through various twists and turns, he had the present book-length manuscript virtually completely written and ready for submittal to the Smithsonian Institution in 1907. Unfortunately, the manuscript was then put aside by Bolton as he moved on to other borderlands historical work on the West Coast and California and he never completed it. Parts of it were used by William J. Griffith, one of Bolton’s students, in his 1942 dissertation “The Spanish Occupation of the Hasinai Country, 1690-1737,” and then in a later monograph on the Hasinai, but it was Russell Magnaghi who took up the task of editing the book manuscript in 1971.

scholarly journals Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in Red River County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Red River ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Ceramic Sherd ◽  
The University

The vessel collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas (TARL) have ancestral Caddo vessels from a number of sites along the Red River in the Mound Prairie area. Vessels are documented in this article from four such sites, including Wright Plantation (41RR7), Howard Hampton Farm (41RR10), Sam Kaufman (41RR16), and the Abe Cox Place (with no trinomial), in the vicinity of the Rowland Clark site (41RR77). I also discuss a small ceramic sherd assemblage at TARL from the Wright Plantation site.

scholarly journals Artifacts from 41SA38 in the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory Collections

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
East Texas ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The University ◽  
The City

Site 41SA38 (ET-692) was recorded in February 1940 by Gus Arnold of the University of Texas as part of the WPA-sponsored archaeological survey of East Texas. The site was identified on a natural alluvial rise in a freshly plowed floodplain on the west side of Ayish Bayou, about 1 km southwest of the city of San Augustine, Texas.

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