Archaeological Investigations at the Wade (GC-38) and Estes (GC-49) Sites in the Sabine River Basin, Gregg County, Texas

Repository Citation Perttula, Timothy K.; Selden, Robert Z. Jr.; and Nelson, Bo (2014) "Archaeological Investigations at the Wade (GC-38) and Estes (GC-49) Sites in the Sabine River Basin, Gregg County, Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2014 , Article 46. https://doi.org/ 10.21112/.ita.2014.1.46 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2014/iss1/46


INTRODUCTION
Buddy C. Jones conducted extensive archaeological investigations in the 1950s and 1960s at many sites in the mid-Sabine River basin of East Texas, especially on Caddo sites of various ages in Gregg, Harrison, and Rusk counties. However, that work has not illuminated our understanding of the archaeology of the Caddo Indian peoples that lived along this stretch of the Sabine River as much as it could have, primarily because little of the work completed by Jones was ever published (see Jones 1957Jones , 1968. or the results and findings shared with professional and avocational archaeological colleagues working in the region. The Caddo archaeology of the Gregg County stretch of the Sabine River, in particular, is poorly known by comparison with the archaeological record in the upper Sabine River (cf. Perttula 1995) or to the archaeological studies recently completed downstream in Harrison County at sites such as Pine Tree Mound (41HS 15) (sec Fields and Gadus 2012).
To begin to develop a better appreciation of the Caddo archaeology in the mid-Sabine River basin, we have made a concerted effort to analyze and document collections obtained by Jones from Caddo sites in Gregg County and the surrounding region (see Pertlula 2011Pertlula ,2012Pertlula , 2013Perttula and Nelson 2013; see also other articles in this volume of the Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology). In this article, we discuss the archaeological findings from the Wade and Estes sites discovered and investigated by Jones in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The sites are near each other in the southeastern part of Gregg County (Figure 1). The Wade site is on a landform ncar the contluence of Peatown Creek and Dutchman Creek, northern-flowing tributaries to the Sabine River. The Estes site is on a large alluvial terrace on the north side of the Sabine River, across from the contluencc of Dutchman Creek and the Sabine River This article focuses particularly on the excavations of portions of an ancestral Caddo house structure at the Wade site and the analysis of the substantial decorated sherd assemblages at both the Wade and Estes sites.

THE WADE SITE (GC-38)
Buddy C. Jones found the Wade site in 1955, and he apparently collected ceramic and lithic artifacts from the surface of the site for several years. In 1959In -1961 completed limited excavations at the site, this work consisting of several narrow trenches and four 5 x 5 ft. units (Squares 1-4) in a small block off one of the trenches. Evidence of pits, post holes, and concentrations of daub in several areas of his work indicate that Jones encountered the remains of at least one ancestral Caddo house strudure in the small block and trenches. The collections to be discussed below are from both the surface collections and hand excavations, but they are considered as one assemblage for analytical purposes.

Excavations
After noting that ceramic sherds were abundant on the surface of the Wade site in 1958, Jones excavated three narrow norlhwesl-southeast and northeast-southwest oriented trenches across one part of the site ( 2). These trenches were an unspecified width (likdy 2 feet in width. bu~ed on his use of similar trenches in the 1957 excavations at the Henry Spencer site [41UR315]. see Perttula eta!. [2012:Figure 31) and were probably dug in 10ft. sections. Trench A was 75ft. in length, Trench B was 55 ft. in length . and Trench C was 70 ft. in length, for a total of 200 ft. of hand-excavated trenches.
