The Caddo Archaeological Record in the Saline Creek and County Line Creek Valleys in Cherokee and Smith Counties, Texas

Repository Citation Perttula, Timothy K.; Nelson, Bo; and Walters, Mark (2016) "The Caddo Archaeological Record in the Saline Creek and County Line Creek Valleys in Cherokee and Smith Counties, Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2016 , Article 25. https://doi.org/ 10.21112/.ita.2016.1.25 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2016/iss1/25

The great majority of the known ancestral Caddo sites in the Saline Creek and County Line Creek valleys are situated near, but east and upstream from the saline prairie (see Figure 2), in areas with fresh creek water and water supplied by springs that originated in artesian a uifers exposed by the uplifted salt dome. Woldert ( 2 ) noted years ago that he had found much ndian (i.e., Caddo) pottery sherds . miles west of the saline, as well as mile east and 2 miles southeast of the saline. There appear to have been distinct communities in both creek valleys. As will be discussed in more detail below, almost all of the Caddo sites in these two creek valleys were occupied by sedentary Caddo families after ca. A. .
. These families and communities were farmers with a diet more dependent upon domesticated plants especially mai e and beans than was the case before ca. A. . .

William Sherman (41CE30)
The William Sherman site is one of a number of ancestral Caddo sites situated in upland landforms ca. . -km south of County Line Creek ( Figure ). The site had rst been found by amateur archaeologists who dug in the years between -a large area in the approximate center of a midden deposit, recovering a large sample of ceramic sherds (n ), four ceramic spindle whorls, ceramic pipe sherds, Perdi arrow points, ve perforated shell tools, three celt fragments, bone tools (Anderson et al. Figure ), and an unknown uantity of animal bone and mussel shell (Anderson et al. ).
Southern ethodist niversity (S ) archaeologists formally recorded the site in (Anderson 2 ), and noted that it was located on a low knoll in the uplands, or possibly on an alluvial fan, west of a tributary stream that ows north into County Line Creek (see Figure ). idden deposits there   Figure ).
had sherds, animal bone, and mussel shells. Next, a x m area was controlled surface-collected, and units (ca. 2 x 2 m in si e) were excavated within the surface collection grid (Anderson et al. Figure ). According to Anderson ( 2 -), of the sherds found at the William Sherman site during the survey, percent of the sherds had brushed decorative elements. There were also Poynor Engraved sherds (n ), La Rue Neck Banded sherds (n ), sherds with incised decorative elements (n ), ngernail (n ) and tool punctated (n ) sherds, and illough Pinched sherds (n ). The plain to decorated sherd ratio in the surface-collected assemblage is . .
No features were identi ed in the S work, but Anderson et al. ( ) suggest that the excavations were in the area of Caddo midden and possibly two house deposits. Recovered in the SMU work, including the survey, were ceramic sherds, six ceramic pipe sherds, seven pieces of daub, one biface, ve arrow points (Perdi ), 2 pieces of lithic debris (mostly of gray or tan chert), and 2 . grams of mussel shell. Among the ceramic sherds were a number of Poynor Engraved sherds (Figure a-e) from ne ware vessels, and a rim sherd from an ef gy vessel, as well as sherds from Bullard Brushed, Maydelle ncised, and La Rue Neck Banded utility ware vessels (Figure a-f). Anderson et al. ( and Figure  77h) describe a sherd found at the William Sherman site from a bowl with incised-punctated pedestal legs. ilmore ( 7 and Table ) described the ceramic pipe sherds from the site as coming from elbow pipes with aring bowls, some of which had the characteristic distal knob on the stem common in Frankston phase elbow pipes. Three of the pipe sherds had incised decorative elements, including triangles, hatched lines, and parallel lines on the distal knob.  The proportion of brushed sherds in the total decorated sherd assemblage at the William Sherman site 7 . percent as well as the percentage of wet paste decorated sherds ( .2 percent), a plain to decorated sherd ratio of . , and a brushed wet paste sherd ratio of . , along with the many Poynor Engraved vessels, suggests that the ancestral Caddo occupation took place late in the Frankston phase. This occupation likely occurred between ca. A. . -.

41CE77
This ancestral Caddo site of unknown age and character was located on a knoll on an upland slope, near a tributary to County Line Creek (see Figure ). Ceramic sherds were noted on the surface over a x m area, but no details are provided in Anderson ( 72 Table ) about the character of the sherds.

41CE78
SMU archaeologists identi ed this site in a cleared and plowed eld on an upland landform south of the William Sherman site (see Figure 3), and west of an intermittent tributary to County Line Creek. Ceramic sherds and lithic debris were noted to cover a ca.
x 3 m area of the landform. The small sample of sherds from the site (n 7) were either plain (n 2) or had brushed decorative elements (n ).

41CE79
CE7 was located on an upland slope (see Figure 3), and its si e was estimated at ca.
x m by the SMU archaeologists. Lithic debris and ceramic sherds were noted on the surface. The ceramic sherds (n ) were plain (n ), brushed (n ), incised (n ), or engraved (n 3), including one Poynor Engraved sherd this indicates that CE7 likely has a Late Caddo period Frankston phase occupation. The sherds were from vessels tempered with grog (n 2) or grog and bone (n 3).

41CE80
This ancestral Caddo site was located at the edge of an upland ridge landform (see Figure 3) that had outcrops of ferruginous sandstone boulders. The site covered an estimated 7 x m area. The few recovered sherds from CE were plain (n ), brushed (n ), or had incised decorative elements (n 2).

