The Wollard #2 Site (41HE22) in the Upper Neches River Basin, Henderson County, Texas

The Wollard #2 site (41HE22) was first identified by Leroy Johnson, Jr. and Edward B. Jelks in August 1957 during their survey of then proposed Blackburn Crossing Reservoir, now Lake Palestine, in Henderson County, Texas. The site was described by Johnson as located in an old cultivated field on the high ground directly to the west of Caney Creek and the Neches River floodplain, is one of the most prolific sites located in the reservoir area...The midden soil at the site extends to a depth of 16 inches and is rich in animal and shell remains as well as stone flakes and artifact fragments. When Southern Methodist University (SMU) returned to the proposed Lake Palestine area in 1969 to complete data recovery investigations at sites to be inundated by the lake, they chose to work at the Wollard #2 site, which they renamed the Mitchell site (X41HE17). X is the SMU designation used for site numbering. Review of project area maps by Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) staff indicated that the Mitchell site was plotted in the same area as the Wollard #2 site, and thus the Mitchell site also has the 41HE22 trinomial. However, an examination of Anderson and a comparison to Johnson’s site map indicates that the SMU investigations at the Wollard #2/Mitchell site—which consisted primarily of systematic surface collections and the excavation of scattered 1 x 3 m units—unfortunately did not encompass any of the well preserved Caddo midden deposits described by Johnson. Rather, the SMU work was located uphill on the landform from the midden, in areas with sparse Caddo deposits. The SMU work recovered only 73 sherds in extensive surface collections on the landform and only another 361 sherds from the excavation of 36 1 x 3 m units in several areas of the Mitchell site. The brief work by Johnson and Jelks recovered almost as many sherds as did the entire SMU investigations at the site. Furthermore, no midden deposits were identified in the SMU work and only four pieces of animal bone were recovered; hardly evidence of a midden “rich in animal” bones as described by Johnson.


INTRODUCTION AND SITE SETTING
1957 during their survey of then proposed Blackburn Crossing Reservoir, now Lake Palestine, in Henderson County, Texas (Figure 1). The site was described by Johnson (1961:233-234) as: located in an old cultivated eld on the high ground directly to the west of Caney Creek and the eches River oodplain Figure 2 , is one of the ost proli c sites located in the reservoir area…The midden soil at the site extends to a depth of 16 inches and is rich in animal and shell remains as well as stone akes and artifact fragments. When Southern Methodist University (SMU) returned to the proposed Lake Palestine area in 1969 to complete data recovery investigations at sites to be inundated by the lake, they chose to work at the Wollard #2 site, which they renamed the Mitchell site (X41HE17). X is the SMU designation used for site numbering. Review of project area maps by Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) staff indicated that the Mitchell site was plotted in the same area as the Wollard #2 site, and thus the Mitchell site also has the 41HE22 trinomial (Story 1990:560).
However, an examination of Anderson et al. (1974:19-44) and a comparison to Johnson's site map (see Figure 2) indicates that the SMU investigations at the Wollard #2/Mitchell site-which consisted primarily of systematic surface collections and the excavation of scattered 1 x 3 m units (Anderson et al. 1974: Figure  5)-unfortunately did not encompass any of the well preserved Caddo midden deposits described by Johnson (1961:213-214). Rather, the SMU work ( Figure 3) was located uphill on the landform from the midden, in areas with sparse Caddo deposits. The SMU work recovered only 73 sherds in extensive surface collections on the landform (Anderson et al. 1974: Table 1) and only another 361 sherds from the excavation of 36 1 x 3 m units in several areas of the Mitchell site (Anderson et al. 1974: Table 3). The brief work by Johnson and Jelks recovered almost as many sherds (see below) as did the entire SMU investigations at the site. Furthermore, no midden deposits were identi ed in the SMU work and only four pieces of animal bone were recovered (Anderson et al. 1974:42); hardly evidence of a midden "rich in animal" bones as described by Johnson (1961:214).

