In the winter of 2003, the junior author completed archaeological survey investigations of a small area of the Sabine River valley in northeastern Smith County in the East Texas Pineywoods. The work consisted of limited surface collections and shovel tests, and four archaeological sites were found during the work. The sites are about 2.4-3.0 km south-southwest of the Early Caddo period Boxed Spring mound site (41UR30) on the north side of the Sabine River.
Two of the archaeological sites (41SM307 and 41SM308) are situated on alluvial landforms in the Sabine River valley at elevations of ca. 280-290 ft. amsl. The other two (41SM309 and 41SM310) are on upland landforms at elevations of 310 ft. amsl and 350 ft. amsl, respectively.
The 14th century Caddo Leaning Rock site was initially discovered in the Fall of 2004. It was located during reconnaissance to search out a location for the survey portion of the Texas Archeologica! Society's Academy IO I held in Tyler in February 2005. This was not a formal survey with transect lines. nor one using regularly spaced shovel tests. but was rather more of a "windshield"' type survey, consisting of driving across pasture lands looking at gopher mounds and checking fore, evidence of archeological deposits on likely looking landforms.
!n this area. landform and soil type seem to be the major determining factors in locating Caddo sites. The sandy soils in the scattered gopher mounds appeared almost white. especially in droughty conditions that prevailed at the time. causing an area with darker mounds of soil to catch my attention. Pocket gophers (G. breviceps) can play havoc with buried archeological deposits but can also be useful in bringing buried soils along with archeological materials to the surface from their underground tunnel system. While this dark area could have been the result of past historic land clearing and burning activities. a closer inspection revealed burned bone. mussel she!L and Caddo sherds mixed in the dark brown soils in the scattered gopher mounds.
The next step was to record the site with the State of Texas, obtaining the trinomial 41SM325. It is common practice to also gin: sites informal names and after recording several hundred sites, selecting a name becomes a challenge. One large sandstone slab, pan of the R-horizon that is exposed around the margins of Leaning Rock. was unearthed during prior landclearing activities and pushed up against a lonely pine tree on the northern margins of the site: consequently the nom de plume "Leaning Rock."
The Redwine site (41SM193) is a probable Middle Caddoan habitation site located on an upland terrace (Figure I) on the headwaters of Auburn Creek, a small tributary of the Sabine River in central Smith County; the Angelina River drainage basin begins about 1.5 km to the south of the site. Auburn Creek is about 100 meters to the north of the site. The Sabine River lies approximately 24 km to the north. Soils on the Redwine site are Bowie fine sandy loam.
The site was discovered in the early 1960s by Sam Whlteside an avocational archaeologist who lived in the Tyler area. His work consisted of trenching, and he located and excavated several burials and a small house mound. In an attempt to relocate the site limited controlled excavations were undertaken in 1995 by the authors, under the direction of Dr. John Keller of Southern Archaeological Consultants, Inc. We hoped to gain enough information about the size, age, and integrity of the Redwine site to apply for legal designation and protection under the Antiquities Code of Texas. After confirming that the Redwine site contained important archaeological information, an application for State Archeological Landmark (SAL) designation was made in 1996, and in July 1996, the Redwine site was officially designated an SAL by the Texas Historical Commission, the first SAL in Smith County. This paper describes our findings, and discusses the artifacts and plant and animal remains recovered during the work. We also provide information on the 1960s excavations of a small house mound at the site, along with the grave goods recovered by Sam Whiteside from the four Redwine site burials.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.