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Caddo Archeology Journal
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.2010.1.18
Abstract
The James Owens site (41TT769) is a Middle to Late Caddo period settlement in the White Oak Creek drainage basin in Northeast Texas that was first investigated in June of 2001 at the request of the landowner, Mr. James Owens of Irving, Texas. At that time, the landowner was planning on building a house on the site, and during the course of clearing the land and constructing a gravel drive way to the future house site, he noted some archeological materials on the surface. Discussions between Mr. Owens, Bryan Boyd (Texas Archeological Steward Network), and Mark Parsons, then regional archeologist for the Texas Historical Commission, led to the limited 2001 investigations, which were designed to obtain basic information on the age of, and the range of material culture remains at, the James Owens site, and to further determine whether the site had research potential to address questions concerning the prehistoric Caddo archeology of the region.
During the initial work, a ca. 20-30 cm thick midden deposit was identified in the southern part of the site, but its context remained to be fully evaluated; specifically, was the midden a trash deposit, or was it directly associated with structural and habitation features? In April 2002 and February 2003, we returned to the site before Mr. Owens constructed a house there. This additional work was designed to examine the midden deposits in more detail, so as to better estimate its size, contents, and rate of accumulation; locate other cultural features (particularly post holes and hearths from structures); and obtain more radiocarbon samples from the midden and other cultural features. The dating of additional radiocarbon samples was crucial, along with the existing radiocarbon and Oxidizable Carbon Ratio (OCR) dates obtained in the first round of work, in refining the estimated occupation span of the James Owens site. This article is a summary of these more recent, and final, investigations.
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