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13. The Prehistoric and Caddoan Archeology of the Northeastern Texas Pineywoods
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G&S Typesetters PDF proof 370 13 ▲▲▲ ▲▲▲ The Prehistoric and Caddoan Archeology of the Northeastern Texas Pineywoods Timothy K. Perttula This chapter considers the diverse character of the prehistoric and Caddoan archeological record in the Pineywoods of northeastern Texas. This area is essentially bounded by the broad Red River and its tributaries to the north, the interdigitating woodlands and prairies bisected by the Trinity River drainage on the west, the stately longleaf pines and impenetrable swamps along the Neches and Angelina Rivers, and the Arkansas and Louisiana state lines (an arbitrary boundary to be sure). Native Americans settled in the region some twelve thousand years or more ago and ranged through its forests, grasslands, and broad floodplains and wetlands as mobile hunter-gatherers. About two thousand years ago, at the onset of the Woodland period, these Native Americans (whom we consider ancestral to the Caddo peoples) began to settle down in recognizable territories, to make better use of native seeds and tropical cultigens as well as the bountiful nut mast and white-tailed deer, and to practice the art of ceramics as they adopted new foodprocessing technologies. From this milieu developed the vibrant and sophisticated prehistoric Caddo culture about a.d. 800. The prehistoric Caddos were prosperous horticulturists and traders, lived in dispersed sedentary hamlets and villages along well-watered streams, and built temples and burial mounds to mark the ceremonial and religious places sacred to important priests and chiefs across the cultural landscape. The Caddos remained in parts of northeastern Texas until as late as 1842, cooperatively living and interacting with the European and American colonizers of their land until they moved, or were removed , to the Brazos River valley in the 1840s and 1850s (see Carter 1995 and F. Smith 1996 for excellent summaries of the nineteenth-century history and travails of the Caddo peoples) and then to Oklahoma in 1859. The main purpose of this chapter is to summarize the current state of knowledge concerning the prehistoric and early historic archeological record of the Pineywoods , while also discussing relevant sites in the adjoining Post Oak Savanna of northeast Texas (Fig. 13.1). First, I consider the natural setting of the area and the history of archeological investigations in the region and then turn to a succinct but broad presentation of the native history of the region. Much attention is given to the Late Caddoan period (ca. a.d. 1400–1680) archeological record (as defined by Story 1990), particularly what archeologists working in the Sabine River and Big Cypress Creek basins have come to call the Titus phase. I focus on the Titus phase because our knowledge of this span of Caddo prehistory is reasonably well developed (e.g., Perttula 1992a, 1998c; Perttula and Nelson 1998; Thurmond 1985, 1990a; R. Turner 1978, 1992) and because this focus provides the best opportunity to understand what prehistoric Caddo groups in east Texas were like before, and immediately after, Europeans invaded the area (Perttula 1998c). I also consider the archeology of other Late Caddoan groups that lived along Red River and in deep east Texas. Natural Setting Northeastern Texas has three main biotic communities: the Post Oak Savanna or Oak Woodlands, the Blackland Prairie, and the Pineywoods (Diamond et al. 1987). The area of interest discussed herein lies principally within the modern distribution of the Pineywoods and the Post Oak Savanna, with a small portion of the Blackland Prairie at the western margins of the region (Fig. 13.2). The Post Oak Savanna is a narrow southwest-northeast trending woodland belt that marks a natural transition zone or ecotone between the more xeric Blackland Prairie to the west and the more mesic Pineywoods to the east (Küchler 1964). Both the Post Oak Savanna and the Pineywoods have medium-tall to tall broadleaf deciduous forests, and shortleaf and loblolly pines are common in the Pineywoods on upland fine sandy loam soils with adequate moisture. Small areas of tallgrass prairie may be present in both communities throughout the region (see, e.g., Jordan 1981, fig. 4.1). Bottomland communities along the Red, Sulphur, 13-A2946 4/13/04 12:29 PM Page 370 G&S Typesetters PDF proof PREHISTORIC AND CADDOAN ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PINEYWOODS / 371 Fig. 13.1. The Caddoan archeological area, physiographic zones (from Fenneman 1938), and the location of the study area. Sabine, Cypress, Neches, and Angelina drainages contain a diverse hardwood and swamp forest, with natural levees, point bar deposits, old stream channels, oxbow lakes, and backwater swamps. The climate of...