Continued Shovel Test Investigations at the Historic Caddo Allen Phase Bowles Creek Site (41CE475), Cherokee County, Texas

Cite this Record Perttula, Timothy K. and Stingley, Kevin (2017) "Continued Shovel Test Investigations at the Historic Caddo Allen Phase Bowles Creek Site (41CE475), Cherokee County, Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2017, Article 9. https://doi.org/10.21112/ ita.2017.1.9 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2017/iss1/9


Introduction and Past Investigations
The Bowles Creek site (41CE475) on Bowles Creek in the Neches River basin in East Texas ( Figure  1) is an important and well-preserved Historic Caddo Allen phase habitation site on a low alluvial rise Creek channel, and excavated in an attempt to clarify the subsurface character and depth of the archaeological deposits in this part of the site given the recovery of ancestral Caddo sherds from 100-140 cm bs in the Bowles Creek cut bank (Perttula and Stingley 2017). More recently, 14 more shovel tests were excavated across the site, including two shovel tests near a reddish-brown sandy loam alluvial deposit (Perttula and Stingley 2017). Furthermore, the creek cut banks were examined, and Caddo sherds were noted buried in the alluvial sediments at depths between tests north of the cut bank. A single 1 x 1 m unit (Unit BC-2) was also excavated in the central part of the excavating Unit BC-2 was to assess the subsurface character of the archaeological deposits and determine if features were present in this part of the site.
The archaeological deposits in Unit BC-2 were a reddish-brown sandy loam to 50 cm bs. At 40 cm, a rounded bottom and extended to 92 cm bs, while Stain 5 extended to 74 cm bs, and also had straight sides and a rounded bottom. The size of the post holes in the unit suggested that a portion of a Caddo house structure was encountered in the excavations. Artifacts recovered in Unit BC-2 included plain and decorated ceramic vessel sherds (n=144), animal bone (n=20), wood charcoal (n=11), charred nutshells (n=3), lithic debris (n=3), and a polished quartzite pebble resting at 31 cm bs. The most concentrated deposits of archaeological material culture remains in the unit occurred between 10-30 cm bs (Perttula In addition to the excavation of shovel tests and a 1 x 1 m unit, the remote sensing of a 2400 square of post holes from another circular structure in the south central part of the remote sensing grid, closer to the Bowles Creek channel.

Renewed Shovel Testing near the Bowles Creek Channel
All 18 of the most recently excavated shovel tests at the Bowles Creek site contain archaeological northern cut bank of Bowles Creek (Figure 2). The archaeological deposits are a reddish-brown sandy loam tered only in ST 55 (77 cm bs) and ST 58 (88 cm bs), in the northeastern part of the investigated area.
Artifact densities in these positive shovel tests range from 5-34 specimens, or a mean of 19.5 arti-ological deposits. The highest densities of artifacts are in the central part of the investigated area (see Figure 2). Four of the shovel tests with the highest artifact densities also have burned or unburned animal bones and two of these shovel tests have charred nutshells. About 93 percent of the recovered artifacts from this round of shovel testing are plain and decorated ceramic vessel sherds, followed by animal bone (4 percent), lithic debris (3 percent), and wood charcoal/nutshell (1.7 percent).
Bowles Creek site (41CE475). The shovel tests discussed in this article are highlighted in red. As previously mentioned, ancestral Caddo archaeological deposits are present from at least 0-100 cm bs in the alluvial sediments along Bowles Creek (Table 2), considering the depth of ceramic sherds found buried artifacts from these deposits represent approximately 84 percent of the recovered assemblage, with 9.7 percent charcoal/charred nutshells are concentrated between 20-80 cm bs, with those found at greater depths likely to

Ceramic Vessel Sherds
This ceramic vessel sherd sample, as with the others from the Bowles Creek site, is predominantly comprised of sherds from grog-tempered vessels, as 87.7 percent are tempered with grog (i.e., crushed sherds). The remaining 12.3 percent of the sherds are from bone-tempered vessels ( Table 3). The proportion of bone-tempered vessel sherds is virtually the same in the plain wares (13.4 percent) and utility crushed and burned bone temper. The plain to decorated sherd ratio (P/DR) in this sherd sample is 0.44. Of the 219 decorated sherds, the decorated sherds, and 91 percent of the rim sherds, are from utility ware vessels (see Table 3   Other utility wares include one Lindsey Grooved body sherd, a La Rue Neck Banded rim sherd, and a few other sherds with wet paste decorative elements. This includes sherds with simple incised lines (4.1 percent of the decorated sherds), one incised-punctated body sherd (0.5 percent), and rim or body sherds with rows of tool punctations (0.9 percent) (see Table 4).
sherds from the Bowles Creek site are from Patton Engraved vessels. These sherds have either linear tick marks (n=2) or small excised triangles on sherds with a single straight engraved line (see Table 4). None Texas Caddo ceramic type. Table 5 summarizes the character of the ceramic vessel sherd assemblage (n=1538) from the Bowles Creek site based on the different surface, shovel test, and 1 x 1 m unit excavation conducted here since 2015. The assemblage is much like other Historic Caddo Allen phase components that have been studied also consistent with an Allen phase component in this part of the Neches River basin. The sherds are predominantly from grog-tempered vessels, and these vessels (of the Bullard Brushed type and Spradley Brushed-Incised) are decorated primarily with brushing marks (83.2 percent), and with few sherds from the assemblage are represented by a few sherds of Lindsey Grooved and La Rue Neck Banded, and the incised and incised-punctated sherds are likely from Maydelle Incised vessels.    Table 1). The animal bone came from 20-100 cm pieces of wood charcoal and four Carya sp. nutshells.  c. d.

