Ceramic Comparisons Between Certain Historic Caddo Sites in Nacogdoches County, Texas: Henry M. (41NA60), Spradley (41NA206), and Deshazo (41NA27)

Repository Citation Perttula, Timothy K. (2009) "Ceramic Comparisons Between Certain Historic Caddo Sites in Nacogdoches County, Texas: Henry M. (41NA60), Spradley (41NA206), and Deshazo (41NA27)," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2009 , Article 22. https://doi.org/ 10.21112/.ita.2009.1.22 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2009/iss1/22


Timothy K. Perttula
The Henry M., Deshazo, and Spradley sites are three of the better and recently studied Historic Caddo ceramic assemblages in East Texas (see Middlebrook and Perttula 2008;Perttula et al. 2009;Fields 1995). All three are in Nacogdoches County (see Middlebrook 2007: Figure 1), Henry M. and Deshazo on Bayou Loco, and Spradley on Lanana Creek.
How do these sites compare with respect to the decorative classes present in the utility wares and fine wares? All three sites are dominated by brushed utility wares (Table 1). At Spradley, brushed pottery comprises 53.4% of the decorated sherds compared to 72.7-85.6% of the decorated sherds from Henry M. and Deshazo. Incised, punctated, and incised-punctated decorative classes, however, are also abundant in the Spradley ceramic assemblage (30.8%), but much rarer in the Henry M. and Deshazo utility wares.
Fine wares-especially Patton Engravedcomprise between 13.8% and 15% of the decorated sherds at the Spradley and Henry M. sites (see Table  1), suggesting that fine wares were equally available at both of these Historic Caddo sites. The exact proportion of engraved sherds cannot be determined at the Deshazo site because engraved and incised sherds were not quantified separately in the analysis by Fields (1995); nevertheless, Patton Engraved is the principal fine ware at the site. Based on the proportions of decorative classes in Table 1, engraved sherds can constitute no more than 13.7% of the Deshazo decorated sherds, but this proportion is likely much less than that amount (recent reanalysis by Shawn Marceaux of the Deshazo site decorated sherds will clarify the matter).
Henry M. and Deshazo ceramics are primarily grog-tempered (83-90.4%) ( Table 2). Bone-tempered pottery, conversely, is much more abundant at the Spradley site, suggesting the existence of a different tradition of ceramic manufacture there when compared to the wide-spread use of grog temper at the two Bayou Loco sites.
We can extend the ceramic comparisons to a broader part of Nacogdoches County (Table 3), employing several categories of decoration proposed by Middlebrook (2007:Table 1) as a means to differentiate contemporaneous ceramic assemblages, and also perhaps to distinguish different Caddo groups and communities living in the area. In Table 3, I use selected assemblages with more than 196 total sherds, and list them by drainage. Table 3 indicates the following:

An inspection of
The closest ceramic comparisons between the Henry M. site and the other known Nacogdoches County historic Caddo sites is with the Deshazo site (41NA27); Bayou Loco and Angelina River sites are dominated by brushed utility wares. In the case of the Bayou Loco sites, they can be divided into two groups based on the relative proportion of brushed wares, one group with proportions ranging from 43-48.7% and the other with proportions between 59.8-69.4% (see Table 3); and the Lanana Creek Caddo sites, Legg Creek sites, and Attoyac Bayou sites are part of a different local ceramic tradition, where brushed pottery is much less important, particularly in Caddo sites on Attoyac Bayou and Lanana Creek (see Table 3).  (1995); **robust sample from the site;+= percentage  Figure 1). What do these ceramic groups represent other than generally contemporaneous historic sites occupied by Caddo peoples. I suggest they represent different but clearly related social groups or communities of Caddo peoples living in the Angelina River basin (Corbin 2007;Perttula 2007:78). These groups may be refined, revised, or rejected with further analyses of the decorative elements and motifs present in the utility wares and fine wares.