The Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from The Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Two Sites in Camp and Upshur Counties in the Cypress Creek Two Sites in Camp and Upshur Counties in the Cypress Creek Basin in East Texas Basin in East Texas

In the early 1930s, University of Texas archaeologists obtained ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from probable burial features at two Caddo sites in Camp and Upshur counties in the Big Cypress Creek basin of East Texas. The vessels from the Sam G. Roberts (41CP8, n=1) and the J. H. Brown (41UR7, n=4) sites in the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) vessel collections are fully documented in this article.


Timothy K. Perttula
In the early 1930s, University of Texas archaeologists obtained ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from probable burial features at two Caddo sites in Camp and Upshur counties in the Big Cypress Creek basin of East Texas (Figure 1).The vessels from the Sam G. Roberts (41CP8, n=1) and the J. H. Brown (41UR7, n=4) sites in the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) vessel collections are fully documented in this article.

Sam G. Roberts (41CP8)
The one ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel from the Sam G. Roberts site on Prairie Creek had been exposed by floodwaters in 1931, and UT archaeologists purchased the vessel in May 1931 from a Mr. H.M. Coffman.The exact location of the burial that had the ceramic vessel is not known, but it could have come from either habitation or mound contexts at the expansive site (ca.8-10 acres) (see Thurmond 1990:144; Tunnell 1959).The site has one constructed mound (15.2 x 13.7 m in size and 1.1 m in height) south of the creek as well as several habitation areas southeast and east of the mound.The principal occupation was during Late Caddo period Titus phase times in Area A, perhaps in the latter part of the Titus phase based on the occurrence of Ripley Engraved, var.McKinney vessel sherds and Talco arrow points in this area east of the sub-structural mound (Thurmond 1990:144): the mound capped a burned circular Caddo structure (Thurmond 1990:50;Tunnell 1959) of Late Caddo period construction.Conventional radiocarbon dates of 240 + 90 B.P. and 320 + 60 B.P. from the burned structure indicates it dates to the latter part of the Titus phase (Thurmond 1990:Table 25).The upper rim panel has three horizontal engraved lines (Figure 3b) as well as the rim peaks decorated with curvilinear engraved lines and zones filled with hatched lines or excised areas.The lower rim panel has two opposed appliqued nodes (Figure 3a) with upper and lower triangular engraved zones on either side of the nodes.There is a curvilinear excised area above the nodes, and the triangular zones have inner excised triangle elements, with or without negative oval elements.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The locations of Camp and Upshur counties in East Texas.
SITE NAME OR SITE NUMBER: Sam G. Roberts VESSEL NO.: 1 VESSEL FORM: Bottle (missing the neck, Figure 2a) NON-PLASTICS AND PASTE: grog and hematite RIM AND LIP FORM: N/A CORE COLOR: G (fired in a reducing environment and cooled in the open air) INTERIOR SURFACE COLOR: dark gray EXTERIOR SURFACE COLOR: yellowish-brown; fire clouds on the rim, body, and base WALL THICKNESS (IN MM): neck, 6.2 mm INTERIOR SURFACE TREATMENT: none EXTERIOR SURFACE TREATMENT: smoothed HEIGHT (IN CM): 10.5+ ORIFICE DIAMETER (IN CM): N/A DIAMETER AT BOTTOM OF RIM OR NECK (IN CM): 3.7 cm; maximum body diameter: 9.5 cm BASE DIAMETER (IN CM) AND SHAPE OF BASE: 7.0 cm, circular and flat ESTIMATED VOLUME (IN LITERS): 0.3+ DECORATION (INCLUDING MOTIF AND ELEMENTS WHEN APPARENT):The vessel body has a series of 11 vertical engraved panels below a series of short widely-spaced vertical engraved lines (Figure2b).Eight of the vertical engraved panels have cross-hatched engraved lines, and interspersed between these are three panels with diagonal engraved lines pitched in different directions (Figure2b).
Figure 3. Rim sherds from the upper and lower rim panels of a Turner Engraved, var.Horton compound bowl (No. 1) from the J. H. Brown site: a, upper and lower rim panels and strap handle; b, strap handle.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Plain jar body and base section (No. 3) from the J. H. Brown site.