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Article Title
Was the Cypress Cluster one of the (Many) Victims of the 1539 - 1543 De Soto Expedition?
Agency
Caddo Archeology Journal
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.1990.1.21
Abstract
In my master's thesis on the archeology of the Cypress creek basin (Thurmond 1981) and a subsequent article in the Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, I proposed the identification of a third late prehistoric-protohistoric confederacy for the Caddoan area of northeast Texas, in addition to those of the Hasinai and Kadohadacho. I named the archeological manifestation of this hypothesized sociopolitical entity the Cypress cluster, following a model of late Caddoan sociopolitical organization formulated by Dee Ann Story. The Cypress cluster is centered geographically on the upper Cypress Creek, White Oak Bayou and Lake Fork Creek basins. Two sequential temporal units are defined within the Cypress cluster, the Whelan and Titus phases, perhaps dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, respectively. Components of the Titus phase are sufficiently well-documented to permit the identification of four distinct spatial subgroups within the Cypress cluster on the basis of their associated ceramic and lithic assemblages. These spatial subgroups are termed subclusters (the Three Basins, Tankersley Creek, swauano Creek and Big Cypress Creek subclusters), and probably represent the archeological remains of four affiliated tribal groups.
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