Archaeological Investigations at the Redwine Site (41SM193), Smith County, Texas

Abstract

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.

The Lake Clear (41SM243) Site and Crotalus horridus atricaudatus

“…The other example had straight ridges formed by deep crescent-shaped punctates on either side of the ridge. Similar examples have been found in the Middle Caddoan period components at the Redwine (41SM193) and Langford (41SM197) sites in Smith County (see Walters 1997;Walters and Haskins 1998), as well as at the Oak Hill Village (Rogers and Perttula 2004) in Rusk County. Evidently this design element has a long history as there is also an example from the Early Caddoan period Boxed Spring site (41UR30) (see Perttula et al 2000: Figure 18).…”

The Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel and Vessel Sherd Assemblage from the Nawi haia ina Site (41RK170) in the Angelina River Basin, Rusk County, Texas

“…Pipe sherds at the Musgano site are from the distinctive L-shaped elbow pipes (Clark and Ivey 1974:Figure 13o-p). This style of elbow pipe has also been recovered at several other 13 th -15 th century sites in the middle and upper reaches of the Sabine River basin, including at the Oak Hill Village (41RK214, Rogers and Perttula 2004), Redwine (Walters and Haskins 1998), 41WD244 (Perttula et al 2007), 41HS574 (Gadus et al 2006:Figure 4-34), and Taddlock (41WD482, Bruseth and Perttula 1981) sites, and at the Beech Ridge site (41NA242) at Lake Naconiche in the Angelina River basin (Perttula 2008). No such elbow pipe sherds are present at the Nawi haia ina site.…”

Archeological Survey Investigations at Martin Creek Lake State Park, Rusk County, Texas

“…The Jamestown (eight mounds and village), Boxed Springs (four mounds, village, and large cemetery), and Hudnall-Pirtle (eight mounds and 60-acre village) multiple mound centers appear to represent the apex of postulated local Early-Middle Caddoan networks in the Sabine River basin. The McKenzie (41WD55) site in the middle Sabine River drainage has a single substructural mound that dates cal A.D. 1298-1470 (see Granberry 1995), and there are contemporaneous mounds covering structures with extended entranceways at the Redwine (41SM193) and Bryan Hardy (41SM55) sites (see Walters et al 1998;Walters and Haskins 2000). The Middle Caddo occupation at Redwine also included an extensive midden deposit, hearth and pit features and a small cemetery with extended supine burials.…”