Woldert (41SM43)
TARL records indicate that this site (also spelled Waldert in the les at TARL), was on the farm of noted historian Dr. Albert Woldert. The site had ancestral Caddo burials, and can be considered a Caddo cemetery, as several ceramic vessels were reported to have been excavated here prior to the late 3 s. t is near Brooks Saline.

Rasco (41SM48)
The Rasco site is apparently located in the upper reaches of County Line Creek (see Figure 2). Prior to the late 3 s, skeletal remains and ceramic vessels had reportedly been dug up from ancestral Caddo burials on the farm of M. M. Rasco. Although UT archaeologists recorded the site, the site was not investigated by them, and no archaeologists have apparently ever visited the site.

Joe Meyer Estate #1 (41SM73)
The oe Meyer Estate site ( SM73) is an ancestral Caddo settlement and cemetery on an upland landform west of Saline Creek, a southern-owing tributary of the Neches River in the upper Neches River basin (see Figure 2). n the spring of 7 members of the East Texas Archeological Society (ETAS see Walters 2 ), including ohn Mulligan, Sam Whiteside, Derrell Sanders, and owell Proctor, had located the site and commenced excavations. The site had substantial midden deposits as well as Caddo burial features.

W. A. Davis and E. Mott Davis of The University of Texas visited the site in April
7, took notes on the burial features and associated funerary offerings, and obtained a surface collection of artifacts. The summer of 7, LeRoy ohnson, r. visited the site and obtained a large surface collection of artifacts (n ) as part of a broader survey of Blackburn Crossing Reservoir (now Lake Palestine) on the Neches River ( ohnson 2 -22 ). n December 7, E. Mott Davis visited the site again, at which time ETAS members had excavated two test pits (A and B) in the midden deposits. n une eorge egley and Dan Witter returned to the site, and made a small surface collection. They also noted that at least 2 Caddo burials (some, if not all, of apparent post-A.D. age based on the nding of Poynor Engraved vessels) had been excavated in -7 in another cemetery at the site one of the main excavators of this cemetery was William "Red" McFarland of Whitehouse, Texas, a well known East Texas digger this same cemetery may have also been explored by Buddy ones and ETAS members some years before, where two burials were excavated . Finally, in August and March 7 , archaeologists from Southern Methodist University (SMU) returned to the oe Meyer Estate site as part of a more intensive survey of proposed Lake Palestine (see Anderson 72). A large assemblage of ceramic sherds (n ) was collected from the surface of the site as part of this survey (Anderson 72 Table ). About percent of the decorated sherds in this assemblage were from brushed jars (Anderson 72 Table 3), suggesting the sherds were collected from a Late Caddo occupation area, probably an occupation dating to the 7 th century given the very high proportion of brushed sherds in the decorated sherd assemblage (Perttula et al. 2 ). The oe Meyer Estate site was not one of the sites selected for excavation by SMU before construction of the reservoir (Anderson et al. 7 ), likely because the site was not to be inundated by the reservoir ood pool (see Anderson 72 Figure ). There have been no professional archaeological investigations at the site since 7 .
The oe Meyer Estate site covers about 3-acres of an upland ridge on the west side of Saline Creek, overlooking the creek oodplain and creek channel (Figure ) Saline Creek is a southern-owing tributary of the Neches River. The site is marked by a midden deposit between -cm in thickness, with abundant sherds, animal bones, and pieces of mussel shell. In one part of the midden, seven ancestral Caddo burial features dating to the Early Caddo period (ca. A.D.
-2 ) were identi ed and excavated (Burials -and Multiple Burial ). Funerary offerings were present with each of the burial features, and the ETAS work in 7 had also uncovered a Late Caddo period (ca. A.D. -) Poynor Engraved vessel from an undisclosed location within the site. This nd may be the rst evidence that there was also a Lake Caddo period Frankston phase cemetery on the site, and this cemetery was apparently excavated in the s (see above).
Six of the burial features at the oe Meyer Estate site are individual burials (Burials -) placed in a single north-south row in an extended supine position with the head of the deceased facing generally west (Burials -) or northwest (Burial ) (Figure 7). The area excavated to exposed the burial features was ca. m (north-south) x m (east-west) in si e. These burials lay in the lowest part of the midden deposits, from ca. -2 cm bs. Funerary offerings with the burials included 2 ceramic vessels between one to four vessels per burial one of the vessels (unfortunately, which vessel is not known) contained a green clay pigment and mussel shells.
The multiple burial west of Burials and (see Figure 7) had four individuals laid out in an extended supine position, with their heads facing west. The multiple burial was in the upper part of the midden, with a bottom depth of only ca. cm bs. Based simply on depth of this burial feature and the likelihood that the burial pit encountered and disturbed Burials and (see Figure 7), it is probable that the multiple burial was the latest burial feature in this cemetery. Funerary offerings included three ceramic vessels.
The artifact assemblage from the oe Meyer Estate site includes ceramic vessels or portions of vessels from the Early Caddo period burial features, 2 ceramic sherds from midden deposits on the site, one Red River long-stemmed pipe sherd, and two Woodland period dart points.
The ceramic vessels or portions of vessels in the burial features include bottles (n ), jars (n 2), bowls (n ), and carinated bowls (n 3) (Figure and Table ). Most of the vessels are plain ( 7 percent), but those that are decorated include a Canton Incised bowl in Burial 4 (Figure 8f), a carinated bowl in Burial 3 with a reworked rim that has alternating series of ovals with excised and cross-hatched engraved ones (Figure ), a bottle in Burial with short and widely-spaced pinched ridges on its body (Figure 8h    With the exception of the Hickory Engraved bottle from the Multiple Burial (see Figure 8l), the vessels from the Early Caddo cemetery are small in si e, with heights ranging from only . -2. cm and ori ce diameters ranging between 7. -. cm. None of the vessels would have held more than liter of contents. Vessels are tempered with grog (n 3), grog and bone (n 3), and bone (n 7) the use of burned bone as a temper is apparently considerable in the vessels when compared to the vessel sherds from the midden, as ohnson had noted on 9 7 inventory forms that grog was the most common temper and that bone temper was rare (see below).