Ceramic Sherd Assemblage
The TARL collections from the Wollard #2 site have 291 ceramic sherds from plain ware, utility ware, and ne ware vessels (Table 1). As with other upper eches River basin ceramic tradition sites (see Perttula 2011:315-318), the vast majority of the sherds (97.9 percent) are from grog-tempered vessels. Only 2.1 percent of the sherds are from bone-tempered vessels. The plain to decorated sherd ratio is 1.16. More than 80 percent of the decorated sherds from the site are from utility ware vessels ( Table 2). The principal decorative methods represented in the utility wares are sherds with brushing marks (n=62, or 46 percent of all the decorated sherds and 57 percent of the sherds from utility ware vessels) and incised decorative elements (n=25, 23 percent of the utility wares). All of the ne ware sherds are from engraved vessels, both carinated bowls and bottles.   The many brushed body sherds are from Bullard Brushed jars (see Suhm and Jelks 1962:21 and Plate 11). The sherds from brushed-incised vessels may also be from Bullard Brushed vessels as the principal decorative element on the sherds is horizontal brushing marks on the rim of utility ware jars and parallel (or vertical) brushing on vessel bodies. What differentiates most of the brushed-incised sherds from Bullard Brushed vessels is the incised decorative elements that overlie and cut through the brushing (Figure 4a-c). One body sherd has parallel brushed marks and overlying lines opposed to the brushing, and is identi ed as coming from a Spradley Brushed-Incised vessel. This utility ware is found on Historic Caddo Allen phase sites in the Neches-Angelina river basins in East Texas. It consists of parallel brushing elements with overlapping straight incised lines that are opposed or perpendicular to the brushing (Marceaux 2011:140 and Figure 5.2).
One body sherd from the site is from a Lindsey Grooved jar with broad parallel or horizontal grooved elements (see Table 2). Lindsey Grooved is an Allen phase utility ware type comprised of large bowls or jars with direct or slightly everted rims. The rims have shallow horizontal grooves (Marceaux 2011:140-141). Lindsey Grooved vessels also occur in conjunction with appliqued, brushed, incised, or punctated elements, typically either at the rim-body juncture or on the vessel body.
In most cases, the incised sherds are from Maydelle Incised vessels (see Suhm and Jelks 1962:103 and Plate 52a-d, f) with simple geometric elements on the rim and vessel body (see Table 2 and Figure 4d-f). The one body sherd with closely-spaced curvilinear incised lines may be a wet paste variety of Poynor Engraved (see below), as such decorative elements that have been engraved are associated with several varieties of Poynor Engraved; I resist the temptation of dubbing this sherd as Poynor Incised. The incised-punctated sherds are also from Maydelle Incised vessels (see Suhm and Jelks 1962:Plate 52e), as they have sets of diagonal and diagonal opposed incised lines that have created triangle elements lled with tool punctations (Figure 5a-b), most notably elongated tool punctations (Figure 5c).
The sherds with pinched decorative elements are from Killough Pinched jars (see Suhm and Jelks 1962:91 and Plate 46). The few punctated sherds (4.4 percent of the decorated sherds from the site) have either horizontal or vertical rows of ngernail and tool punctations, including several sherds with elongated tool punctations.  The engraved rim and body sherds are from Poynor Engraved carinated bowls and bottles. Two rims have nested triangles and are identi ed as regional Var. A of Poynor Engraved (Perttula 2011: Figure 6-65) (Figure 6a-b). Another rim, from a ar. oo vessel (see Perttula 2011: Figure 6-64e), has part of an excised bracket on the rim panel (Figure 6c), while a fourth rim in the assemblage has closely-spaced opposed circular lines from a var. Cook carinated bowl (Figure 6d; see also Perttula 2011:Figure 6-64c-d). Two other rims have Poynor Engraved, var. uns ec e decorative elements, including negative ovals de ned by closely-spaced curvilinear lines ( Figure 6e) and a curvilinear hatched triangle element that is part of a scroll motif (Figure 6f).  Var. A; c, var. oo ; d, var. Cook; e-f, var. uns ec e .
The engraved body sherds from the Wollard #2 site are also primarily from Poynor Engraved carinated bowls (Figure 7a-b, d). One bottle sherd with opposed curvilinear lines may be from a Poynor Engraved bottle (Figure 7f; see Suhm and Jelks 1962:Plate 63).
Typologically unidenti ed ne wares include a body sherd in the ne ware assemblage that has a rectilinear zone lled with diagonal hatched lines (see Figure 7c). The last of the engraved body sherds in the collection has sets of diagonal opposed lines (see Figure 7e).

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The Wollard #2 site (41HE22) has a Late Caddo period Frankston phase component (ca. A.D. 1400-1650) in the upper Neches River basin that was marked by a well-preserved midden deposit with numerous ceramic vessel sherds, animal bones, and mussel shell fragments. It was found in 1957 during the rst survey of Blackburn Crossing Reservoir, later Lake Palestine (Johnson 1961). When SMU returned to the site in they unfortunately did no work in the midden deposits or habitation areas that would have been in proximity to the midden. The location of the site suggests that it is now underwater at the lake.
The ceramic sherd assemblage from the Wollard #2 site is consistent with the upper Neches River basin Caddo ceramic tradition (Perttula 2011:315-318) that dates from ca. A.D. 1320-1700+. In this tradition, ceramics are (1) almost exclusively grog-tempered; (2) brushed utility ware pottery from Bullard Brushed vessels dominates the decorated sherd assemblages; (3) ne ware sherds are primarily from varieties of Poynor Engraved before ca. A.D. 1650 and Patton Engraved varieties after ca. A.D. 1650; and (4) plain to decorated sherd ratios (P/DR) range from only 0.14-1.50, with most of the sites having P/DR values less than 0.72; the P/DR of the Wollard #2 assemblage is 1.16. Caddo sites of this tradition did not have many plain ware vessels. The Wollard #2 site occupation by Caddo peoples likely dates primarily from the late 15th century A.D. to the mid-16th century, in the Frankston phase, based on the occurrence of several de ned varieties of Poynor Engraved as well as the very high proportion of brushed utility ware sherds in the assemblage. The presence of two Spradley Brushed-Incised and Lindsey Grooved body sherds in the assemblage suggests that the Wollard #2 site may also have been occupied after ca. A.D. 1650. These utility ware types have been found in Caddo sites in the Neches-Angelina River basins in post-A.D. 1650 Allen phase components.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I appreciate the assistance of Jonathan Jarvis at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin for providing access to the records and collections from the W. T. Robinson Farm site. Lance Trask prepared the gures in this article.