Cultural features. including pits and post holes, were present in the trenches (see Figure 2), and Jones continued his cxca vations in 1961 at the Wade site by excavating four 5 x 5 ft. squares (Units 1-4, 100 ft. 2 ) in the area of what he called an ash pit, possibly a hearth, found in Trench C; these units were ex<:avated in 3 inch levels. These excavations first encountered a plow Lone (0-15 em), followed by a dark midden deposit from 15-30 em bs; this deposit contained animal bone, mussel shells, and pottery sherds (Figure 3 ). A pit with about 5 em of ash was encountered in Unit 2 at 30 em bs (found in it were a pitted stone, pottery sherds. deer bone, and a single Yarbrough point). A number of post holes (n= II) and possible post holes (n=6) were defined at about 40 em bs in the units (particularly in Units 3 and 4), in the middle part of the sandy E-horizon. extending to ca. 66 em bs in the B-horizon clay subsoil. The post holes ranged from 15-  20 em in diameter, and likely mark wall posts to a Caddo structure; no clear wall pattern can be discerned in the small excavated area, but there may have been more than one possible rectangular structure built at this location given the proximity of two roughly north-south lines of posts in Units 3 and 4 ( Figure 4); these posts may also mark a rebuilt wall. In these same units was a ca. 1.5 x l m concentration of daub that was encountered immediately below the midden deposits, from ca. 30-40 em bs; several post holes lie beneath the daub. The daub deposit clearly indicates that the structure or structures on this part of the Wade site had been clay, grass, and thatch-covered, and at some point had been burned down, preserving the daub from the structure walls. Ceramic Assemblag(• The ceramic vessel sherd assemblage (n= 1472) from Jones' investigations at the Wade site consists of fin plain rim, body, and base shcrds and 71J4 decorated sherds from utility ware (n=6RR) and fine ware (n=l06) vessels. The plain to decorated sherd ratio (P/DR) is O.R6. One of the plain rims has a Redwine mode lip treatment (see Walters 2010).
More than 85% of the sherds are from grog-tempered vessels, with 14.7% of the sherds from vessels tempered with burned bone ( Table 2). The proportions of bone temper use in the three wares at the Wade site is generally similar, with the highest usc of bone temper i.n utility ware jars and the lowest bone temper use in the fine wares.
Plain ware vessels are a significant component of the Waue site ceramic assemblage, given that 35% of the rims from the site are from plain ware vessels. Another 16% of the rims are from fine wares, and the remaining 49% are from utility wares (see Table 1). Among the many utility ware sherds (comprising 87r7'o of the decorated sherds from the site), the vessels are most commonly decorated with brushed, brushed-incised, incised, incised-punctated, and punctated decorative elements on the rim and/or the vessel body ( Figure Sc-i)). Approximately 13% of the decorated sherds are from fine ware vessels decorated with engraved lines (Figure 5a-h, j) or with red slipping on both vessel surfaces (see Table 1). ' ~ "·c \ g Figure 5. Examples of decorated rim and body sherds from the Wade site: a-b,j, engraved rim sherds; c, inciscd-punctated; d, brushed-appliqued; e, punctated; f-g, incised; h, brushed-punctated; i, incised-punctated.
The decorative clements on the utility ware rims from the Wade site feature rows of tool punctates, brushing marks in various directions as well as brushing marks and incised lines. diagonal incised lines (see Figure 5g), and brushing decorations on the rim in combination with one or more rows of tool punctations pushed through the brushing (Table 3). Rims with brushing comprise 15.5% of the utility ware rim sample in the assemblage; 7.0% of the rims have brushed-incised decorations: II .2% have brushed-punctated decorations (Figure 6c One incised body sherd has bisected rectangle and triangle elements filled with straight lines pitched in opposite directions (see Figures Sf and 6k). Another incised sherd is from a Pease Brushed-Incised vessel with panels defined by sets of vertical incised lines, and the panels then filled with diagonal incised lines pitched in opposite directions (see Suhm and Jelks l962:Plate 60k).
interlocking incised scrolls with upper. lower, and vertical incised hands filled with tool punctates. This particular decorative style on the rims from these vessels has a considerable distribution on Middle Caddo (ca. A.D. 1200-1450) period sites in the mid-Sabine River basin and tributaries (Gadus et al. 2006;Perttula and Nelson 2013;Walters 2008) as well as contemporaneous Caddo sites in the Angelina River basin (see Hart 1982;Perttula et al. 20 10).
