Analysis of the Recovered Artifacts from the Controlled Surface Collection at the Peach Orchard Site (41CE477), Cherokee County, Texas

Repository Citation Perttula, Timothy K. and Stingley, Kevin (2016) "Analysis of the Recovered Artifacts from the Controlled Surface Collection at the Peach Orchard Site (41CE477), Cherokee County, Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2016 , Article 16. https://doi.org/ 10.21112/.ita.2016.1.16 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2016/iss1/16


Introduction
The Peach Orchard site is one of several historic Caddo archaeological sites recently recorded by Kevin Stingley in the Bowles Creek drainage in the middle Neches River basin in Cherokee County, Texas (Perttula et al. 2016: Figure 1). The Peach Orchard site had been exposed in erosion along a county road that bisects the southern end of the upland landform, while the remainder of the landform owner decided to shallowly plow the site area to improve its grass cover, and this plowing provided an opportunity to complete a surface collection of the site area from November to December 2015.

Initial Artifact Assemblage Collected from the Peach Orchard Site
A small surface collection at the Peach Orchard site had 71 ceramic sherds, mostly from utility ware percent of the assemblage. The small ceramic sherd assemblage from the site was almost entirely from grog-tempered vessels (95.8 percent), especially including the utility wares. Bone-tempered sherds were elements. More than 94 percent of the utility ware sherds from the site had brushed decorative elements, including horizontal brushing marks on the rim of utility ware jars and opposed, overlapping, and vertical brushing marks on the vessel body (Perttula et al. 2016:Table 11). One rim had a row of tool punctations below the vessel lip that had been pushed through the brushing. One of the utility ware sherds was from a Lindsey Grooved vessel, and two others had either incised or incised-punctated decorative elements.
The small sherd collection from the Peach Orchard site had a very low plain to decorated sherd ratio (0.18), and many brushed sherds compared to plain ware sherds (4.73:1). There also were not many other wet paste sherds in the ceramic assemblage from the site compared to sherds from brushed vessels, based on the brushed to other wet paste sherd ratio of 13.0.
Finally, there was one blue shell-edged whiteware rim sherd in the collection from the site. It had an even or regular scalloped rim with straight impressed lines. Such vessels were produced between ca. 1800 and 1840 (Hunter and Miller 2009:13), suggesting it may be associated with an early 19 th century use or occupation of the site, either by a Caddo Indian group, or an early Anglo-American settler.

Controlled Surface Collection and Distribution of Recovered Artifacts
grid of 21 10 x 10 m units (numbered 1-21) was laid out over the known surface spatial distribution of ancestral Caddo ceramic sherds (Figures 2 and 3); the extent of buried archaeological deposits has not yet been ascertained, but at least one shovel test will be excavated within each of the 10 x 10 m units. The grid is oriented north-south (6 degrees), with a datum point in the southeast corner of the grid. Based on the distribution of the major categories (i.e., total sherds, and distribution of utility ware all categories of Caddo artifacts is in a 700 square meter area in the central and eastern part of the surface collection grid (Figure 4). The density of all ceramic vessel sherds ranges from 52-197 per 10 x 10 m unit ( Figure 5), with a mean density of 100.0 sherds per collection unit, and a mean density of 1.0 sherd per square meter across the collected grid.   ( Figure 10) within the core artifact density area of the surface collection grid (see Figure 4). It is suspected that these artifacts were discarded within or very near an ancestral Caddo house structure at the Peach Orchard site. The two pieces of burned clay occur in two 10 x 10 m units in the northern part of the grid ( Figure 10). collection grid.
A total of 12 chipped stone tools were recovered in the surface collection units at the Peach Orchard site ( Figure 11). More than 83 percent of these tools come from the core artifact density of the surface pieces of lithic debris were recovered in the surface collection ( Figure 12), with a range of 1-12 pieces per unit; the mean density of the lithic debris is 3.1 pieces per 10 x 10 m unit. About 68 percent of the lithic debris are from the core artifact density area of the surface collection grid (see Figure 4). Finally, a small number of mid-19 th to early 20 th century historic artifacts (n=14) were recovered from the surface collection grid at the Peach Orchard site ( Figure 13). About 71 percent of these artifacts are from the core artifact density of the surface collection grid (see Figure 4), but they are not associated with the ancestral Caddo occupation at the site.

Ceramic Sherds
A total of 2102 ceramic vessel sherds are in the surface-collected artifact assemblage. These sherds ware sherds comprise about 65 percent of the sherds, the plain ware sherds represent 29 percent of the sherds are from bone-tempered vessels, and the remaining sherds (98.6 percent) are from grog-tempered wares (1.6 percent). The overall low proportion of bone-tempered sherds is consistent with Historic Neche cluster assemblages in the Neches River basin (Perttula 2016: Figure 13. Density of mid-19 th to early 20 th century historic artifacts in each 10 x 10 m collection unit. The utility wares from the Peach Orchard site are dominated by sherds from vessels with brushing marks on the rim and body (Table 2); based on the 10+ mm thickness of many of the body sherds, the brushed vessels were large jars with a 4-5+ gallon holding capacity. The sherds with just brushed decorative elements (n=1206) comprise more than 80 percent of all the decorated sherds in the assemblage, and more than 88 percent of the utility ware sherds. These sherds are from Bullard Brushed jars with horizontal brushing on the rim and primarily vertical brushing on the vessel bodies; about 1 percent of the brushing on vessel bodies had either opposed or overlapping brushing marks. Another 42 sherds (3.1 percent of the utility wares) have brushing elements in association with either appliqued ridges, incised lines, pinching, or punctations. Those sherds (n=10) with parallel brushing marks and overlying opposed incised lines, parallel brushing and overlying intersecting lines, and parallel brushing marks and overlying parallel lines are from Spradley Brushed-Incised jars. This type 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).

