Analysis of the Ceramic Sherds from Area C at the Ware Acres Site (41GG31), Gregg County, Texas

Cite this Record Perttula, Timothy K.; Selden, Robert Z. Jr.; and Nelson, Bo (2013) "Analysis of the Ceramic Sherds from Area C at the Ware Acres Site (41GG31), Gregg County, Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2013, Article 31. https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.2013.1.31 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2013/iss1/31


INTRODUCTION
The Ware Acres site (41GG31) was discovered by Buddy Calvin Jones in 1951 on an alluvial terrace Longview, Texas (Figure 1). The site is best known for Jones' discovery and excavation of an eighteenthcentury Caddo burial with an abundance of European trade goods (Jones 1968:21-24). However, Jones also investigated other parts of the site, which contained extensive Caddo habitation deposits, especially one area at the southern part of the site that had Late Caddo Titus phase midden deposits and remnants of house structures. A large assemblage of ceramic sherds were collected from this area, and although Jones (1968:17) indicated that "a complete analysis of them will be given in a later report," this was never done. from this important East Texas site on record. The stylistic attributes and known ceramic types in the Ware Acres assemblage are also compared to the ceramic assemblage from the Pine Tree Mound site (Fields and Gadus 2012), as the Ware Acres site may be a component of the Pine Tree Mound Titus phase community found in the middle reaches of the Sabine River basin.

SITE SETTING AND EXCAVATIONS BY BUDDY JONES
In 1959, Jones became aware that the Ware Acres site was threatened with the development of an urban housing project, and he initiated investigations in three areas of the site: Areas A, B, and C ( Figure 2). These east of an old channel of Grace Creek. In addition to Archaic period projectile points found across the site as well as various ground stone tools, the three areas were noted to have had different kinds of ceramic sherds. Jones (1968:14) indicated that Early Caddo period (i.e., "Late Alto-like") sherds were present in Area A, and the midden deposits here extended to ca. 40 cm bs. In Area B, the midden deposits were of comparable depth, and the historic Caddo burial feature was in this area (see Figure 2). The historic Caddo burial in Area B was discovered and excavated in January 1960. The individual, likely an adult, was buried in an extended supine position in a 1.83 m long including two plain ceramic vessels (a jar and a carinated bowl), two ceramic pipes, 1988 glass beads-711 Cornaline d'Aleppo red over green drawn beads; 850 white tubular beads; 56 white seed beads; 367 black seed beads; and two drawn blue beads-two iron knives (case and clasp), a pewter ring, and several lumps of vermillion pigment. Another iron knive was collected from the surface of Area B. Ceramic sherds found on the surface and in disturbed contexts in Area B were grog, grit and bone-tempered, and were plain (from jars), brushed (from large jars, likely from Bullard Brushed vessels), engraved (Ripley Engraved or Taylor Engraved carinated bowls), and punctated (tool punctated jar sherds) wares that "seems to differ from the Titus…materials from" Area C (Jones 1968:24).
Area C was located on the southern part of the terrace, and the archaeological deposits extended to the base of the terrace slope. The midden reached to ca. 76 cm bs, and it contained an abundance of ceramic sherds, animal bone, and a few lithic artifacts. Jones (1968:17) excavated a 4.6 x 6.1 m area in the southern part of Area C (see Figure 2) in either 1959 or 1960, and recovered over 15,000 ceramic sherds, including more than 2,500 rim sherds, from Ripley Engraved, Taylor Engraved, Wilder Engraved, Bullard Brushed, Karnack Brushed-Incised, and Harleton Appliqued vessels. The ceramic sherds we discuss in this article-although numbering less than 2000 sherds in the Gregg County Historical Museum collections from the site-are from this Area C excavated area. Jones (1968:17-18) also noted that there were remnants of house structures-marked by "dark ash colored areas"-in Area C that were graded away in modern house construction on the crest of the terrace, upslope from the thickest part of the midden deposits. Titus phase of the old Grace Creek channel (see Figure 2).

CERAMIC SHERD ASSEMBLAGE
The studied ceramic sherd assemblage from the Ware Acres site consists of 1942 rim, body, and base sherds (Table 1). We do not know what happened to the remainder of the assemblage, or whether this studied sherd assemblage is representative of the entire large assemblage mentioned by Jones (1968:17). What punctated, brushed, etc. utility ware vessels (12% of the rims) are also relatively common, such that all three wares must have been in regular use by ancestral Caddo people at the site, and then were broken and discarded in trash midden deposits.