In addition to these vessels from Early Caddo burial contexts, it is known that there were Late Caddo Frankston phase burial features excavated in another cemetery at the oe Meyer Estate site. The only ceramic vessel from the Frankston phase burials that can be de nitively identi ed as coming from the site is a grog-tempered Poynor Engraved, var. Cook carinated bowl in the Bernie Ward collection (Perttula et al. 2 9 , -2 and Figure ) (see below).
A sample of 82 ceramic sherds have been collected from the oe Meyer Estate site from a series of surface collections by different universities as well as in stratigraphic tests excavated by Sam Whiteside of the ETAS (Table 2). These sherds include plain wares (n 489, 9. percent of the assemblage), utility wares (m 3 4, 38.3 percent), and ne wares (n 7, 2. percent). The sherds are primarily from vessels tempered with grog (79 percent) or bone (2 percent), based on an examination of 9 9 UT and 9 9 97 SMU collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). includes both rim and body sherds Of the sherds with decorative elements (n 33 ), most are from utility ware vessels with punctated (33. percent of the decorated sherds), brushed (32. percent), and incised (27. Table 2). Other utility wares in the assemblage have brushed-incised ( .2 percent), brushed-punctated (n . percent, Figure a), and incised-punctated ( .3 percent) decorative elements.
Fine wares comprise only .2 percent of the decorated sherds in the assemblage, primarily sherds with engraved (4.2 percent) designs the remainder of the ne wares have slipped ( .3 percent) and trailed ( . percent) decorative elements (see Table 2).
Recogni ed types in the decorated sherds from the Joe Meyer Estate site include Bullard Brushed, Canton Incised, Davis Incised, Dunkin Incised, Weches Fingernail Impressed, Hickory Engraved, Holly Fine Engraved, and Poynor Engraved (see Table 2). Sherds in John Mulligan's collection included those from Davis Incised, Canton Incised, Crockett Curvilinear Incised, and Holly Fine Engraved vessels. With the exception of the Bullard Brushed and Poynor Engraved sherds, which are apparently from Frankston phase habitation areas, the remainder of the identi able ceramic types in the sherd assemblage are from a ca. A.D. 9 -2 Early Caddo occupation that was contemporaneous with the known burial features (see Figure 7).
A single pre-A.D. 4 Red River long-stemmed ceramic pipe stem sherd (see Hoffman 9 7) was reported from Strat. Test 4 excavated by Whiteside (TARL inventory sheets). No other details about the pipe stem are available.
There is a small ary dart point ( uart ite) and a gray chalcedony ent dart point in the collections from the Joe Meyer Estate site. These dart points indicate that there was some use of the site landform in Woodland period times (ca. B.C. to A.D. 8 ).
In summary, the Joe Meyer Estate site is located on an upland ridge overlooking the Saline Creek oodplain, in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. It was primarily investigated by the East Texas Archeological Society in 9 7, but professional archaeologists also visited the site in 9 7, 9 9, and 97 as part of large-scale investigations at then proposed Lake Palestine.
While rst used by aboriginal peoples sometime during the Woodland period, the principal occupation of the Joe Meyer Estate site was by ancestral Caddo peoples. The occupation was intensive, as a large and relatively thick midden deposit accumulated on the landform, and it is likely that there are house structural features preserved in the archaeological deposits here. The sherds recovered from the midden deposits are primarily from an Early Caddo period occupation marked by Canton Incised, Davis Incised, Dunkin Incised, and Weches Fingernail Impressed utility ware vessels and Hickory Engraved and Holly Fine Engraved ne ware vessels. There also are Late Caddo period Frankston phase ceramics in the assemblage-including Bullard Brushed and Poynor Engraved-that indicate a second ancestral Caddo occupation at the site, one that took place after ca. A.D. 4 .
In one area of the midden was a rare Early Caddo period (ca. A.D. 9 -2 ) cemetery with single individual burials and one multiple burial with four individuals. Almost all of the known Caddo cemeteries in the upper Neches River basin date to after ca. . The multiple burial may have been the latest internment in the cemetery based on its shallow depth in the midden and its position relative to the single row of six individual interments. These burials were oriented generally east-west, with the heads of the deceased facing west towards the House of Death in the Sky (see . The burials were accompanied by ceramic vessels, between one and four vessels per burial, with an average of 2. vessels per burial. One vessel in one of the burials contained a green clay pigment mass and mussel shells. In addition to the Early Caddo period cemetery, there was also a Late Caddo Frankston phase cemetery at the Joe Meyer Estate site that may have contained 2 individuals. Unfortunately, very little information is known about this cemetery, and it apparently was excavated by individuals not af liated with the East Texas Archeological Society. However, this cemetery was likely contemporaneous with a Frankston phase settlement that is indicated by the recovery of Bullard Brushed and Poynor Engraved sherds in the ceramic assemblage from the site's midden. The one documented Frankston phase vessel from the Joe Meyer Estate site is in the Bernie Ward collection (Perttula et al. 2 9 ). Poynor Engraved, var. Cook vessels are present in burials dating to all three sub-phases of the Frankston phase, but are more common in contexts dating between ca. A.D. 4 - (Perttula 2 Figure ).

