The Frank Murphy Farm Site (41AN48), Anderson County, Texas

American


INTRODUCTION
The Frank Murphy Farm site (41AN48) is a Late Caddo period, Frankston phase occupation in the upper Neches River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods (Figure 1). The site was investigated by University of Texas (UT) archaeologists in 1935 (Jackson 1935).

41AN48 SITE INVESTIGATIONS
This ancestral Caddo site was situated on the edge of a sandy upland landform in the Boggy Creek Neches River, about 3.2 miles to the east of the site.
According to Jackson (1935), the landowner had reported plowing up a ceramic bottle from the site, which had a well-preserved midden deposit. The midden covered a ca. 9 x 6 m area, with deposits that reached to ca. 46-51 cm bs. Jackson (1935) noted that ceramic sherds and animal bones were common in the midden, especially between 0-25 cm; mussel shells were also present in the midden.

ARTIFACT ASSEMBLAGE
The Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) collections from the Frank Murphy Farm site include 479 ceramic sherds, parts of two elbow pipes with incised line decorative elements, and a clay coil.

Ceramic Sherds and Vessel Sections
All of the analyzed sherds from the Frank Murphy Farm site are from grog-tempered vessels (Table 1).
This does not include 293 brushed body sherds that are listed on the TARL inventory forms from the site, but were not examined for this article. The absence of sherds from bone-tempered vessels is consistent with a Late Caddo period upper Neches River basin ceramic tradition site (Perttula 2011:301). Including the brushed body sherds listed in the TARL inventory, of the 380 decorated sherds, about 82 percent (n=307) have brushed decorative elements ( Table 2). The plain to decorated sherd ratio is a low 0.26. The combination of high proportions of brushed sherds and a low plain to decorated sherd ratio suggests the ancestral Caddo occupation at the Frank Murphy site was late in the Frankston phase, likely after A.D. 1560 (see Perttula 2011:  The many brushed sherds from the midden deposits are from Bullard Brushed jars. So too are the brushed-incised, brushed-pinched, and brushed-punctated sherds in the assemblage (Figure 2). The one brushed-pinched sherd is a jar rim with horizontal brushing; the strap handle attached to the rim is decorated with three pinched ridges. Another rim with a vertical attached handle is decorated with rows of circular punctations on one side of the handle (see Table 2). One plain rim sherd has an appliqued lug handle. Two The grooved sherds are from Lindsey Grooved vessels (see Marceaux 2011), a utility ware type found in the upper Neches and Angelina River basins on Caddo sites thought to date after ca. A.D. 1680. Other utility ware types represented in the Frank Murphy Farm ceramic assemblage includes a vertically incised Maydelle Incised rim and six rim and body sherds from La Rue Neck Banded jars (see Table 2).
Poynor Engraved, var. Hood (see Perttula 2011: Figure 6-64e) globular carinated bowl (Figure 3). The second vessel section is also from a grog-tempered globular carinated bowl, but this vessel section has only a horizontal engraved line at the carination. The third vessel section is from a possible Hume Engraved, var. Allen (see Perttula 2011: Figure 6-66g) absent the vertical cross-hatched panels. It has three horizontal engraved lines along the upper vessel body, and the lowermost horizontal engraved has large excised pendant triangles. percent) decorative elements (Table 3) The six Poynor Engraved, var. Hood sherds have horizontal engraved rim panels divided by a series of cross-hatched brackets (Figure 5a-c). The Poynor Engraved, var. Cook sherds (n=27, or 67.5 percent of the engraved sherds in the assemblage) have sets of curvilinear to vertical arcing lines (usually three lines) forming ovals on the rim panel (Figure 6a-d). One of the var. Cook carinated bowl rim sherds has horizontal brushing marks on the vessel body (Figure 6d).     (Jackson 1935). The pipe stem has three horizontal incised lines. The stem Figure 6. Poynor Engraved, var. Cook rim sherds from the Frank Murphy Farm site.

Other Clay Artifacts
The one remaining clay artifact in the artifact assemblage is a 98 x 22 mm long and wide clay coil. The clay has two roughly incised lines encircling one end of the coil. Jackson (1935) noted the clay coil was recovered from ca. 25 cm in the midden deposits.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The Frank Murphy Farm site (41AN48) is an ancestral Caddo settlement marked by a well-preserved midden deposit along Boggy Creek, a tributary to the Neches River in the upper Neches River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods. University of Texas archaeologists excavated in the midden deposits in 1935 and recovered an assemblage of Caddo ceramic sherds and elbow pipe fragments (from a variety of elbow pipe that was manufactured between ca. A.D. 1400-1650 in the river basin).
The ceramic assemblage from the site is dominated by sherds from brushed utility ware vessels, as well var. Cook and var. Hood carinated bowls and a Hume Engraved bottle. Seriation analysis of ceramic vessels from burial features in upper Neches River basin Caddo sites suggests that the Frank Murphy Farm site was occupied after ca. A.D. 1480. This is based on the indication that Hume Engraved bottles were not made until after ca. A.D. 1480, and that both varieties of Poynor Engraved are by far most common in sub-phase 2 of the Frankston phase, from ca. A.D. 1480-1560 (Perttula 2011:268 and Table 6-37). Nevertheless, both Poynor Engraved varieties continued to be made in sub-phase 3 (ca. A.D. 1560-1650) of the Frankston phase, which would be consistent with the occurrence of a few Lindsey Grooved sherds in the utility wares, along with the high proportion of brushed sherds among all the decorated sherds and the very low (0.26) plain to decorated sherd ratio.