Spatial Distribution of Artifacts
The two ceramic elbow pipe sherds recovered in the shovel testing fall within the two ceramic vessel sherd concentrations (see Figure 5b), as do also the chipped and ground stone tools (see Figure 5c). Shovel tests with animal bone fragments and pieces of charred nutshells are in a ca. 20 x 10 m area that falls within the distribution of both vessel sherd concentrations (see Figure 5d).

Summary and Conclusions
The continued archaeological investigations at the Bowles Creek site (41CE475) includes the logical deposits at the site, and assess the relationship between the archaeological deposits here and those in the cut bank, where ceramic vessel sherds have been recovered between 100-140 cm bs. This work has demonstrated that there are substantial archaeological deposits of Historic Caddo Allen phase age in this area that extend to at least 100 cm bs in many of the shovel tests, including preserved animal bone and charred plant remains in a few of the shovel tests. The spatial distribution of ceramic vessel sherds, ceramic elbow pipe sherds, chipped and ground stone tools, and animal bone as well as charred nutshells are concentrated in a ca. 50 x 20 m area not far north of the Bowles Creek channel, and likely represent habitation debris from the occupation and use of at least two Historic Caddo house structures on this part decorative elements, one Neches style ceramic elbow pipe, three chipped or ground stone tools, and a small amount of lithic debris from both local and non-local raw material sources.

Timothy K. Perttula and Kevin Stingley
archaeological deposits within ca. 5-15 m of the current Bowles Creek channel (Figure A-1). Earlier shovel testing here (elsewhere in this article) indicated that there are substantial archaeological deposits with a considerable density of artifacts per square meter, as well as the likelihood of intact cultural features.
Eight of the 11 shovel tests in this part of the Bowles Creek site contain archaeological deposits with ceramic sherds, lithic debris, animal bone, charred plant remains, and pieces of burned clay (Table A-1). a number of pieces of burned and unburned animal bones, charred nutshells and wood charcoal, pieces perhaps the remnants of a Caddo house structure, hearth, or large pit.  (Table A-2). Animal bone is present from 20-100 cm bs, while pieces of wood charcoal are present from 0-100 cm bs in these shovel tests. Mussel shell fragments occur from 20-40 and 80-100 cm bs. Burned clay, including some pieces with adhering ash chunks, are present from 20-80 cm bs.  A-4). The other utility wares in this assemblage include body sherds from Lindsey Grooved vessels, sherds with incised elements (4.5 percent), incised-punctated (0.8 percent), Killough Pinched (0.8 percent), punctated elements (0.8 percent), and one plain rim with a notched lip.   Table A-4). Most of the engraved sherds (n=10) in this assemblage are from Patton Engraved vessels ( Figure A-2b-f) with excised tick marks on horizontal or curvilinear engraved lines, but there is also one Poynor Engraved, var. Cook body sherd ( Figure A-2g), and another body sherd with diagonal opposed engraved lines ( Figure A-2h).

Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology 71 (2017) 117
The overall ceramic sherd assemblage from various investigations at the Bowles Creek site is summarized in Table A-5. The assemblage is dominated by brushed utility ware vessel sherds (82.8 percent of the decorated sherds), as well as vessels manufactured with grog temper. Incised or punctated vessels comprise a distinct minority of the utility wares from the site (7.0 percent). Only 5.9 percent of all the ing sherds from Patton Engraved, Poynor Engraved, and Keno Trailed types. wood (n=3, 33 percent cortical), quartzite (n=1, 100 percent cortical), brownish-gray chert (n=1, 0 percent cortical), gray chert (n=2, 0 percent cortical), and dark gray chert (n=3, 0 percent cortical). concentration of ceramic sherds not far north of the creek channel at the Bowles Creek site ( Figure  A-3a). Shovel tests in this area have sherd densities that range from ca. 120-232 sherds per square meter. A smaller 30 x 20 m area of the site has preserved animal bones, mussel shell pieces, and charred plant the burned clay pieces found in the shovel testing occur in only three shovel tests within the single ca. 40 x 20 m ceramic vessel sherd concentration at the site ( Figure A-3c). c.