n e w a cq u i s i t i o n
A Glimpse of the Caddo
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or centuries, portions of what is now Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and northeast Texas were home to the Caddo. The Redwine site, a Middle Caddoan habitation site that dates to the 14th century, has become the Conservancy’s 10th preserve in Texas. Sites such as Redwine, few of which have been extensively examined, are crucial Mark Walters to understanding the Middle Caddoan period in northeast Texas. As a teenager growing up in northeast Texas, Mark Walters was fascinated with the endeavors of his uncle, Sam Whiteside, an avocational archaeologist interested in site preservation.Walters assisted Whiteside during excavations at the Redwine site in the late 1960s, and Walters later purchased the property to preserve it for future research. In 1995, he joined several archaeologists who conducted limited excavations at Redwine, recovering enough information to have the site designated a State Archeological Landmark the following year. Walters is involved with several archaeological soci-
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eties and he serves as a volunteer for the Texas Archeological Stewardship Network, a program of the Texas Historical Commission. He and his wife, Sandra, donated the fouracre site to the Conservancy in January, making this the seventh preserve in the Conservancy’s Caddo project. Situated on a terrace above Auburn Creek, a small tributary of the Sabine River, Redwine is comparable to nearby Middle to Late Caddoan sites in that its inhabitants relied on the hunting and gathering of animals and wild plants as well as the cultivation of maize. Initial trenching at the site in the late 1960s revealed an earthen mound about 24 feet in diameter and 2 feet high covering a circular house that may have been used for ceremonies. The Redwine community probably consisted of between four and six houses arranged in a semi-circle around an Various artifacts have been found open plaza. Four adult at the Redwine site, including this burials accompanied by ceramic vessel, which is decorated an assortment of grave by a series of punctated lines. goods including ceramic bowls, jars, bottles, arrow points, and an unusual long-stemmed pipe with a double bowl, were also excavated.These artifacts indicate interaction with local groups, and the small number of stone artifacts suggests that wood and bone tools were probably important parts of the group’s material culture. Based on the types of artifacts and features that researchers identified at the site, it appears that Redwine was occupied continuously for at least 20 years, after which time the site, along with other Caddoan settlements in the area, was abandoned. Researchers suspect this was due to the depletion of natural resources, climatic changes, or a change in subsistence patterns, with an increased reliance on maize cultivation requiring richer lands. Future research at the site may shed light on the reasons for its abandonment, as well as on Caddoan settlement and subsistence patterns in the area. —Tamara Stewart spring • 2002
JIM WALKER
The Redwine site is adding to the knowledge of this culture.
