rip. ^^o^; llT' TEXARKANA RESERVOIR — JELKS 3 



ARCHEOLOGICAL COMPLEXES 



Suhm et al. (1954) recently defined and named four basic culture 

 stages of the aboriginal occupation of Texas. Their classification 

 will be followed herein. The four stages are: 



(1) Paleo-American Stage — an early culture with economy based primarily 

 on hunting; associated principally, or entirely, with fauna of the Pleistocene 

 geologic era ; previous designations include Paleo-Indian, Early Man, and An- 

 cient Man. 



(2) Archaic Stage — a hunting-gathering culture that followed the Paleo- 

 American Stage; apparently associated only with modern fauna; characterized 

 by large middens, corner- and side-notched dart points, and evidence of gathering 

 activities; generally antedates ceramics, agriculture, and the bow and arrow. 



(S) Neo- American Stage — a culture stage marked by local specializations in 

 economic practices, arts, technologies, and ceremonialism ; basic subsistence by 

 agriculture, although some groups subsisted by specialized hunting techniques 

 or commercial trading; marker traits include large villages with permanent 

 type houses, ceramics, and the bow and arrow. 



(j^) Historic Stage — a period of convergence and coalescence of the diverse 

 units making up the preceding Neo-American Stage; aboriginal technologies 

 and economic patterns disrupted by impact of European invasion; frequent 

 association of European trade material. 



All four of these broad stages can be distinguished in the Caddoan Area and 

 will be taken up in chronological order. 



PALEO-AMERICAN STAGE 



No artifacts attributable to the Paleo-American Stage have been 

 found in situ in the Caddoan Area to the writer's knowledge. There 

 is considerable evidence, however, that Paleo-American peoples did 

 frequent that region, since many projectile points found there are 

 typologically identical to forms found elsewhere in Paleo-American 

 contexts. J. F. Lentz, of Marshall, Tex., has in his collection of 

 Indian artifacts a fragment of a "classic" Folsom point that he found 

 on the surface of a Neo-American site in Harrison County, Tex., and 

 the writer has observed specimens of Clovis and Scottsbluil points 

 collected from the surface of sites in northeastern Texas, north- 

 western Louisiana, and southwestern Arkansas. Newell and Krieger 

 (1949, pp. 170-172 and fig. 57, v) reported a fragment of a fluted 

 point (Folsom?) at the Davis Site in Cherokee County. In addi- 

 tion, many projectile points found in the Caddoan Area appear to 

 fit the general Paleo-American typology, although assignment to any 

 of the recognized types cannot be definitely made at present. The 

 presence of Scottsbluff points in the Caddoan Area in significant 

 numbers is especially intriguing, as their occurrence there may be 

 in the form of an island in reference to the total known distribution 

 of the type. There is an alternate possibility: that a peninsular 

 extension of Scottsbluff may descend from the Plains Area into 

 the Caddoan Area. 



