Garvin County
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303 reported archeological sites for Garvin
County to date
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The Arthur Site
In central Oklahoma from around AD 1250-1450, the
Wichita people lived on terraces of the Washita and Canadian rivers
in villages of 200 or more people. They farmed corn, beans, squash
and other crops in the fertile river valleys. Hunting and fishing
provided food, as well, for their growing populations. Archeologists
call this time period the Washita River phase and the people are
known as Southern Plains Villagers.
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The Arthur site, north of Pauls Valley, is an
important Washita River phase village. Excavated in 1981 as
a salvage operation because of land leveling, the Arthur site
revealed much about life in a Wichita village some 700 years
ago. These villagers constructed their small, rectangular houses
from upright logs woven with a branch, grass and clay mixture
known as wattle and daub. Houses had interior storage pits like
the one shown in the photograph to the right. The doorways faced
east and a fireplace was built in the center of the house. There
were probably 20 houses at the Arthur site. One of them is believed
to have been a shaman's house; the house had been burned and
a burial was found under the floor (most burials in Washita
River phase sites occurred in cemeteries near the village).
Additionally, in the burned house, a charred seed from an hallucinogenic
plant was found leading archeologists to believe the house was
associated with the rituals of a shaman. |
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Wichita villages were spaced every couple of miles along
the Washita River during this period. The people of the area
traded with other groups to the west and east. However, by
the time the Spanish came through Oklahoma in the early 1500's,
many of these villages had been abandoned. It is believed
that some of these groups moved north and east although some
people continued to live in the area. The reasons for this
change are not known although climate changes and increased
bison herds in the west may have caused migrations of Washita
River populations.
For further reading, consult:
"The Arthur Site:Settlement and Subsistence Structure
at a Washita River Phase Village" by Robert L. Brooks
(University of Oklahoma Oklahoma Archeological Survey, Studies
in Oklahoma's Past, No. 15, 1987).
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Washita River Phase House Pattern
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Prehistoric Sites in Garvin County Identified to Time Period
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