TECHNOLOGICAL PARAMETERS
The focus of the analysis of the Ware Acre ceramic sherds is on the decorative styles and motifs of been in use at the site.
Grog or crushed sherds was overwhelmingly the temper used by Caddo potters at the Ware Acres site for vessel manufacture, as 90.5% of the sherds have grog temper. Another 8.9% of the sherds had burned bone temper, and 0.6% had a combination of grog and bone.
the common use of small to medium-sized plain wares ( Figure 3). Large plain ware vessels comprised 46% of the measured rims. One plain bowl has a drilled suspension hole below the vessel lip. rims were in this range. Another 23% of the plain ware rims were from very large vessels (31-34 cm bs), and the remaining 8% were from small to medium-sized. The manufacture of large utility wares (primarily jars) suggests that communal cooking and use of vessels for storage of food stuffs were important activities carried out at the site. the measurable rims, Figure 4). Small to medium-sized vessels account for 18% of the rims, and very large servings as well as for communal food serving, perhaps in the context of feasts and other community-level activities carried on by Caddo peoples at Ware Acres.

Fine Wares
vessels, 3.5% from distinctive short-rimmed Simms Engraved vessels, and 0.2% from a single Patton Engraved vessel.
There are a few distinctive engraved vessel sherds from Ripley Engraved and Taylor Engraved cariand punctated elements, one sherd with engraved-punctated-brushing elements, and one body sherd with ware sherds, as only seven sherds have a white kaolin clay pigment rubbed in the engraved lines, and three sherds have a hematite-rich clay pigment in the engraved lines.

Ripley Engraved
motif. This motif is poorly named because the excised pendant triangles on the upper and lower rim panel are secondary elements to central engraved circles and horizontal scrolls with central diamond elements. Important Ripley Engraved motifs are illustrated in Figure 6. Rim sherds with a horizontal interlocking scroll motif (see Figure 10e) comprise 2.9% of the Ripley Engraved sherds from the site. These sherds, from Ripley Engraved, var. Pilgrims vessels (see Figure 6g), have panels with short horizontal scrolls that are interlocked by excised brackets.
Rim sherds with an engraved continuous scroll motif (see Figure 6f) comprise 2.1% of the Ripley Engraved sherds from Ware Acres. Two of these Ripley Engraved, var. Carpenter rims have small tick marks on the slanting scroll and the central vertical lines or bar elements (see Figure 10d).
Lastly, 1.2% of the rim sherds from the site have a nested triangle motif (see Figure 6h). One of these Ripley Engraved, var. Williams rims is from a compound bowl, the lower panel has the nested triangle design (Figure 16c), and the upper panel is plain.

Taylor Engraved
The 38 Taylor Engraved rim sherds have graceful scroll motifs that end in hooked arms that are separated from each other by small gaps (Figures 17 and 18a-j, see Suhm and Jelks 1962:149 and Plate 75). One rim has small excised tick marks on one of the hooked arms (Figure 18c), which Suhm and Jelks (1962:149 and Plate 75e-f, h-i) note is occasionally the case on Taylor Engraved bowls and carinated bowls. Another sherd has a scroll-hooked arm motif on the rim and horizontal brushing marks on the body of a carinated bowl (Figure 18g).
One Taylor Engraved compound bowl rim sherd has the scroll and hooked arm motif on the lower panel, Figure 16a-b). Suhm and Jelks (1962:149 and Plate 76d-e, i) illustrate several Taylor Engraved bottles that bowls, and jars.

Simms Engraved
There are 15 Simms Engraved rim sherds in the Ware Acres sherd assemblage. These are engraved on the vessel's distinctive short rim (e.g., Suhm and Jelks 1962:141). The engraved motifs recognized in the Simms Engraved sherds at the site are illustrated in Figure 19. They include horizontal panels divided by either cross-hatched or excised brackets (Figure 19a, d), sets of vertical engraved lines (Figure 19c), sets of closely-spaced horizontal engraved lines with tick marks (Figure 19b, e), and one rim with portions of a slanting scroll with tick marks (Figure 19f).