41SM76
This ancestral Caddo site is located "on a low hill adjacent to the west oodplain of Saline Creek" (Johnson 9 :223), likely a terrace ca. m west of the creek. The site was cultivated at the time of Johnson's survey, and was estimated to cover about 2 acres Buddy Calvin Jones had told Johnson of the site. The material culture remains from the site included a Late Archaic Yarbrough point and 92 ceramic sherds from an apparent Late Caddo period Frankston phase occupation. The plain to decorated sherd ratio of the surface collection assemblage is . , with 99 plain sherds, 2 sherds with brushed decorative elements, incised rim and body sherds (including sherds from Maydelle Incised vessels), eight ngernail punctated sherds, and ve engraved sherds from ne ware vessels two other sherds had what was described on TARL inventory forms as a white slip 7 percent of the decorated sherds have brushed decorative elements. Johnson ( 9 :224) noted that the midden deposits, with preserved deer bones, at the site extended to ca. 7 cm bs.
The TARL collection of sherds from the site includes 7 plain rim, body, and base sherds, utility ware rim and body sherds, and six ne ware rim and body sherds most of the brushed sherds were not available for analysis. These are from grog-(93. percent) and bone-( . percent) tempered vessels.
The utility wares include sherds with parallel brushed (n ), incised (n 3), incised-punctated (n ), ngernail punctated (n 2), and tool punctated (n 4) decorative elements. the brushed sherds are from Bullard Brushed sherds, and are apparently part of the Frankston phase component at the site. The other utility wares-and the ne wares-appear to be from a ca. A.D.
-2 occupation at this Saline Creek site, and are likely related to the Early Caddo settlement at the adjacent Joe Meyers Estate site (cf. Johnson 9 :223). They are comprised of a Dunkin Incised lower rim and upper body sherd with cross-hatched and diagonal opposed incised lines (Figure 2a), a Crockett Curvilinear Incised body sherd (Figure 2b), and two Weches Fingernail Impressed, var. Alto (Stokes and Woodring 98 : 8 ) sherds. Two rim and two body sherds have horizontal rows of tool punctations.
The most distinctive of the ne ware sherds are two grog-tempered body sherds with Holly Fine Engraved decorative elements. One of these sherds has a semi-circular excised area, above which are concentric semi-circular engraved lines (see Figure 2c see also Suhm and Jelks 9 2:Plate 39h). the other has sets of diagonal opposed engraved lines (see Figure 2d). The remaining ne ware sherds include a rim with diagonal engraved lines, a bottle sherd with closely-spaced curvilinear engraved lines (this sherd may be from either a Holly Fine Engraved or Spiro Engraved vessel), and body sherds with either opposed engraved lines or a single engraved line.

Vanderpool (41SM77)
The Vanderpool site, also referred to by Buddy Calvin Jones as the FIN site in Smith County, is on Saline Creek in the Neches River basin in the southwestern part of the county, in the western part of the East Texas Pineywoods (see Figure 2). It is known that a Mr. Wallace and a Mr. Vanderpool excavated two burials at the site in 9 7 (Johnson 9 :224), and both these individuals dug at the Saline Creek site in 9 with Jones (see below). Johnson ( 9 ) noted that the two burials had contained Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 4 -) ceramic vessels, 4 Perdiz arrow points, a celt, and one large chipped stone knive. The vessels included two Poynor Engraved carinated bowls, a Poynor Engraved bowl, three Hood Engraved ef gy bowls, a plain bowl, and three bottles (one plain, and the other two Hume Engraved and Poynor Engraved bottles).
According to Jones' notes, a total of ve burials were excavated at the Vanderpool site (Burials -). However, his notes only concern Burials , 3-, and even these notes are not extensive. Burials 3 and 4 were oriented east-west and were close together, and Burial was more than 3 m to the south. His notes for Burial 3 indicate that the deceased Caddo individual was placed in a grave that was 7 cm in depth, 7 cm in width, and 2 3 cm in length. The burial ll was a lightly-colored sandy soil, indicating that Burial 3 had not been placed in a midden deposit.
Jones' burial pottery catalogue for the Vanderpool site lists a total of 34 ceramic vessels in four of the burials: two ceramic vessels as associated funerary offerings in Burial , 4 ceramic vessels in Burial 3, 2 vessels in Burial 4, and six ceramic vessels in Burial . This is a mean of 8. ceramic vessels per burial in the cemetery.

Burial 1
There is one ceramic vessel in the Vanderpool site collections from Burial , although Jones' burial pottery catalogue lists two (SC and SC 2): Burial 3 is that of an adult placed in an extended supine position with its head at the eastern end of the grave, and facing west ( Figure 4). The many vessels in the grave were apparently placed in rows along both side of the body, from the head down to the feet. Two distinctive engraved jars (FIN S and S ) were by the head and the left shoulder, while two bottles were placed by the right shoulder. A mixture of bowls and jars were along what would have been the body mid-section and the legs. The locations of the glass beads, ceramic pipe, and arrow point within the grave pit are not known, as they were not depicted on Jones' burial drawing (see Figure 4).
Thirteen of the 4 ceramic vessels that had been placed in Burial 3 are in the Vanderpool site collections at the Gregg County Historical Museum. The one missing vessel is FIN S8, which is described in Jones' burial pottery catalogue as a " uadrapod pot." This may mean a vessel with four rim peaks.

