The Caddo Archaeology of the Musgano Site (41RK19) in the Sabine River Basin of East Texas

• Main Author: Perttula, Timothy K.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: SFA ScholarWorks 2014
• Subjects: Archaeology; American Southeast; Caddo; Texas; American Material Culture; American Studies; Anthropology; Archaeological Anthropology; Environmental Studies; History; History of Art; Architecture; and Archaeology; Other American Studies; Other Arts and Humanities; Other History of Art; United States History; Austin; Creek Lake; Sabine River; Archeological Survey
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2014/iss1/13; https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1743&context=ita

The Musgano site (41RK19) is an important ancestral Caddo habitation site on Martin Creek in Rusk County in the Sabine River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods. The site was investigated by the Texas Archeological Survey at The University of Texas at Austin in 1972 and 1973 prior to the construction of Martin Creek Lake by Texas Utilities Services, Inc., and a Caddo house structure, midden deposits, features, and a large ceramic assemblage were documented from a component speculated to date between ca. A.D. 1400-1500 (Clark and Ivey 1974:14-41; McDonald 1972:10-11). Unfortunately, however, the results of the excavations and the recovered artifact assemblage received only the most cursory investigation and analysis, and thus the significance of the site with respect to how it could contribute to a better understanding of the regional Caddo archaeological record has not been realized. I sought to remedy this by undertaking a reanalysis in 2013 of the existing excavation and feature records as well as the recovered artifact assemblage that are curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). This report is a product of this reanalysis of the records and artifact assemblage from the Musgano site.