Patton Engraved
One Patton Engraved rim sherd is in the midden sherd assemblage from the Ware Acres site. It has several rows of horizontal engraved lines around the rim that have tick marks on them. This is Patton Engraved, var. Allen, possibly the latest (after ca. A.D. 1700) of the Patton Engraved varieties in the upper Neches River  Figure 6-66a). The one vessel represented by a single rim sherd is likely from a vessel that was made by an Allen phase potter living in the upper Neches River basin in the 18 th century, and is associated with the Historic Caddo burial and deposits in Area B at the Ware Acres site.

Utility Wares
A wide variety of utility ware sherds are in the Ware Acres collection, including 90 rims and 147 body sherds ( Table 2). The most common utility wares in the assemblage are brushed (50% of all the utility ware sherds and 16% of the rims), incised (16% of the utility ware sherds and 28% of the rims), and tool punctated (13% of the utility ware sherds and 25% of the rims).      Appliqued body of Harleton Appliqued vessels, and one body sherd has a straight appliqued ridge. Figure 19. Drawings of the engraved motifs on Simms Engraved carinated bowl rim sherds at the Ware Acres site.
Brushed utility ware types that have brushed rims and bodies decorated with other decorative elements. One lower rim-body carinated bowl sherd has a plain rim and a horizontal brushed body. Other body sherds have paral-

Brushed-Appliqued
One brushed-appliqued rim sherd has vertical brushing marks on either side of a vertical appliqued ridge. The one body sherd, perhaps from a Pease Brushed-Incised vessel, in this group has parallel brushing marks

Brushed-Punctated
Brushed-punctated rim and body sherds comprise only 1.7% of the utility wares (see Table 2). One rim has a tool punctated row under the vessel lip, and the remainder of the rim has diagonal brushing marks. Two body sherds have a row of tool punctations adjacent to parallel brushing marks, while another body Incised have incised chevrons.

Incised-Appliqued
Two sherds in the utility wares have incised-appliqued decorative elements. The rim has an incised

Incised-Punctated
Many of the incised-punctated rims from the Ware Acres site have diagonal incised lines with a row of also Figure 21c) or above a row of tool punctates at the rim-body juncture. One rim from a Maydelle Incised jar has incised chevrons below a rim of tool punctations under the lip (Figure 22a; see also Figure 21d). One

Neck Banded
Two La Rue Neck Banded jar rims are in the collection. They have multiple horizontal rows of neck banding.

Neck Banded-Tool Punctated
Another La Rue Neck Banded rim has several rows of neck banding and a single tool punctated row at the rim-body juncture of a cooking jar.

Pinched
The two pinched rims are from Killough Pinched jars. They have vertical pinched rows.