Ceramic Pipe
A keeled ceramic elbow pipe (2 3. 8. 2 , SC 4/ ) was also placed in Burial 3 as a funerary offering. The pipe is tempered with grog and has a sandy paste. It is .2 mm in length and 3 . mm in width. The bowl is 4. mm in height, with a 3 .8 mm ori ce diameter. The exterior diameter of the stem is 28.7 mm, and it is 7. mm in thickness. The pipe stem is decorated with a series of hatched ovals and triangles ( Figure 28). This form of decorated elbow pipe is previously undocumented in upper Neches River basin Caddo sites (see .

Glass Beads
A large number of small (less than 3 mm in diameter) drawn glass beads of European manufacture were among the Burial 3 funerary offerings. These include 782 white beads, 34 blue beads, and 48 red Cornaline d'Aleppo beads with dark gray interiors ( Figure 29).

Arrow point
Also accompanying Burial 3 is a straight-stemmed arrow point made from a local heat-treated uartzite. The blade is lightly serrated, and the barbs are s uared and prominent (Figure 3 ).

Burial 4
There is very little information available about Burial 4 in the Jones' notes. This essentially only includes a rough plan map showing its location parallel to Burial 3, with the same east-west orientation, and an accompanying sketch showing the placement of the 2 vessels in the grave. The vessels were placed along what would have been the right side of the body along the leg, in the body mid-section, and around the shoulders, and what would have been the left side of the head. The drawing does not indicate which vessel is which in the grave.
Eleven of the 2 ceramic vessels inventoried for Burial 4 in the Jones burial pottery catalogue remain in the Vanderpool site collection at the Gregg County Historical Museum. The one missing vessel is FIN S 7, described as an ef gy vessel.

Burial 5
Burial was that of an adult individual placed on their back in an extended supine position, likely facing west (Figure 42), with the pit extending into the red clay B-horizon portions of the cranium and long bones were preserved in the grave. There were six ceramic vessels placed in the grave as funerary offerings, most along the right side of the body from the head to the lower right foot, and one large carinated bowl had been placed by the left foot. Other funerary offerings included in Burial -although not identi ed in the Gregg County Historical Museum collections from the Vanderpool site-include a large chipped biface by the upper left arm, and two Perdiz arrow points (Figure 42).   When UT archaeologists recorded the site in 9 7, they collected a small number of grog and/or bonetempered Caddo sherds there. These included ve plain sherds, two with brushed decorative elements, and one sherd with incised decorative elements. In 9 9, SMU archaeologists that revisited the site collected 24 sherds: nine plain, brushed, three with incised decorative elements, and one untyped engraved sherd .
Lastly, Selden et al. (2 4) completed 3D digital scanning of 27 vessels from the Vanderpool site. A geometric morphometric analysis of the vessels indicates there are three forms of jars, two forms of bottles, two forms of carinated bowls, and four bowl forms (Selden et al. 2 4:Figure ) in the mortuary assemblage.

41SM78
This site is on a terrace east of Saline Creek, and Caddo ceramic sherds were noted in 9 7 over a ca. 4. acre cultivated eld. The few recovered ceramics indicate that 4 SM78 was occupied during the Frankston phase (Johnson 9 :224): two plain sherds, four brushed sherds, and one Killough Pinched sherd. Buddy Jones, L. A. Wallace, and Ray Vanderpool told Johnson about the site.

41SM79
According to Johnson ( 9 :224), this is a large Caddo site, covering 3 acres of a low hill or ridge slope overlooking the oodplain of County Line Creek this creek is a westward-owing tributary of Saline Creek. The recovered ceramic sherds (n=99) and one celt fragment, including those from Bullard Brushed (n=2), Maydelle Incised (n= ), and Poynor Engraved (n=4) vessels, indicate that the ancestral Caddo occupation likely took place during the Frankston phase there were also four sherds with punctated decorative elements. Sam Whiteside had told Johnson about the site. A single unidenti ed dart point fragment suggests that 4 SM79 was also used during either Archaic or Woodland period times.
The collection of artifacts at TARL from the 9 7 archaeological survey reported by Johnson ( 9 ) has both lithic and ceramic artifacts. The lithic artifacts associated with the Caddo settlement at 4 SM79 are a grayish-green siltstone celt fragment from a Ouachita Mountains/Red River gravels source and a unifacial uartzite Perdiz arrow point. The ceramic assemblage includes plain (n=7 ), utility (n= 3), and ne (n=8) ware sherds. Over 92 percent of the sherds are from grog-tempered vessels another . percent are from bonetempered vessels and 2.2 percent are from grog-bone-tempered vessels.
About 3 percent of the utility wares are from Bullard Brushed vessels, including one body sherd with circular punctations pushed through the brushing. Five body sherds have either ngernail (n= ) or tool (n=4) punctated rows. Among the sherds with incised decorative elements are two rim sherds with cross-hatched incised lines, another rim sherd with diagonal incised lines, and a body sherd with a single straight incised line.
The most distinctive of the ne ware sherds is a grog-tempered Poynor Engraved, var. un ec ed body sherd with two closely-spaced horizontal engraved lines and a large hatched pendant triangle or triangle element. The other ne ware sherds in the 4 SM79 collection are body sherds with diagonal engraved lines (n= ), curvilinear engraved lines (n=3), parallel engraved lines (n= ), a single straight engraved line (n= ), and a body sherd with a single straight trailed line.

41SM80
4 SM8 is a Frankston phase settlement "on a low hill or terrace" adjacent to and just above the Saline Creek oodplain (Johnson 9 :22 ) the creek is ca. 7 m to the east. The plotting of the site location on a USGS 7. ' topographic map indicates that the site is on an upland slope The small sample of grog and bonetempered sherds (n=24) from the site includes eight Bullard Brushed sherds and plain sherds.

