SAU Research Station - Arkansas Archeological Survey

Hodges Engraved bottle recovered from Cedar Grove.

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Important Past Projects

Cedar Grove: Excavations at a Late Caddo Farmstead and Cemetery

The earlier archeological component of the Cedar Grove site (3LA97) consisted of a Late Period (i.e., Caddo IV and V or ca. 1500-1800 AD) Caddoan farmstead and cemetery buried 1-3 meters (3-9 feet) below the surface by flood deposits.


Profile at Cedar Grove showing the buried Caddo midden. Click on image to enlarge. Photo by David Jeane.

Most of the prehistoric material recovered was from the Caddo V period, which has been described as "the least studied, least known period in Caddo archeology, and a period completely unknown in the Caddo area of Arkansas" (Shambach et al. 1982:90). It was a period of increasing European contact with the Caddo, and of steady decline of Indian populations due to European diseases and raids by the Osage.


	Excavation map of Cedar Grove ( after Trubowitz 1984:64). Click on image to enlarge.

Due to construction schedules and monetary constraints, test excavations of the prehistoric component of the Cedar Grove site were conducted in a short period of time and only exposed a portion of the site. Initial testing was conducted in only eight days--June 18th through the 25th, 1980--and full excavation ran between October of 1980 through January 1981. Excavations, directed by Neal Trubowitz in consultation with AAS-SAU Station archeologist Frank Schambach, consisted of a series of mechanically stripped areas, randomly placed 50 cm x 50 cm units used to sample the midden and larger 3m x 3m meter excavation units.

Aside from the grave shafts of the historic-period graves (detailed here), excavations found the remains of three circular Caddo structures, several small- to medium-sized pits, two dog burials and 15 Caddo burials.


The levee transect with excavations in units 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 6, 5, and 2 looking north-east. AAS 807752.

Within these burials 67 ceramic vessel or large parts of vessels were placed as offerings to the dead. These Native American burials at Cedar Grove not only provide us with important data about mortuary practices from this relatively unknown period, but the analysis of the skeletal remains can tell us much about the quality of life in Caddo V times. For instance, skeletal data suggests that either reliance on corn as a food staple declined in Caddo V or another iron rich food became an important part of the diet of those who lived at the Cedar Grove farmstead.