Punctated-Tool
Tool punctated sherds have multiple rows of punctations on the rim (see Figure 20a), as well as a single row of tool punctates under the vessel lip (see Figure 20c). Nine body sherds have from one to multiple rows of punctations, indicating that some utility ware jars were decorated on the vessel body with punctates.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
In 1959 or 1960, Buddy Calvin Jones excavated about a 28 m 2 area in an apparent trash midden deposit in Area C at the Ware Acres site (41GG31) on Grace Creek in the Sabine River basin. He also discovered and excavated a late 17 th -early 18 th century Historic Caddo (Kinsloe phase) burial in Area B at the site.
In the Area C excavations, Jones (1968:17) reported that he recovered more than 15,000 ceramic sherds from a variety of Late Caddo, Titus phase types, and that a separate report discussing these sherds and excavations was in preparation. That report was never written, but eventually collections from the Ware Acres site were donated to the Gregg County Historical Museum in 2003, and we were able to document Our analysis of the sherds indicates that they are part of a Late Caddo Titus phase ceramic tradition include jars, bowls, and carinated bowls, while much of the utility wares, almost exclusively from jars, have brushed, incised, punctated, and incised-punctated rim and/or body decorations. Important types include Maydelle Incised and Bullard Brushed, but Killough Pinched, Harleton Appliqued, and La Rue Neck Banded jar sherds were present in smaller proportions in the assemblage. Fine wares-carinated bowls and compound bowls-are from carinated bowls and compound bowls, as well as a few bottle sherds.
Several varieties of Ripley Engraved are particularly abundant at the site, along with Taylor Engraved, Simms Engraved, and Patton Engraved carinated bowl sherds; the Patton Engraved sherd is likely indicative of some use of Area C by Caddo peoples at the same time in the late 17 th -early 18 th century they had occupied Area B, and had buried at least one individual. The principal varieties of Ripley Engraved at the Ware Acres site are var. McKinney sherds, followed by (and in decreasing proportions) sherds with var. Galt (scroll and circle motif), var. Gandy (scroll motif), var. Pilgrims (horizontal interlocking scroll motif), var. Carpenter (continuous scroll motif), and var. Williams (nested triangle motif) decorative elements.
In the absence of radiocarbon dates from Area C at the Ware Acres site, our estimation of when the Area C trash midden deposits date to is through the consideration of the seriation of Ripley Engraved rim motifs from burial vessel and arrow point assemblages, as discussed in Perttula (1992:243-249). This frequency seriation was developed through a co-association of arrow point caches of different types (Perdiz, Bassett, Maud, and Talco) with distinctive Ripley Engraved rim motifs at a number of cemeteries (see Thurmond 1990;Turner 1978), namely the continuous scroll (var. Carpenter), the scroll (var. Gandy), scroll and circle (var. Galt), and the pendant triangle (var. McKinney). Presuming that the Perdiz arrow point was the earliest type used by Titus phase peoples, followed by the Bassett, Maud, and Talco points in later burials, the seriation suggests that the earliest style of Ripley Engraved was the var. Carpenter motif, then next came var. Gandy vessels, followed by var. Galt, and var. McKinney vessels (see Perttula 1992: Table A-2).
Relying on these frequency seriation results from a number of Titus phase cemeteries, as well as the proportions of the different Ripley Engraved carinated bowl motifs at the Ware Acres site, it is possible to suggest on the basis of the available evidence when the midden may have been in use. The high proportions of var. McKinney vessels, along with the relative abundance of both Simms Engraved and Taylor Engraved carinated vessels suggests it dates primarily to the late Titus phase, sometime between ca. A. D. 1550-1680. The absence of inverted rim carinated bowls, probably a post-A.D. 1600 ceramic innovation among Titus suggests that the occupation may have principally occurred between ca. A.D. 1550-1600, although earlier use during the Titus phase is also likely. Further supporting the post-A.D. 1550 age of the Ware Acres Area C ceramics is that two calibrated radiocarbon dates from the Henry Spencer site (41UR315) cemetery indicate that it was used primarily between A.D. 1450-1530, andno Ripley Engraved, var. McKinney vessels were in the large mortuary vessel assemblage there (Perttula et al. 2012:314).
It does not appear to be the case that the Ware Acres, Area C, Titus phase ceramic assemblage is associated with the Pine Tree Mound community 25-40 km downstream along the Sabine River and its tributaries (see Fields and Gadus 2012: Figure 9.10), even though they were generally contemporaneous; the radiocarbon dates from Pine Tree Mound indicate that the community was there from sometime in the 15 th century Ware Acres and Pine Tree ceramic assemblages from domestic contexts, given the absence of sherds and vessels with the pendant triangle motif on bowls and carinated bowls at Pine Tree Mound (Fields and Gadus 2012:674) and the great abundance at Ware Acres of rims with the pendant triangle motif (Ripley Engraved, var. McKinney). Slanted scroll, half scrolls, and scroll with circle motifs, conversely, are predominant at Pine Tree Mound (Fields and Gadus 2012:434, 477 and Table 6.1) in both domestic and mortuary contexts, but or not preferred by communities of Caddo potters, would be a measure of social identity and the existence of shared ceramic and cultural traditions and beliefs, it seems reasonable to conclude that the Pine Tree Mound community maintained a different social identity than the community to which Ware Acres was more closely associated. Given that the same range of Ripley Engraved motifs can be found in both communities, there clearly must have been some social interaction and the sharing of beliefs between these two Sabine River Titus phase communities beginning by the late 16 th century and probably both before and after.
It is more likely that the main late 16 th century occupation of the Ware Acres site is part of a not fully given the existence of Titus phase cemeteries on the latter creek (41GG51, 53-56) where Ripley Engraved, var. McKinney vessels were predominant among the mortuary vessels. There must also have been strong interaction with contemporaneous Titus phase political communities on the lower part of Big Cypress Creek (in the Lake O' the Pines area) (see Perttula 2012: Figure 13-2; Thurmond 1990) and on Little Cypress Creek and its tributaries (see Perttula et al. 2012) because Ripley Engraved, var. McKinney vessels are quite common in post-A.D. 1550 mortuary vessel assemblages from cemeteries in these areas.