Appliqued
Other utility wares in the Peach Orchard ceramic assemblage include Bullard Brushed jar sherds (n=17) with tool punctated rows pushed through the brushing marks on either the rim or the vessel body, as well as Maydelle Incised jar sherds with diagonal or diagonal opposed incised lines on the vessel rim (see Table 2). There are also 22 sherds from Lindsey Grooved jars. 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. Lindsey Grooved vessels also occur in conjunction with appliqued, brushed, incised, or punctated elements, as they do in the Peach Orchard assemblage (see Table 2), typically either at the rim-body juncture or on the vessel body.
Three rim or body sherds are from La Rue Neck Banded jars (see Table 2). This utility ware is present in both Late Caddo Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 1400-1680) and Historic Caddo Allen phase components in the Neches and Angelina River basins.
ity ware types in the Neches River basin. k), the key ceramic type found in Historic Caddo sites in the Neches and Angelina river basins. The rim sherds with a horizontal engraved line beneath the lip that has tick marks (n=7), as well as body sherds or tick marks, are likely from Patton Engraved, var. Allen vessels (Perttula 2011: Figure 6-66a) or Patton Engraved, var. Fair vessels with widely-spaced horizontal engraved lines with tick marks (Perttula 2011: Figure 6-66d). The sherds with curvilinear or circular elements (n=8) and tick marks are from Patton Engraved, var. Freeman and var. Fair vessels; the circles with tick marks are a characteristic decorative element on Patton Engraved, var. Fair vessels (Perttula 2011: Figure 6-  Several engraved sherds have hatched zones, either rectilinear or curvilinear in shape (see Figure  15b-c, e); these may be from unrecognized regional varieties of Poynor Engraved (see Perttula 2011:Figure 6-65). Another engraved sherd has a 2011: Figure 6-64). Finally, one Keno Trailed sherd, likely from a bowl, with curvilinear trailed lines is in

Ceramic Pipe Sherds, Burned Clay, and Clay Coil
from an elbow pipe; the rim is 3.9 mm thick. The second grog-tempered elbow pipe sherd (from Unit Figure 14. Decorative elements on Patton Engraved rim and body sherds from the Peach Orchard site: a-b, Unit 2; c, Unit 5; d, Unit 6; e-f, Unit 8; g, Unit 9; h. Unit 10; i, Unit 12; j, Unit 14; k, Unit 20. 13) is part of the distal knob of the basal stem; there are two horizontal incised lines on the stem. This 2011: Figure 6-23). The two burned clay pieces may represent remnants of a hearth or earth oven, while the clay coil fragment (36.0 mm in length and 16.9 mm in diameter) is the burned residue of pottery manufacture at the site.

Chipped Stone Tools
The surface-collected assemblage of chipped tools includes two dart point fragments, an arrow point ( a Woodland period Gary point-was made from a non-local gray novaculite. The nearest source for such raw material would be the gravels of the Red River, well to the north of the site. The chipped stone tools likely associated with the Allen phase component at the Peach Orchard site are all made from non-local cherts (see Table 4), probably obtained from Central Texas Edwards Plateau chert sources, or perhaps as gravels in the Neches River (cf. Girard 1995). The honey-colored chert or "beeswax" chert is a distinctive Edwards Plateau raw material (Miller 2008:27).
The one arrow point tip in Unit 12 is unifacial with a serrated edge; the blade is 4.4 mm thick. The (n=3) or two (n=1) edges. Utilized edges range from 11.2-21.0+ mm in length.
Formally-hafted scrapers are relatively common tools on Allen phase sites (Perttula et al. 2010:39), as they are at the Peach Orchard site, suggesting that the butchering and processing of large game animals was an important activity during the Historic Caddo occupation. The generally small size of the end (n=2) and side (n=2) scrapers also suggests that the focus of Caddo butchering and processing activities was on medium-sized prey that was being hunted, such as deer.

Lithic Debris, Core Fragment, and Fire-Cracked Rock
The lithic debris from the surface-collected units at the Peach Orchard site includes various colors of chert (n=25, 37 percent of the assemblage), single pieces of novaculite and Manning Fused glass (n=2, The chert raw materials are from non-local sources, obtained perhaps from chert sources in the Edwards Plateau, while the novaculite sources are in the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas, but this material can be found in Red River stream gravels. The Manning Fused Glass is a distinctive fused volcanic glass found in the Manning Formation in East and Southeast Texas (Brown 1976: Figure 3), about 80 km from the Peach Orchard site. A number of ancestral Caddo sites in East Texas have tools and lithic debris of Manning Fused Glass (Brown 1976:196-199), including the Allen phase component at the Deshazo site (41NA27) in the Angelina River basin.

