The Conservancy Purchases Rare Caddoan Mound in Texas
new POINT acquisition
TEXAS ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCH LABORATORY, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 41AN19-7
The site has one of only two documented Caddoan ash mounds.
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he Conservancy has purchased the A. C. Saunders site, a rare Caddo mound site in Anderson County, Texas, 20 miles southwest of Tyler. The site was first tested in the 1930s by A. T. Jackson, who identified a large mound over one hundred feet in diameter and seven feet tall, an associated midden area, and a scatter of artifacts. His excavations in the midden area revealed a number of postholes, indicating the presence of a large circular building. When Jackson trenched the mound he discovered that it consisted primarily of ash, with very few associated artifacts. The ash heap was piled on a two-foot knoll and was capped with a layer of earth about one and a half-feet thick. There were no structures built on top of the capped mound and no burials were found associated with the mound. A few bones and sherds were found on the surface, and based on ceramic styles of the sherds, Jackson assigned the site to the late prehistoric Frankston phase (A.D. 1400–1600). Turning to Spanish and French historical observations, Jackson cites an account by Father Manzanet describing a 1690 visit to a Caddo village that was probably located near the A. C. Saunders site. Father Manzanet described a circular thatch structure, which he called a “temple,” that was much larger than the other structures in the village. The temple contained a fire “which is never extinguished by night or by day.” In another account of a similar structure, a Father Morfi noted “they exercise great care in taking out of
american archaeology
Two workers excavate post holes by sticking their arms in them. This excavation, led by A. T. Jackson, took place in 1935.
the temple the ashes of the sacred fire, which they keep to make large mounds. When they celebrate the removal of the bones of their enemies, killed in battle, they bury them in these ashes.” Based on these accounts, Jackson concluded that the site was probably a perpetual fire temple with an associated ash mound. Another researcher, Ulrich Kleinschmidt, revisited the site
in the early 1980s. He tentatively supported Jackson’s hypothesis, but noted that evidence is lacking to tie the date of the ash accumulation to the use of the large structure. The A. C. Saunders site is the Conservancy’s 11th Texas preserve. Working with the Texas Historical Commission, the Conservancy will nominate the site as a state archaeological landmark. —Jim Walker
POINT Acquisitions
The POINT Program is the Conservancy’s new emergency acquisition initiative to save sites throughout the country.
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