While incised triangles lilkd with tool punctates are notahle in the incised-punctated rims from the Wade site (see Table 3 and Figure Si), there is at least one body shcrd with a circular incised element tilled with tool punctates as well as a rim sherd with punctate-filled triangles and cirdes (see Figures Sc and 61). Another has a set of L·urvilinear or arcing incised lines with an overlying series of linear tool punctates.
One of the punctated rims has crescent-shaped fingernail punctates (see Table 3), and may be from a Weches Fingernail Impressed jar (see Suhm and Jelks 1962:Piate 77); a rim sherd from another Weches Journal of Norrlteasr Texas Archaeology 45 ( 2014) 47 Fingernail Impressed jar has horizontal incised bands filled with crescent-shaped fingernail punctates. Other rims have only tool punctates that are in rows on the rim (see Figure 6h), beginning under the vessel lip and extending to the rim-body juncture.
There arc several other notable decorative dements on the utility ware body sherds. Two body sherds have straight appl iqued fillets that divide panels with either parallel brushed-incised marks and lines or diagonal incised lines pitched in the same direction (see Figure 6d-e). A third body sherd (perhaps from a Pease Brushed-Incised vessel) has parallel brushed-incised marks and lines with a row of tool punclates pushed through the brushing, while another has parallel brushed-incised marks and lines divided by an alternating set of straight appliqued fillets and tool punctated rows pushed through the brushing. Another body sherd has a diagonal appliqued ridge that overlies a field of parallel brushing marks, while grog and bone-tempered jar body sherds have opposed diagonal appliqued fillets with surrounding brushing marks pitched in opposite directions (see Figures 5d and 6j).
The fine ware rims include 22 sherds from vessels with engraved elements and motifs and one rim sherd (either a bowl or a carina ted bowl) decorated only with a hematite-rich red slip on both interior and exterior surfaces ( Table 4). The engraved rims are stylistically diverse, with both simple lines and geometric elements-diagonal (Figure 7g), horizontal (see Figure 5j), opposed diagonal, and vertical-on the rims of carinated bowls as well as bracket (see Figure 7j), concentric semi-circle (see Figures 5b and 71), excised triangles and excised pendant triangles, rectangles, and a scroll element. The one rim with a scroll has a panel created with horizontal engraved lines, and on the panel is part of a slanted scroll and possibly part of a circle element; there is no apparent upper and lower scroll fill zone on this sherd, suggesting it is not from a Ripley Engraved vessel. Two rims are from Washington Square Paneled vessels (see Hart 1982;Perttula et al. 2010;Perttula and Nelson 2013) with horizontal engraved lines creating narrow bands filled with small excised punctations; this is in addition to the numerous incised-punctated Washington Square Paneled rim sherds listed in Table 3 and illustrated in Figure 6a   has a distinctive Redwine mode lip treatment (see Figures Sa and 7j; ~ee also Walters 2010). Such Lip treatment has been documented in both utility ware and fine ware assemhlages in the Sabine, Big Cypress, and Angelina-Neches drainage basins in East Texas.
Distinctive engraved body sherds include diagonal opposed lines, narrow hatched and cross-hatched lines, straight and curvilinear zones and circles (see Figure 7a, d, i), open circles, engraved and excised brackets (on carinatt:d sherd~ and bottles). narrow panels with stepped lines (see Figure 7c), and parallel lines with attached semi-circles (see Figure 7e). There is also one engraved diamond ct!ntral scroll element on a body sherd (see Figure 7f) tlult m::~y be from a Ripley Engravt!d, var. McKinney vessel.
Thert! are only three engraved bottle sherds (2.9% of all the engraved shcrds) with sets of curvilinear lines in the fine ware assemblage from the Wade site. Anotht!r bottle sherd ha~ part of a straight engraved line and an excised bracket Only one engravt!d sht!rd (1.0% of all the engraved sherds) has a white pigment rubbed in the engraved lines.
