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

Cite this Record Perttula, Timothy K. (2017) "The Beckham (41SB35) and Print Bell (41SB36) Woodland Period and Caddo Ceramic Assemblages Collected by G. E. Arnold in 1939, Sabine County, Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2017, Article 11. https://doi.org/ 10.21112/ita.2017.1.11 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2017/iss1/11


Beckham Site (41SB35)
estimated to cover ca. 3 aces of a sandy upland landform on the west side of Cane Creek, a tributary of Housen Bayou. The presence of animal bone and mussel shell indicated that the site had preserved midden deposits. Earlier explorations by a local resident, a Mr. Beasly, at the site had exposed three ancestral Caddo burials that had been accompanied by whole ceramic vessels ( Figure 2)-a bottle and a rim peaked bowl-and one ceramic pipe.

Ceramic Sherd Assemblage
The ceramic sherd assemblage from the Beckham site has both Woodland and ancestral Caddo vessel sherds. The Woodland period ceramics include one sandy paste Goose Creek Plain, rim sherd and 10 body sherds. These sherds are from a Mossy Grove culture occupation at the site (see Story The ancestral Caddo ceramic sherd assemblage from the Beckham site includes 238 sherds from About 30 percent of the utility wares are from bone-tempered vessels, and 25.2 percent of the plain ware sherds are from vessels tempered with crushed and burned bone.   One of the brushed sherds in the assemblage has parallel appliqued ridges in proximity to a zone of diagonal brushing (Figure 3a). Other sherds have simply parallel brushing marks or a combination of brushing marks and incised elements (see Table 2). Other than simple geometric elements on many of the incised sherds, or diagonal and cross-hatched incised lines ( Figure 3b) on one rim, one body sherd has curvilinear and parallel incised lines (Figure 3c), while another body sherd has diagonal opposed incised punctations (see Figure 3f). These particular sherds may be from Pineland Punctated-Incised vessels, either var. Powell or var. Print sherd with parallel ridges is from a Belcher Ridged vessel. likely an import from a Caddo group in the Red River basin of Northwestern Louisiana.
2). One distinctive rim sherd has a slanting engraved scroll with tick marks and upper and lower hatched Lithic Tool Assemblage wood), other lithic tools collected by Arnold include point. The dart point preform is made from a local dark red chert and the four dart points include one of a Woodland period occupation, as are the Goose Creek Plain, ceramic sherds in the artifact assemblage (see above). The Gary point is made from a local brown chert, and the Godley points are base, with small barbs.

Print Bell Site (41SB36)
River. Arnold considered it to be a village site.

Ceramic Sherd Assemblage
The ceramic sherd assemblage from the Print Bell site also has both Woodland and ancestral Caddo vessel sherds. The Woodland period ceramics include one sandy paste Goose Creek Plain, var. unspecirim sherd and 10 body sherds. These sherds are from a Mossy Grove culture occupation at the site Approximately 70 percent of the ancestral Caddo sherds from the site are from grog-tempered 2014: Figure 4), is from a shell-tempered vessel. The highest proportions of bone-tempered vessel sherds The plain to decorated sherd ratio in the Print Bell ceramic assemblage is 1.59. About 80 percent of the decorated sherds are from utility ware vessels (Table 4). The brushed to plain sherd ratio is a low 0.05, and the ratio of brushed to other wet paste sherds in the assemblage is 0.11. Brushed sherds account for 7.8 percent of the decorated sherds in the assemblage, while sherds with incised decorative elements sent 10.9 percent of the decorated sherds in the assemblage, and trailed sherds another 9.4 percent.  Brushed sherds represent only 9.8 percent of the utility ware sherds in the Print Bell assemblage represented only 10.9 percent of the utility wares.
sherd with diagonal opposed incised lines divided by a vertical incised line (Figure 5b) is from a Pease Figure 5. Selected decorative elements on utility ware sherds from the Print Bell site.
One of the incised-punctated sherds has a circular or semi-circular incised zone with tool punctations (see Figure 5c). This may be from a Pineland Punctated-Incised, var. Bell grog-tempered body sherd has parallel ridges and is from a post-A.D. 1500 Belcher Ridged vessel. elements occur on Tyson Engraved vessels from the Tyson site in the Attoyac Bayou basin (Middlebrook 1994: Figure 3). Two other engraved sherds from the site are distinctive: one (from a carinated bowl) has Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology 71 (2017) 143 curvilinear engraved and ticked lines, a hatched triangle element and a horizontal engraved line (Figure

Lithic Tools
Arnold collected two chipped stone tools from the Print Bell site. One is a red chert biface fragment and the other is a brownish-red chert arrow point preform (perhaps for a Perdiz arrow point) with a con-

Summary and Conclusions
sen Bayou basin of the Sabine River drainage, while the Print Bell site is in the Angelina River basin. Arnold collected substantial ceramic sherd assemblages from both site, and the analysis of these collections is the primary focus of this article. In both sites, there are a few Woodland period ceramic sherds from Goose Creek Plain, That assemblage included Goose Creek Plain, four decorated sandy paste sherds, and two grog-tempered Marksville or Troyville Stamped sherds.
The ancestral Caddo occupation at the Beckham site is marked by sherds from grog-and bonepercent) than other documented Caddo sherd assemblages from the Housen Bayou drainage ( Table 5). The decorated sherd assemblage from the site is dominated by utility wares, especially utility wares with incised, brushed, and punctated decorative elements. The few engraved sherds are not distinctive, except for one rim with a slanting scroll decorative element (see Figure 4). The proportion of brushed sherds in but dates after ca. A.D. 1200 (Table 5). One Belcher Ridged body sherd in the assemblage does also suggest that there was limited use of the site by Caddo peoples after ca. A.D. 1500. At the Print Bell site, the sherd collections obtained by Arnold are from both grog-and bone-tem-that range from 1.59-1.74, and almost identical brushed/plain and brushed/other wet paste sherd ratios tion sampled by surface collections and later excavations. The decorated sherd assemblage in both collections from the Print Bell site are dominated by incised Punctated-Incised) sherds. One engraved sherd from the Print Bell site has curvilinear and parallel lines in late 14 th -early 15 th century contexts at the Tyson site (Middlebrook 1994). These characteristics of the However, the Print Bell site appears to have also been settled by Caddo peoples after A.D. 1500. Evidence of this occupation in the Arnold sherd collection includes a single post-A.D. 1500 Belcher Ridged in the Arnold collection. Other engraved sherds from the site have curvilinear engraved and ticked lines, a hatched triangle element and a horizontal engraved line, and horizontal and vertical engraved lines and the post-A.D. 1500 component associated with Belcher Ridged and probable Keno Trailed sherds.