41SM81
This site was estimated by Johnson ( 9 :22 ) to cover ca. 3-acres of an eroded upland landform just east of the Saline Creek oodplain. The recovery of ve grog-tempered Bullard Brushed sherds suggests the site was occupied by Caddo peoples during the Frankston phase.

41SM82
4 SM82 is "on a low, at hill above the western oodplain of Saline Creek" (Johnson 9 :22 ), about m west of the creek. The site covers ca. 2 acres of a cotton eld on the upland ridge landform, and when recorded had a midden deposit that was ca. 44 cm in thickness. In addition to one Perdiz arrow point (Johnson 9 : Figure 2c), the ceramic assemblage (both grog and bone-tempered) from a surface collection (n= 9 sherds) included sherds from Bullard Brushed (n= ), Maydelle Incised (n= ), and Poynor Engraved (n= ) vessels. These sherds indicate that the site was occupied during the Frankston phase. Darrell Sanders and Sam Whiteside had told Johnson of the site.

41SM83
This site also has a Frankston phase component (ca. acre in size) that is located on a low hill about 2 m west of the Saline Creek oodplain (Johnson 9 :22 ). Both Bullard Brushed (n= ) and Maydelle Incised (n=9) sherds were identi ed in the site's small grog or bone-tempered ceramic sherd assemblage (n=3 ). Southern Methodist University (SMU) visited the site in 97 and noted one arrow point preform and ceramic sherds over a ca.
x 3 m area of the landform. The sherds included plain (n= 9), brushed (n=29), and two with incised decorative elements . These sherds were primarily from grog-tempered vessels.

41SM84
4 SM84 is an ancestral Caddo occupation of unknown, but likely Frankston phase age that is located on a natural rise (covering ca. . acres) in a cultivated eld just north of the Saline Creek oodplain (Johnson 9 :22 ). Only four plain sherds, six brushed sherds and an unidenti ed engraved sherd were found during the initial Lake Palestine survey.

41SM92
Little is known about the archaeological character of 4 SM92. Johnson ( 9 :23 ) noted that the site was on a terrace landform across the Saline Creek oodplain from the Joe Meyer Estate site (4 SM73), and was reported by Ray Vanderpool and L. A. Wallace to have considerable amounts of ceramic artifacts on the surface. The site was not revisited during the 9 9-97 Lake Palestine survey by SMU archaeologists.

41SM93
This ancestral Caddo site is on a natural rise, among a series of small rises or knolls, on the north side of County Line Creek. The site is both a habitation site as well as a cemetery. Red McFarland had excavated four ancestral Caddo burials of Frankston phase age here sometime before October 97 .
The burials were in extended supine position, with their heads facing to the southwest. Three of the burials had funerary offerings, including 2 ceramic vessels and three Perdiz arrow points. Among the vessels were four Hood Engraved ef gy bowls, two Poynor Engraved bowls or carinated bowls, a possible Taylor Engraved bottle, two Bullard Brushed jars, a Killough Pinched jar, and a plain jar and a plain bowl. The Poynor Engraved vessel in Burial was a var. Cook vessel while the Poynor Engraved vessel in Burial 3 was a var. Hood carinated bowl (see Perttula 2 : Figure -4).

41SM103
This site is primarily a 9 th century salt-making factory recorded by SMU archaeologists (see Skinner 97 ), but there are ancestral Caddo habitation deposits of unknown age on it that underlie the salt factory remains. It is situated on a natural rise in the Saline Creek oodplain, in the Saline Prairie (see Figure 2).

41SM104
This site also has 9 th century salt factory remains on a terrace landform in the saline prairie oodplain, near the con uence of Saline Creek and County Line Creek (see Figure 2). However, Caddo ceramic sherds of an unknown age were noted on the site, and included sherds with punctated (n= ), incised-punctated (n= ), and engraved (n= ) decorative elements.

41SM108
The ancestral Caddo occupation at this site is on the crest of an upland landform in the Saline Creek valley. SMU archaeologists estimated that the site covered a ca. 8 x m area of the landform, and they collected 2 grog and grog-bone-tempered sherds during their survey. The sherds were plain (n= 4), brushed (n= ), and engraved (n= ).

41SM113
Little is known of this ancestral Caddo site recorded by SMU. It was described as being located along the southern bank of Saline Creek. One plain grog-tempered sherd was noted on the surface by SMU archaeologists.

SM
is a Frankston phase Caddo settlement on an upland landform east of an intermittent tributary that ows north to Saline Creek (see Figure 2). SMU archaeologists reported that one ancestral Caddo burial was dug at the site by Red McFarland's uncle ca. 9 no information is available about the burial or its associated funerary offerings.
SMU archaeologists noted that the site, which covered a ca.
x m area (ca. .2 acres), had a heavy concentration of ceramic sherds on the surface. A total of 4 sherds were collected, 98 percent from grog-tempered vessels: 42 plain, with brushed decorative elements, one punctated sherd, six sherds with incised decorative elements, and four engraved sherds two sherds were identi ed as coming from Poynor Engraved vessels .

41SM117
SMU archaeologists identi ed this Frankston phase site on the crest of an upland landform on the west side of an intermittent tributary to Saline Creek. Ceramic sherds and mussel shell fragments were noted over a ca. 4 x 2 m area. The ancestral Caddo sherds (n= ) included plain sherds (n=8), brushed sherds (n=3), one incised sherd, one ngernail punctated sherd, and two engraved sherds one of the engraved sherds was from a Poynor Engraved vessel with a hatched triangle motif on the rim panel.