A Middk Caddo period style L-shaped clay elbow pipe stem sherd is in the Wade site ceramic assemblage. This style of elbow pipe has been found in a number of ca. A.D. 1200-1450 Caddo habitation sites and burials in the Sabine and Neches-Angelina river basins. In general, elbow pipes began to be made after ca. A.D. 1350 in East Texas and elsewhere in the Caddo area.

Lithic Assemblage
There is one Late Archaic style quartzite Yarbrough dart point from the Wade site, along with a quartzite Wells point and a gray c hert Ellis point, and a ferruginous sandstone gouge, as well as quartzite, petrified wood, and gray chert Gary points (n==5) (Figure 8c) and two (brown chert and quartzite, Figure 8c) Kent points that evince Woodland period use . There are also two petrified wood biface preforms , a gray chert bifacial perforator, a gray chert expedient flake tool, and a gray chert end/s ide scraper. Ground stone tool s from the Late Archaic and Woodland period components includes a ferruginous sandstone abrader, a ferruginous sandstone grinding slab fragment, a hematite mano, a quartzite mano and pitted stone, and a quartzite hammers tone. Arrow points from the Wade site include a quartzite Scallorn (see Figure 8d), a petrified wood Bonham (see Figure 8b), and a gray chert Perdiz (see Figure 8a), all indicative of aboriginal usc by and after ca. A.D. 700. In the Caddo component there are also a greenstone celt fragment, two quartzitic sandstone celt fragments, a celt preform of the same material, and a single celt resharpening flake (Figure 9). These materi als have their source in the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma.

Other Recovered Artifacts
There arc also numerous pieces of unburned mussel shell valves, turtle bones, deer phalanges, as well as chunks of daub, burned clay, and a clay coil in the archaeological deposits at the site .

THE ESTES SITE (GC-49)
The Estes site artifact assemblage was presumably collected by Jones from the surface of the site after it had been plowed. There are no available re<.:ords or notes that indicate Jones conducted any excavations at this site.

Ceramic Assemblage
There is a large assemblage of Caddo <.:eramic vessel sherds ( n= I 097) from surface collections at the Estes site. This includes 410 plain rim, body, and base sherds, and 687 decorated utility ware (n=5R5) and fine ware (n=l02) sherds (Table 5). The P/DR is 0.60.
As with the previously discussed Wade site ceramic assemblage, the Estes site ceramic sherds are also predominantly from grog-tempered vessels. Approximately 13.9% of the sherds arc from vessels tempered with <.:rushed burned hone. The highest proportion of burned bone use is in the fine wares ( 17.6%) ( Table 6).
Almost 30% of the rims in the assemblage are from plain ware vessels, <.:om pared to about 5R9~~ from utility wares, and 13% from fine ware vessels (see Table 5). With respect to the decorated sherds, approximately 85% of the rim and body sherds are from utility wares, especially sherds from brushed, brushed-incised, incised, punctated, and brushed-punctated vessels (Figures 1 0-12). As a group, 40.R% of all the sherds from the Estes site have brushing marks, either as the sole decoration or in combination with appliqued, incised, or punctated elements. The remaining 15% are sherds from engraved and engraved-punctated fine wares (see Table 5). In addition to the many ceramic sherds, a single clay coil and a piece of daub were also in the assemblage.
Decorative clements and motifs on rim sherds from utility ware vessels at the Estes site an: listed in Table 7. The most <.:ammon decorative treatments on these vessels are horizontal brushing (J 3.3% of the utility ware rims), horizontal brushing on the rim below a row of diagonal tool punctates (see Figure lOh-j. 13.3%), and horizontal bmshed-incised marks and lines ( 12.2% ).    About 68(fo of the utility rim sherds have a brushed decoration, but this brushing occurs in several different ways on vessels: as the sole decorative element (16.6% ), usually horizontal brushing (Figures 13a-b and  14f), perhaps from Bullard Brushed jars; in combination with incised lines, sometimes together on the rim, or with one decorative method on the rim and the other on the body (23.3%); in combination with punctalions (25.5%) of different fom1s, where the punctations are in various locations on the rim (see Figures IOL h-j , II d, and l2a); or in combination with incised lines and tool puncta ted rows on the rim (2.2% ). Brushed sherds with portions of the rim and body preserved on them indicate that brushed jars have brushed bodies (vertical and diagonal marks, Figures 13b and l4a-b, d-e), opposed brushing marks (Figure 14c), or with diagonal incised bodies (see Table 7). Brushed body sherds sometimt:s o<.:<.:ur with panels defined by straight appliqued fillets (see Figure II f-g).
