Heritage, Volume 10, Number 2, Spring 1992 Page: 23
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ologist for the University of Texas, was
taken to the site by a man from Livingston,
Texas, who had purchased the vessels from
the farmer.
Jackson explored the site that August,
and he described it as an "extensive Indian
campsite" on a hillside above Long King
Creek. He found quantities of pottery sherds
in association with hammered copper and
brass, patinated bottle glass, and lead musket
balls. He collected these materials for
the University of Texas, where they remained
virtually unstudied until I had the
opportunity to examine them as part of
archaeological research on the Indians of
East Texas.
Jackson also carried out some desultory
excavations at Carl Matthews to find the
source of the pottery vessels. He did uncover
a large area along the creek bank of
charcoal and square nails that may have
part of a burned log structure, but he
abandoned the effort after encountering
two coffin burials near the "campsite." In
Jackson's opinion, these burials were most
likely not Indian individuals-even though
one of the burials was accompanied by a
glass-beaded necklace of bead types commonly
seen on Indian sites of the 19th
century in Texas and Louisiana-but he
wondered whether "Catholic priests might
have interred deceased Indians in wooden
boxes. If so, this could possibly have been
an Indian." Research since Jackson's time
has shown that Southeastern Indians such
as the Creeks used coffins for burials as
early as the 1760s.
The most distinctive aspect of the
Alibamu and Koasati Indian archaeological
materials from the Carl Matthews
site is the native-made ceramics. Eighteenth
and early 19th century ceramics
from Upper Creek sites in Alabama and
Georgia are virtually identical with
Alibamu and Koasati ceramics from their
19th century sites on the Red River and
in East Texas.
The Creek sites in Alabama and Georgia
developed from the Lamar Culture,
which encompasses a variety of South
Appalachian Indian cultures that evolved
in this area about 700 years ago. (It is
ironic that the term Lamar Culture is
related to John Basil Lamar of Georgia,
who was related to Mirabeau Lamar, governor
of Texas during the Republic of
Texas' intensive efforts at Indian removal.)
Historic Upper Creek ceramics from
the Talapposa river of eastern Alabama
and Alibamu-Koasati Indian ceramicsThis 1822 Stephen F. Austin map shows the province of Texas and the Koasati and Alibamu territories.
from the states of Texas and Louisiana
include flared-rim jars with decorated clay
strip fillets below the rim, and with brushed
bodies. At Carl Matthews, these types of
large jars had a coarse sandy paste, with
crushed bone or shell occasionally added
to the paste. Other types of shared vessel
forms in Alibamu-Koasati and Upper
Creek sites are carinated bowls or cazuelas
and flared-rim bowls. Both forms were
typically burnished or smoothed by hand,
and narrow incised lines were placed below
the rim; applique fillets and red slips
were also used as forms of decoration on
the bowls. The two whole vessels from
the Carl Matthews site include a flaringrim
jar and a cazuela.
The Arthur Patterson site in Sanjacinto
County also has provided us with much
information on the Alibamu and Koasati
groups living in Southeast Texas in the
19th century. The site had been found and
disturbed by looters, but in the late 1960s,
it was investigated by a professional arThe Alibamu and Koasati
traded for a variety ofgoods including:
blankets hal
wool hats sh(
needles sill
calico shawls ifl
vermillion co,
iron pots g!O
tin cups pao
ribbon lea,
flax thread scF
stitching thread blu
combs gur
iron knives but
gunflints Ln
silver gorgets wo
Eor hoes ;; garr
plates/saucers bea
brass tobtchets
~ars
k calico
es
w bells
yes
wder
td ' : S ,- I,
ssors
[e stroud
i locks
:cher knives
.n shirts
axes
ters
accoHERITAGE * SPRING 1992 23
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 10, Number 2, Spring 1992, periodical, Spring 1992; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45420/m1/23/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.