Documentation of Artifacts from Sam Whiteside Collection from Sites in the Sabine and Neches River Basins, Upshur, Smith, and Cherokee Counties, Texas

Cite this Record Perttula, Timothy K. (2016) "Documentation of Artifacts from Sam Whiteside Collection from Sites in the Sabine and Neches River Basins, Upshur, Smith, and Cherokee Counties, Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2016, Article 18. https://doi.org/ 10.21112/.ita.2016.1.18 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2016/iss1/18


Introduction
Sam Whiteside was an active avocational archaeologist in East Texas in the 1950s and early 1960s, and investigated a number of important ancestral Caddo sites in Smith and Upshur counties (Walters 2004:119-120). Much of his collection of artifacts and notes has been donated to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas, and there have been several published studies 2000). In this article, I document select collections that have recently become available for study from sites in the Sabine and Neches River basin in Upshur, Smith, and Cherokee counties.

Boxed Springs
The Boxed Springs site (41UR30) is an Early Caddo period (ca. A.D. 900-1200) multiple mound center and village on terrace and upland landforms immediately adjacent to the Sabine River, and just Whiteside conducted excavations in Mound A and Mound D, and the one artifact from the collection documented here is from Burial 1 in Mound A (Perttula and Wilson 2000:39). Burial 1 "consisted of a charcoal stain and fragments of human bone…some of which were charred, as well as a human molar, all in the eastern part of the mound." The one Burial 1 artifact documented herein (specimen no. 17) is a large biface, or small sword (cf. Shafer 2011:89-90 and Figure 44) (Figure 1). The biface is made from a dark grayish-brown and brown chert, possibly Woodford chert from the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma or from a Censource area; in any case, the artifact is not made from a local Sabine River chert source. The biface has a straight base, parallel edges to past its mid-length, where the edges converge to the tip (see Figure 1). It has been bifacially knapped and sharpened, and the edges are not smoothed. There is evidence of apparent surface smoothing on both faces. Shafer (personal communication, November 29, 2015) suggests that the technology of the biface "looks more Archaic, but as we know from the Davis tombs, the early Caddo often picked up and recycled artifacts."

Bryan Hardy
The Bryan Hardy site (41SM55) is an ancestral Caddo site of Middle Caddo period age on Ray Creek in the Sabine River basin (Walters and Haskins 2000;Whiteside 1959). The one available calibrated radiocarbon date of A.D. 1297-1391 was obtained on a charred post from House 1 (Walters and Haskins 2000:4).
During Mr. Whiteside's 1958 excavations, in  The handles have four vertical rows of either are also two 8 mm diameter appliqued nodes on the top of the two handles. Walters and Haskins (2000:25) suggest that this vessel "is probably a trade" from a Middle Caddo period Sanders phase group on the Red River. with hatched lines, concentric semi-circles and small ovals, or a triangle element with hatched corners. Several of these elements are present on Frankston phase vessels that represent regional varieties of Poynor Engraved (see Perttula 2011: Figure 6-65), but not in the particular unique combination of rectangular panels and engraved decorative elements noted on this vessel from the Bryan Hardy site. It is likely that this vessel represents a stylistic precursor to post-A.D. 1400 Poynor Engraved vessels made in the upper Neches River basin.

PIGMENT USE AND LOCATION ON VESSEL: none
In addition to two ceramic vessels, Burial 1 (likely that of an infant) at the Bryan Hardy site had a rather unique ceramic dipper or spoon funerary offering (Walters and Haskins 2000:7). Burial 1 was alongside the northeastern wall of House 2 (Walters and Haskins 2000: Figure 5), and in addition to the ceramic dipper or spoon were two ceramic vessels: a plain bowl and tempered with grog and burned bone pieces, is 69.6 mm in length and a maximum of 17.1 mm in width; the dipper or spoon has a rounded handle (Figure 4) that is 10.3 mm in width at its end. The opening of the

41CE39
Neches River, now under the waters of Lake Palestine (see Johnson 1961:231 and Figure 1). Recovered artifacts from the site during survey investigations indicate that it had a Woodland period component, marked by a Gary dart point (Johnson 1961:Figure 2l), and an ancestral Caddo component of Late Caddo (75.2 percent) as well as a brushed-other wet paste sherd ratio of 3.70 (Johnson 1961:231) suggests that the Caddo component dates to the latest Frankston phase, from ca. A.D. 1560-1680 (Perttula and Walters 2016: Table 22).
The sole artifact I have documented from 41CE39 is a light gray Pontchartrain dart point ( Figure 5). The point has a narrow straight stem, a slightly convex base, and small downward-pointing barbs. It is 117.0 mm in length, 43.0 mm in width, 8.6 mm thick, and has a stem width of 14.9 mm. According to Turner et al. (2011:153), Pontchartrain points date from ca. 2000 B.C. to A.D. 500, encompassing most of the Late Archaic period and much of the Woodland period in East Texas.

Indian Creek
The exact provenience in Smith County of the one ancestral Caddo vessel from Indian Creek is not ters the Neches River in what is now the very northern end of Lake Palestine (Johnson 1961: Figure 1). Since Sam Whiteside was an active participant in the Lake Palestine survey (Johnson 1961:215;Walters 2004:119), it is likely that this vessel is from an unrecorded Caddo site in the Lake Palestine area of East Texas.  Table 6-37). They are most common, however, in ca. A.D. 1480-1560 contexts in the upper Neches River basin.

Summary and Conclusions
Sam Whiteside was an active avocational archaeologist in East Texas in the 1950s and early 1960s, and he conducted important investigations at Caddo sites in Smith, Upshur, and Cherokee counties. The majority of the collections and records Whiteside obtained from these sites have been donated to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin, but recently (November 2015) a few undocumented artifacts from the Whiteside collection became available for study, thanks to Mark Walters and Dr. James B. Whiteside.
The documented artifacts are from the Boxed Springs (41UR30) and Bryan Hardy (41SM55) sites in the Sabine River basin, and from 41CE39 and the Indian Creek locality in the Neches River basin. The oldest artifact in this portion of the Whiteside collection, dating either to the Late Archaic or Woodland periods, is a light gray Pontchartrain dart point from 41CE39. The other documented artifacts are from ancestral Caddo contexts, including a chert biface or small sword from an Early Caddo period burial at the Boxed Springs site, two vessels (an incised-punctated jar from Burial 2 and an engraved carinated bowl from Burial 3) and a ceramic dipper-spoon (from Burial 1) from a 14 th century A.D. Middle Caddo period occupation at the Bryan Hardy site, and a Late Caddo period Frankston phase carinated bowl with engraved decorative elements that compare favorably to Poynor Engraved, var. Blackburn from the Indian Creek locality.