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Article Title
Ceramic Petrographic Analysis of Sites 41CP71, 41BW2, 41BW5, and 41SM442, Northeast Texas
Agency
Journal of Northeast Texas Archeology
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.2015.1.19
Abstract
A total of 61 ancestral Caddo ceramic sherds from four village sites in Northeast Texas were studied by ceramic petrographic methods in 2014. The sample sherds were excavated from their sites under controlled conditions and were either archived at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (41BW2), Stephen F. Austin State University (41CP71), or remain in private hands (41SM442). Recently, they were selected for combined petrographic and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), although only the sherds from the Alligator Pond site (41SM442) have actually been submitted and analyzed by INAA at this time. This combination of approaches is part of a change in Northeast Texas ceramic technological studies termed a second generation by some (Robinson 2014), although such multiple combined approaches have long been advocated and applied in general archaeological literature. The approach looks at the geochemical and petrological characteristics of ceramics in tandem to gain a broader and more informative background on the character of ancient pottery. This study is the petrographic branch of the overall approach; the objective here is to gain clues or suggestions on local, community, and regional scales of Caddo ceramic production and distribution. Part of this effort is to attempt to identify localities and types of clay beds used in ceramic manufacture.
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