From 2014 to 2020, we compiled radiocarbon ages from the lower 48 states, creating a database of more than 100,000 archaeological, geological, and paleontological ages that will be freely available to researchers through the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Here, we discuss the process used to compile ages, general characteristics of the database, and lessons learned from this exercise in “big data” compilation.

Recent absorbed residue studies have confirmed that ceramic and shell containers were used for consuming Datura in precolumbian times. Until now, no one has identified what tools precolumbian people used to produce a concentrated hallucinogenic concoction. In this study, we used mass spectrometry to identify Datura residues (a flowering plant with hallucinogenic properties) in two late precolumbian composite bottles from the Central Arkansas River valley. Unlike the construction of most Mississippian bottles, the bottles in this study are unique because ceramic disks with a series of concentric perforations were incorporated in the bottles at the juncture of the bottle neck with the globular portion of the body. The organic residue analysis revealed Datura residues in both bottles. We argue that the internal clay disks served as strainers that allowed Datura producers to separate the hallucinogenic alkaloids from the Datura flower to produce a powerful liquid beverage.

Three-dimensional (3D) digital scanning of archaeological materials is typically used as a tool for artifact documentation. With the permission of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, 3D documentation of Caddo funerary vessels from the Vanderpool site (41SM77) was conducted with the initial goal of ensuring that these data would be publicly available for future research long after the vessels were repatriated. A digital infrastructure was created to archive and disseminate the resultant 3D datasets, ensuring that they would be accessible by both researchers and the general public (CRHR 2014a). However, 3D imagery can be used for much more than documentation. To illustrate this, these data were utilized in a 3D morphometric analysis of the intact and reconstructed vessels to explore the range of variation that occurs in ceramic vessel shape and its potential contribution to the local ceramic taxonomy. Results of the 3D morphometric analysis demonstrate the potential for substantive analytical gains in discussions of temporal resolution and ceramic technological organization in the ancestral Caddo region.

Maize agriculture is often regarded as a key component in understanding and evaluating the Mississippian culture and related cultures. It is becoming clear that the spread and intensification of maize agriculture relates to the dissemination of Mississippian cultural traits in a variety of ways, rather than through a set trajectory. In this article, we focus on the Caddo, who have been postulated to have subsisted on smaller amounts of maize than other Mississippian-like groups to their east and northeast. The use of stable isotope analysis provides a direct means of comparing the amounts of maize consumed among various Mississippian-related cultures. We synthesize the results of Caddo stable isotope studies to compare the process of maize agricultural intensification among the Caddo to other archaeological cultures that shared Mississippian traits. We find that the Caddo consumed less maize throughout the prehistoric sequence than their neighbors.

I question Taylor and Creel’s (2012) conclusion regarding the biological relationship between Late Prehistoric Caddo farmers and the earlier Archaic and Woodland forager populations in northeast Texas. Because their study did not include the analysis of non-metric dental traits from Late Archaic (ca. 5000-2500 B.P.) and Woodland (ca. 2500-1150 B.P) forager populations that lived in northeast Texas before ca. A.D. 850, the absence of these data impedes any evaluation of their conclusion about the biological relationships between the Caddo and ancestral populations.

The Oak Hill Village (41RK214) in northeastern Texas is a prehistoric (ca. A.D. 1150–1450) Caddo settlement that was completely excavated in the mid-1990s prior to lignite mining activities. Analysis of the architectural remains, key calibrated radiocarbon dates, and changes in ceramic decorations, indicates that the village evolved as three temporally and spatially different communities composed of a number of separate households. Emerging in the latter two communities were important social institutions (a plaza, an earthen mound, and specialized structures with extended entranceways) that bound this singular Caddo community together for approximately 150–200 years (ca. A.D. 1250–1450).

This paper presents a compilation of the >520 radiocarbon and oxidizable carbon ratio dates obtained since the early 1950s from archaeological sites in East Texas. Many of the dates are from difficult-to-obtain sources, such as archaeological sites investigated during the course of cultural resource management projects. An analysis of the age ranges in the dates indicate that most pertain to prehistoric and protohistoric Caddoan Indian occupations, particularly the Early (ad 1000–1200) and Middle Caddoan (ad 1200–1400) periods when prehistoric Caddoan settlements were widely distributed throughout the region.