One body sherd has a straight appliqued fillet dividing a field of diagonal hrushing marks from a field of diagonal incised lines pitched in the opposite direction (see Figures 1 Oa and 12c). Another has parallel brushing marks with an overlying straight appliqued llllet and overlying parallel in<.:ised lines (see Figure lle).
Approximately 14% of the utility ware rim sherds from the Estes site have simple geometric incised line elements and motifs, featuring primarily diagonal lines pitched in various directions (see Figure 1 0<.:-e and Table 7). Incised body sherds have the same decorative elements (see Figure 12b). lncised-appliqued body shcrds have single short appliqued ridges nested in a series of opposed incised lines (see Figure lOb). lncised-pun<.:tated rim and body sherds are probably from Maydelle Incised vessels (see Suhm and Jelks 1962) as they have a series of diagonal incised lines and incised triangles on the rim tilled with tool punctalions (see Figure 101). Other body sherds simply have rows of tool punctations and incised lines in various directions (see Figure llb).
Some of the utility ware rim sherds have rows of different shapes of tool punctations on the rim, typically beginning in a row under the vessel lip and ending with a row at the rim-body juncture (see Table 7 and Figure lie). Punctated rims comprise ~.9% of the utility ware rims at the Estes site. One rim and body sherd indicates that vessel bodies were sometimes covered with randomly-placed tool punctates.  rinally, a rare decorative element on utility wares is lip notching. One rim sherd from the Estes s ite is notched on the lip (see Table 7).
The tine ware rims are from both engraved and engraved-punctatcd vessels (Table 8); a few of the engraved sherds have white (n=l) (Figure 15e) or red pigment (n=2) rubbed in the engraved lines; about Ylr of the engraved fine wares have a preserved pigment. The four engravcd-punctated rims (Figures 15e -f anJ I fib) are from the engraved variety of Washington Square Paneled carinated bowls (see Hart 1982: Pcrttula ct al. 2010Perttula and Nelson 201 3), which appear in ca. A.D. 1200-1450 conte xts in sites in both the mid-Sabine and Angelina River basins of East Texas. The majority of the other engraved rims have diagonal. horizontal. or vertical lines as decorative elements, along with several with narrow hatched zones ( Figure  15d). hatched and cross-hatched ladders (Figures 15g and 16h), and hatched triangles (Figure 16c). Three other rims either have engraved semi-circles or sets of near vertical arcing lines extending from a horizonl<tl engraved line above the carinfltion.
Tablt! 8. Ot!corativt! dements and motifs on fine ware rim sherds from the Estes site. Notable by their absence in the engraved fine ware rims from the Estes site are sherJs with any of the decorative dements seen on mid-Sabine River post-ca. A.D. 1450 Ripley Engraved vessels (see Fields and Gadus 2012:433-44 7), particularly scrolls, diamonds. circles with swastikas or crosses, or pendant trian~ks. This would certainly seem to suggest that the principal Caddo occupation of the Estes site occurred in the Middle Caddo period.
Among the engraved body sherds in the fine wares from the Estes site ctn: a number with simple geometric decorative elements, such as straight, diagonal, parallel, or opposed engraved lines (see Figures l5h  and 16d). There is one body sherd with parallel engraved lines and small excised triangles; this is probably from another Washington Square Paneled vessel. Other carinated bowl sherds have narrow engraved zones with hatched or cross-hatched lines (see Figures !Ia,15a,g,and log)  sg Journal of Northeast Texas ArchaeoloRY 45 (2014) vertical engraved lines, an excised zone, and portions of a narrow hatched zone (see Figures lSi and 16t), and another (with red pigment) has diagonal excised zones and an open triangle clement (see Figure 16a).