41SM118
This Caddo site was located on an upland slope landform on the south side of an intermittent tributary to Saline Creek (see Figure 2). The small site (estimated at 3 x m in size) had grog and grog-bone-tempered sherds, including 2 plain sherds, 2 brushed sherds, one incised sherds, and two engraved sherds, including one Poynor Engraved vessel sherd. The high proportion of brushed sherds in the assemblage, along with the Poynor Engraved ne ware sherd, indicates that 4 SM 8 was occupied during the Frankston phase.

41SM120
4 SM 2 is located on an upland landform east of an intermittent tributary to Saline Creek (see Figure  2). The site, whose size was undetermined by SMU archaeologists, appears to have had preserved midden deposits based on the preservation of animal bones and mussel shell fragments on the surface. A small sample of likely Late Caddo period ceramic vessel sherds were collected from the site, including four plain sherd, eight brushed sherds, and one incised sherd .

41SM122
This ancestral Caddo site is on a low upland ridge slope along a northward-owing tributary to Saline Creek its size was not determined. A few Caddo grog-tempered sherds were noted on the surface by SMU archaeologists, including two plain sherds and two brushed sherds.

41SM123
4 SM 23 is a small ancestral Caddo site of Late Caddo period, Frankston phase age on an terrace landform in the Saline Creek valley, east of the creek. Ceramic sherds were found on the surface by SMU archaeologists over a ca. 3 x 3 m area of the landform, and these grog-tempered sherds included nine plain sherds, 8 brushed sherds, three tool punctated sherds, one La Rue Neck Banded sherd, and one Poynor Engraved, var. Cook carinated bowl sherd.

41SM124
This is an ancestral Caddo site of Frankston phase age on an eroded upland landform along a tributary stream to Saline Creek (see Figure 2). SMU archaeologists collected 72 ceramic sherds from the site, among them 48 plain sherds, 2 Bullard Brushed sherds, three incised sherds, and one sherd with tool punctations.

41SM126
4 SM 2 is located on an upland ridge between two small streams, including Frock Run, a southward-owing tributary to Saline Creek in the Saline Creek valley. The site is estimated to cover a ca.

41SM127
Only a small (ca. x m) surface scatter of ancestral Caddo ceramic sherds was noted by SMU archaeologists at 4 SM 27. The sherds were along an upland ridge slope overlooking a small intermittent stream that ows into Frick Creek, a southward-owing tributary to Saline Creek. The 8 ceramic sherds include plain sherds and eight brushed sherds.

41SM129
This Frankston phase Caddo site is on upland landform ca. .9 km north and west of Saline Creek (see Figure 2), near the Neches River oodplain. SMU archaeologists noted only a small scatter ( x 3 m) of ceramic sherds on the surface. The sherds included four plain and three Poynor Engraved vessel sherds .

Cedar Bay (41SM151)
The Cedar Bay site (4 SM ) is an ancestral Caddo cemetery and habitation area on a knoll north of County Line Creek the habitation area is ca. m from the cemetery. Red McFarland, a local collector, Ray Moseley, and Jimmy Cohagan dug two burials at the cemetery: one burial supposedly had four individuals and the other had three individuals, but it is possible that these burials actually represent seven distinct burial pits in an area about x 2 m in size. Funerary offerings included 2 ceramic vessels (including two Hood Engraved ef gy vessels and a Bullard Brushed jar), 8 Perdiz arrow points, one Jowell knive, one celt, and one ceramic elbow pipe.

William Sherman Burial (41SM158)
The William Sherman Burial site is an ancestral Caddo cemetery of Frankston phase age on a terrace landform south of County Line Creek. Four Caddo burials had been excavated at the site by either Red McFarland or Charlie Stevens they were in one north-south row in extended supine position with their heads facing west.
The four burials had a total of 9 ceramic vessels, and these had been placed in the burials as funerary offerings. Among the identi ed vessels were those of the Poynor Engraved and Maydelle Incised types, as well as bottles, bowls, and a bowl that had horizontal engraved lines with large triangular elements on the lines this vessel is likely a Poynor Engraved, var. C vessel (see Perttula 2 : Figure -). One of the plain bowls had a scalloped lip.

Cedar Bay (41SM249)
There are vessels from three Late Caddo period, Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 4 -), burials at 4 SM249 (see . These burials were excavated in March 97 by J. A. Walters. One of the burials was described as being in an extended supine position with the head facing to the southwest ceramic vessels were placed as funerary offerings around the head and the left shoulder. The burial pit oors lay between -7 cm bs.
This site is located in the upper Neches River basin, on a lower upland slope near and north of County Line creek in the Lake Palestine area but upstream from the lake itself (see Figure 2). The vessels include plain bowls (n=2), bottles (n= ), and carinated bowls (n= ), Bullard Brushed (n= ), a brushed-punctated jar (n= ), Poynor Engraved, var. Blackburn (n= ), Poynor Engraved, var. un ec ed (n= ), a Hood Engraved, var. Hood ef gy vessel (n= ), and a uni ue punctated bottle (n= ). Poynor Engraved, var. Blackburn and Hood Engraved, var. Hood vessels are present in burials dating to each of the three sub-phases of the Frankston phase, but they are most common in contexts thought to date from ca. A.D. 4 -(Perttula 2 : Table -

Trant (41SM468)
The Trant site is an ancestral Caddo cemetery where numerous burials, likely of Frankston phase age, were excavated during the 97 s by local collector Red McFarland. The burials contained ceramic vessels and arrow points as funerary offerings. The site was located on an upland ridge north and west of Saline Creek.