Animal Bones
A few pieces of animal bone were recovered from the surface collection grid at the Peach Orchard site. This includes one unburned bone in Surface Collection Unit 8, two unburned bones in Surface Collection Unit 9, and a single burned bone in Surface Collection Unit 14. The bones are distributed within the core artifact density of the surface collection grid (see Figure 4), and are likely associated with the ancestral Caddo occupation at the site.

Mid-19 th to Early 20 th Century Historic Artifacts
The 14 historic artifacts recovered from the surface collection grid at the Peach Orchard site include stoneware sherds (n=6), plain and decorated whiteware sherds (n=4), and bottle glass sherds (n=4) ( Table  6). The few mid-19 th century historic materials in the collection are represented by the one annular slipbanded whiteware sherd from Surface Collection Unit 8 and the four sherds of dark green and green bottle glass from intoxicant containers (wine, whiskey, or brandy).

Isolated Dart Point Find
A single isolated dart point was recovered on the surface of the landform, ca. 70-100 m north of the northern part of the surface collection grid. The point compares favorably in stem and base shape, as well as its small downward-pointing barbs, to the Bulverde point. This point type may date from ca. 3500-4400 years B.P.-at least in Central Texas (see Collins et al. 2011)-in the earlier part of the Late Archaic in East Texas. The point is made from a non-local brownish-gray chert, and is 57.0+ mm in length, 33.8 mm in width, 6.0 mm thick, and has an 18.8 mm stem width.

Summary and Conclusions
In November and December 2015, a controlled surface collection of 2100 square meters of a shal-Neches River. During the course of the surface collection, more than 2100 ancestral Caddo sherds were collection from 21 10 x 10 m grid units, along with two ceramic elbow pipe sherds, 12 chipped stone tools (including one Woodland period dart point fragment), 67 pieces of lithic debris and a core fragment, as well as a small amount of mid-19 th to early 20 th century artifacts (i.e., stoneware and whiteware sherds and bottle glass sherds); no European trade goods were recovered in the controlled surface collection. The Caddo cultural materials occur throughout the 2100 square meter collection area, but the core area with the highest densities of artifacts covers a 700 square meter area in the central part of the site. It is suspected that this core spatial area likely represents one or two contemporaneous Historic Caddo house-Peach Orchard site.
The ceramic vessel sherd assemblage from the Peach Orchard site is represented almost excluthe surface collection units, utility ware sherds from Bullard Brushed vessels account for more than 83 percent of the decorated sherds, and other utility wares include low proportions of sherds from Maydelle from the Peach Orchard site are dominated by sherds from several varieties of Patton Engraved vessels, a few sherds of King Engraved and Mayhew Rectilinear, one Poynor Engraved sherd, as well as one Keno Trailed bowl sherd.
both Group I and Group IIA-B assemblages, as they are dominated by sherds from Bullard Brushed and Patton Engraved vessels (Table 7). The Peach Orchard site is included in Group I of the Neche Cluster of sites. Also ubiquitous in the Group I and IIA assemblages are sherds from Lindsey Grooved vessels. Poynor Engraved sherds are present in low numbers in Group I and IIA assemblages, as are La Rue Neck Banded sherds, while King Engraved sherds are present in only the Group I and IIA assemblages on blages (Table 7). The Neche cluster of ceramic vessel sherd assemblages includes several Allen phase Historic Caddo sites on Bowles Creek and the Neches River (41CE291). These components have high proportions of brushed sherds and high ratios of brushed sherds to other wet paste sherds (Table 8). These assemblages are also almost exclusively comprised of grog-tempered vessels, but differences between the sites in the proportion of bone-tempered vessels (either as the sole temper or in combination with grog) suggest that two contemporaneous groups of Allen phase sites are present in the Neche cluster that had different ceramic technological practices. These two groups (I and IIA) also are notably different in brushed to plain sherd ratios when compared to the ceramic sherd assemblage at 41CE291 (Table 8), where there are many punctated sherds relative to brushed sherds in the assemblage.

Group
In conclusion, the ancestral Caddo sherd collection from the Peach Orchard site strongly suggests that it was the location of a post-A.D. 1680 Historic Caddo settlement, probably a settlement by the type in the Neches River basin, are common in the Peach Orchard site assemblage, and other aspects of the ceramic assemblage are consistent with Neche cluster sites. Perhaps the Peach Orchard site is one of the settlements occupied by a Neches or Nechas Caddo group around the time of the late 17 th -early 18 th century Spanish colonization of the middle reaches of the Neches River, but before sustained French trading activities, when several missions were established in this general locale: Mission San Francisco de los Tejas (1690-1693), Mission El Santisimo de Nombre Maria (1690-1692), and Mission Nuestra Padre de San Francisco de Tejas or los Nechas (1716)(1717)(1718)(1719)(1721)(1722)(1723)(1724)(1725)(1726)(1727)(1728)(1729)(1730).