Lithic Assemblage
There is evidence in the chipped stone at1ifacts of Late Archaic use of the Estes site. This includes a ferruginous sandstone gouge and a straight stemmed dart point manufactured from a grayish-red chert, a~ well as examples of Ellis and Yarbrough points. A single Gary, mr. Camden dart point of quartzite and a Kent dart point of petrified wood are indicative of a late Woodland period use (ca. A D. 200-700) (see Schambach 1982, l99g).

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The Wade and Estes sites are located in the mid-Sabine River basin in Gregg County, in the East Texas Pineywoods, in the general area of the city of Longview. Both sites were found and investigated by Buddy C. Jones more than 50 years ago. He obtained surface collections of artifacts-mainly plain and decorated .:;herds from ancestral Caddo occupations-from both sites, and carried out limited excavations at the Wade site in 1961. That work identified a variety of features, mainly post holes and pits, from an ancestral Caddo house structure as well as associated midden deposits. Chipped stone artifacts found at both sites also show that the sites were used to some limited extent during both the Late Archaic (ca. 5000-2500 years B .P.) and Woodland (ca. 2500-1200 years B.P.) periods.
The work at both sites by Jones resulted in the collection of large assemblages of decorated utility ware and line ware rim and body sherds (687-794 sherds per site). The stylistic character of these sherds is useful in assessing the age of th~ Caddo occupations, and the historical relationships evidenced in the decorative elements and motifs that speak of (.;Ultural transmission and stylistic change and continuity in the decoration of Caddo vessels in the mid-Sabine River basin. As best as can be determined from the decorated sherd  Gadus et al. 2006;Hart 1982;Perttula and Nelson 201 3;Walters 2008. 20 10). and it is likely that various Caddo communities in these areas had close social and cultural ties and established networks of contact and cultural transmission of ideas and practices.
Rim and body sherds with bntshing marks as the decorative treatment dominate the decorated sherd assemblages from both the Wade and Estes sites (Table 9) . At the Wade site, for example, 50% of the decorated sherds have brushing marks-either as the sole decorative element or in combination with other decorative methods such as incised lines or punctations-and 57% of the utility wares have brushing marks . The proportion of brushed sherds is even higher at the Estes site: 65% of all the decorated sherds have brushing marks, and 76% of the utility wares have brushed decorations. These differences may suggest that the ancestral Caddo component at the Estes site is a bit younger than that at the Wade site, given temporal trends (i.e., increasing proportions of brushed sherds as assemblages get progressively younger in age) in the relative popularity of brushing in decorated sherd assemblages in the mid-Sabine River region.
The differences between the two sites in the amount of sherds with brushing lies particularly with an increased percentage of sherds with brushed-incised and brushed-punctated decorative elements at the Estes site when compared to the Wade site assemblage (Table 9). In other respects, utility wares with incised (20.2% , including sherds with incised and other decorative elements on the same rim and body sherds) and punctated (16.2%) decorative elements are more common in the Wade site assemblage when compared to the Estes assemblage: only 11 .0% and 7 .7%, respectively (see Table 9). Sherds from fine ware vt:ssels are equally rare in both sites: 13.4%-13.7% . However, red-slipped sherds arc present only at the Wade site and engraved-punctated Washington Square Paneled sherds art: present only at the Estes site. At the Wade site, rim and body sherds from Washington Square Paneled vessels have both engraved-punctated and incisedpunctatcd decorative dements . We thank Pntti Haskins of the Gregg County Historical Commission for her help during the analysis of the archaeological material remains from the Wade and Estes sites. Lance Trask prepared the drawings of the decorated ceramic sherds from the sites.