Documentation of Ceramic Vessels from an Early Caddo Period Feature at the Boxed Spring Site (41UR30) Site, Upshur County, Texas

The Boxed Spring site (41UR30) is an ancestral Caddo mound center of apparent Early Caddo age (ca. A.D. 900-1200) on the Sabine River, situated on an upland landform a short distance upstream from the Sabine River’s confluence with Big Sandy Creek (Figure 1). The site is located in the modern East Texas Pineywoods, and is estimated to cover approximately 48 acres of a large and prominent upland ridge projection. There are four mounds (A-D) at the site arranged around an open area or central plaza, and there were several habitation areas to the north and south of the sets of mounds. Mounds C and D are low structural mounds (i.e., mounds built over dismantled and destroyed house structures) with prepared clay floors at the southeastern and southwestern ends of the open area or plaza. Mound C was 10.7 x 13.4 m in size. Mound D had a 45 cm thick zone of sand as mound fill over a prepared clay floor to a structure. Mound A was a burial mound about 12 x 8 x 2 m in length, width, and height at the northwestern plaza edge, and Mound B was a flat-topped mound of unknown function at the northeastern end of the plaza.


INTRODUCTION
The Boxed Spring site (41UR30) is an ancestral Caddo mound center of apparent Early Caddo age (ca. A.D. 900-1200) on the Sabine River, situated on an upland landform a short distance upstream from the Sabine River s con uence ith Big Sandy Cree ( igure 1). The site is located in the modern East Texas ineywoods, and is estimated to cover approximately 48 acres of a large and prominent upland ridge projection. There are four mounds (A-D) at the site arranged around an open area or central pla a, and there were several habitation areas to the north and south of the sets of mounds ( Figure 2). Mounds C and D are low structural mounds (i.e., mounds built over dismantled and destroyed house structures) with prepared clay oors at the southeastern and southwestern ends of the open area or pla a. Mound C was 10. x 13.4 m in si e. Mound D had a 4 cm thic one of sand as mound ll over a prepared clay oor to a structure. Mound A was a burial mound about 12 x 8 x 2 m in length, width, and height at the northwestern pla a edge, and Mound B was a at-topped mound of un nown function at the northeastern end of the pla a ( erttula 2011).

Context of the Ceramic Vessels
Excavations in Mound A in 1962 by Sam Whiteside uncovered a large central tomb feature. When the mound ll (a gray sandy loam) was removed with a tractor blade, a rectangular patch of brown clay was exposed just below the mound surface, followed by a poorly preserved burial (Burial 1) about 0.9 m bs in the central part of the mound. This feature consisted of a charcoal stain and fragments of human bone, some of which were charred (suggesting they were cremated bone), as well as a human molar. A large celt made from a Ouachita Mountains lithic raw material was recovered while troweling the burial feature (Figure 3), as well as a mano (Perttula and Wilson 2000:39 and Figures 6 and 11). Continued excavations eventually exposed a large circular ring or berm of clay near the base of the mound (see Figure 3), beginning about 0.9-1.2 m below the surface. This ring of red sandy clay was 0.6 m in width and 16 cm thic , and mar ed a berm around a large clay-and sand-lled pit. The top of the berm was between 0.6-1.2 m below the top of the mound. The pit was 3.8 x 4.1 m at the top and narrowed to 3.2 x 3.5 m at the bottom, and had rounded corners and slightly sloping walls. The upper and central portions of the pit had a white sandy ll, with the remainder of the ll and berm grading from a red sandy clay to a very dense red clay just above the oor. The pit oor was covered with a 2.5-5 cm thic lens of bluish-gray clay (Figure 4), probably obtained by the Caddo from Pleistocene alluvial deposits along the Sabine River.
The Burial 2 pit feature at Boxed Springs had three sets of tooth enamel along the eastern side of the pit, but no other human remains were preserved in the feature ( Figure 5). The broad spacing of the sets of tooth enamel suggests that the pit contained the bodies of three individuals that were laid out east-west, with the head facing west. The majority of the funerary objects placed on the oor of the burial pit were along the north side of the feature, north of the third set of tooth enamel, although three of the clusters of arrow points were in the central and southern parts of the feature, and one ceramic vessel (Vessel 5, a plain carinated bowl) was near the eastern pit wall ( Figure 5).
Funerary objects placed in Burial 2 to accompany these three Caddo individuals on their journey to the afterlife included two large chipped stone bifaces made from non-local cherts, ve ground stone celts, two polished stones, a ferruginous sandstone tool (possibly a saw), four clusters of arrow points, and eight ceramic vessels (V.1 to V.8) (Perttula and Wilson 2000:Figures 9-19). The arrow point clusters together included 100 points, mainly of the Alba type, made from both local uart ite and cherts as well as from other cherts from Ouachita Mountains or Red River gravel sources. Vessels 1 and 2 are plain bottles, Vessel 5 is a plain carinated bowl, and Vessels 6-8 are plain beakers. Vessel 4 is a small Spiro Engraved beaker. Vessel 3 is a 13 cm tall everted rim jar with a pinched ridge-decorated body and a oned incised-circular punctated decoration on the rim.  These vessels and other funerary offerings from Burial 2 at the Boxed Spring site were donated to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) in January 1986 by Sam Whiteside, the excavator of the burial feature. We were able to formally document the eight vessels at TARL in September 2014.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Excavations in 1962 of one of the ancestral Caddo mounds at the Early Caddo period Boxed Spring site (41UR30) uncovered a large tomb (Burial 2) with multiple individuals. Among the funerary offerings placed with these individuals were eight ceramic vessels that we have documented in this article; these vessels were subsequently donated to the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin in 1986.
The vessels include two plain bottles, a plain carinated bowl, three plain beakers (Boxed Springs Plain), a Hollyknowe Ridged jar, and a Spiro Engraved beaker; the common occurrence of beakers in Burial 2 is notable. Similar beakers of the Holly Fine Engraved and Spiro Engraved types have been recovered from the Crenshaw and Spiro sites in Southwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, respectively (see Suhm and Jelks 1962:Plates 40f and 74i). Other engraved beakers of the Hickory Engraved, Holly Fine Engraved, and Spiro Engraved types have been recovered from burials in the large community cemetery at the Boxed Spring site (Perttula 2011:Figures A4.88, A4.93, and A4.104-105), along with one plain beaker (Perttula 2011: Figure A4.110).
The beakers from Burial 2 at the Boxed Spring site were manufactured by master Caddo potters, with either exquisite ne line decoration or well-prepared vessel formation. The rims on the four beakers range from only 2.7-3.9 mm in thickness and body thickness ranges from only 3.3-3.8 mm. We suspect that these vessels were manufactured for a special purpose, likely to hold unknown and uncommon liquid concoctions.