Article Title

Documentation of a Collection from the Poole Site (41TT47) in the Big Cypress Creek Basin in East Texas

Authors

Timothy K. Perttula, Heritage Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State UniversityFollow

Agency

Journal of Northeast Texas Archeology

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.2012.1.30

Abstract

The Poole site (41TT47) is about 2.5 miles south of Mt. Pleasant, and is now situated within the Mount Pleasant Wastewater Treatment Plant. The site was originally recorded by Milton Bell and Ken Brown in 1971 , who described it as "a thin scatter of artifacts, bone fragments, and charcoal necks brought to surface on gopher hills." The site was estimated at ca. 50 x 50 m in size; the artifacts "occurred mostly at the south side of the site. A metate was found in the center of the darker area. Wood charcoal flecks may be from more recent clearing." Their site map showed a 10 x 12 m area with a dark organic staining, possibly evidence for a midden, or more recent burning activities. Bell and Brown suggested that the site may have a Late Caddo (ca. A.D. 1430-1680), Titus phase, occupation.

At the time the site was recorded in 1971, it appeared to be basically undisturbed, except for activities associated with the construction of a stock tank and its associated earthen berm just to the southeast of the Poole site. Thurmond subsequently examined a small collection of sherds from the Poole site, and described it as a "Late Caddoan limited use area." The Late Caddoan attribution of the site was based on one brushed body sherd and a Maydelle Incised jar rim.

In 1990, the Mount Pleasant Wastewater Treatment Plant was under construction on the northern end of the Poole site, across a fence line from a pasture where intact archeological deposits likely remained undisturbed. At that time, a small collection of artifacts was obtained from a private individual from the northern part of the Poole site before a lab building was fully constructed on the southern part of this tract of land. It is those artifacts that are the subject of this article .

According to Perttula and Nelson, who conducted an archaeological survey of a part of the Poole site in 1999 because of proposed 1999 water and sewer system lines for the new City of Mount Pleasant municipal airport, it is a small prehistoric Titus phase settlement that dates from ca. A.D. 1430-1680. Although only a small portion of the site lay within the specific project area where the archaeological survey was conducted, like most Titus phase settlements, it may well contain trash middens, evidence for structures and other features, and a small family cemetery.

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