The Historic Caddo Component at the Roseborough Lake Site (41BW5) on the Red River in Bowie County, Texas

Abstract

The Roseborough Lake site (41BW5) is on an old meander of the Red River “that was cut off in 1872 and named Roseborough Lake." It lies a few miles west of other important Late Caddo and Historic Caddo period sites, and a few miles west of Texarkana in Bowie County. The Roseborough Lake site is a large historic Caddo village occupied from the late 17th century until the late 18th century, with habitation features and cemeteries. It also is the location of a Nassonite post established by the French in the 1720s, known by the Spanish as San Luis de Cadohadacho. In this article I focus on the analysis of the historic Caddo archaeological material remains, in particular the Caddo ceramic vessel sherds, from the Roseborough Lake site in the Lawrence Head collection. These material remains were collected almost exclusively in 1990 and 1991 after a natural flood of the site by the Red River and then later in 1991 after the machine leveling of much of the site area for bean cultivation.