Saline Creek Site
The Saline Creek site is a previously undocumented, but still unrecorded, Late Caddo, Frankston phase cemetery on Saline Creek in Smith County, Texas, that was excavated by Buddy Jones, Ray Vanderpool, L. A. Wallace, and Bill Cox in November 9 . Its exact location is not known, but it is likely to have been located very near the Vanderpool site (4 SM77), also on Saline Creek upstream from the upper part of the Lake Palestine ood pool along the creek (see Figure 2). Burials and 2 were excavated at the site in 9 , which was in a cotton eld along the west side of Saline Creek (Figure 9). No vessels or other funerary offerings from the two burials have been identied in the Gregg County Museum collections from the site, but burial and vessel drawings are available, and these materials form the basis of our documentation. The two burials were in pits that were oriented northwest-southeast, likely with the head of the deceased at the southeast end of the pit, facing northwest. Both burial pits extended a short distance into the underlying B-horizon clay.
Burial had six ceramic vessels placed along the body of the deceased, from the skull area to the lower legs the human remains were very fragmentary. Based on vessel drawings, these vessels included a Poynor Engraved cylindrical bottle, two Hood Engraved, var. Hood ef gy bowls, two broken carinated bowls of uncertain decoration, and a large Poynor Engraved, var. Hood carinated bowl along what would have been the lower legs (Figure ).
Amidst the ceramic vessel funerary offerings were several stone tools. These were a large ovalshaped biface, a ground stone celt, and a tight cluster of eight Perdiz arrow points. The points and the celt may have been inside a leather pouch when they were placed in the grave. Burial 2 had ve ceramic vessels as funerary offerings. By the head of the deceased were a longnecked bottle, a plain everted rim jar, and a cylindrical Hume Engraved bottle (Figure ). Near the lower legs and feet were a small Killough Pinched jar and a Hood Engraved, var. Hood ef gy bowl. Eight Perdiz arrow points were scattered along and above the body of the deceased. Near the upper part of the burial, above the head area, was a charcoal concentration (Figure ), suggesting that a re had been built and maintained in the grave after it had been partially lled in.
The occurrence of Hood Engraved, var. Hood ef gy bowls, a Hume Engraved bottle, and a Poynor Engraved, var. Hood carinated bowl from the two burials-along with the Killough Pinched jar-con rm that the burials are from a Frankston phase cemetery. The engraved ne wares suggest that the cemetery was in use between ca. A. D. 48 -(Perttula 2 : Table -37).

Summary and Conclusions
Since the early 93 s, a total of 38 ancestral Caddo sites have been identi ed and recorded in the Saline Creek and County Line Creek valleys of the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. It is likely that this represents only a very small proportion of the total number of Caddo sites once present in these two valleys, as it is clear these valleys were heavily settled at certain times by Caddo peoples.  In general, almost all of the Saline Creek and County Line Creek Caddo sites have archaeological materials that date after A.D. 4 , during the Frankston phase, as 23 of the ancestral Caddo sites date to the Late Caddo period. Another six sites have components that can only be dated to a period after ca. A.D. 2 -2 , when brushed utility ware ceramic vessels began to be made and used by Caddo groups in the upper Neches River basin. Nine sites in the Saline Creek basin were settled by Caddo peoples, but not enough archaeological information is available to indicate when these settlements occurred. The Joe Meyer Estate site (4 SM73) has a major Early Caddo period component (ca. A.D. -2 ) with habitation and cemetery features, and there is also an Early Caddo period settlement at nearby 4 SM7 . This temporal data suggests an initial Caddo settlement of the Saline Creek valley between ca. A.D. -2 , followed by ca. 2 years of little use, and then a resettlement of the Saline and County Line creek valleys by Caddo farmers after ca. A.D. 4 . Eight of the 3 Caddo cemeteries known in the Saline and County Line creek valleys were used as burial grounds during the Frankston phase, and three others likely also date their use by Caddo groups to this same period. These farmers remained in the two valleys until the late 7 th -early 8 th century, but most of the Caddo population had left the valleys by ca. A.D. 8 .
There is one burial (Burial 3) at the Vanderpool site (4 SM77) that has European trade goods ( 8 glass beads) and Patton Engraved ceramic vessels that indicate this interment dates to the late 7 th -early 8 th century, during the post-A.D. Allen phase. This burial is one of a relatively low number of upper Neches River basin sites that have European trade goods found together with Caddo archaeological material remains, either found in burial associations  or from habitation contexts (Perttula and Nelson 2 7 Walters and Perttula 2 2), and thus they document contact between the Caddo groups living in this region and European traders.
The seriation of ne ware vessels in the upper Neches River basin by Perttula (2 : Table - 48 -contexts, and Var. E is present in cemeteries that date from ca. A.D. 48 -. In summary, the material culture remains (including mortuary vessels) from the known ancestral Caddo sites in the Saline Creek valley are evidence of ancestral Caddo use of this region for at least a 7 year period, from ca. A.D.
-2 and ca. A.D. 4 to the early 8 th century. Their principal use was after ca. A.D. 48 .
In addition to the Caddo settlement and use of the Saline Creek valley for many hundreds of years, the valley was also settled for a short time by the Cherokee Indians. In particular, Chief Bowles of the Cherokee was reported to have lived near the Neches Saline from 837 to as late as October 838 (Woldert 923: 8 ,2 3). His residence was ca. .7 miles east of the saline. No archaeological remains of Cherokee Indian sites have as yet been found in the Saline Creek valley.