Morhiss Mound

Credits and Sources

This exhibit was written by John E. Dockall and TBH Cp-Editor Steve Black. Heather Smith created the web exhibit. Bob Ricklis, Rich Weinstein, Laura Nightengale, and Bob Hard reviewed the draft exhibit and made very helpful suggestions. Upon learning of the exhibit, 99-year-old William A. Duffen kindly shared his recollections and provided period photographs.

Lead author John Dockall received his M.A. (1991) and Ph.D. (1997) from Texas A&M University. After his final graduation he moved to Hawaii and worked as Associate Anthropologist for the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2004 he was employed by Parsons-UXB Joint Venture as Historic Preservation Quality Control Manager of the Kahoolawe Unexploded Ordnance Clearance Project. Following completion of the Kahoolawe project he served as Project Archeologist for the Maui offices of Cultural Surveys Hawaii.

In 2005, John happily returned to Texas and began to work as Staff Archeologist for Prewitt and Associates, Inc., Austin, Texas. John has participated in field work in Colha, Belize, Jordan, Hawaii, Texas, and New Mexico and specializes in lithic technology. Research interests include the Near Eastern Lower and Middle Paleolithic, Mimbres-Mogollon lithic technology, technological organization, quarrying and lithic resource procurement, craft specialization and stone tool function.

Print Sources

Aten, Lawrence E., Charles K. Chandler, Al B. Wesolowsky, and Robert M. Malina
1976    Excavations at the Harris County Boy’s School Cemetery: Analysis of Galveston Bay Area Mortuary Practices.  Special Publication No. 3. The Texas Archeological Society, Austin.

Campbell, Thomas N.
1976    Archaeological Investigations at the Morhiss Site, Victoria County, Texas, 1932-1940.  In An Archaeological Survey of Coleto Creek, Victoria and Goliad Counties, Texas, by Anne A. Fox and Thomas R. Hester, pp. 81-85.  Archaeological Survey Report 18.  Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas, San Antonio.  Download

Dockall, Helen Danzeiser
1997    Archaic Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation on the Inland Portion of the West Gulf Coastal Plain.  Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station.

Dockall, Helen Danzeiser, and John E. Dockall
1994    Incidence of Virgin Nerite as Shell Ornaments at Morhiss (41VT1), an Archaic Site on the West Gulf Coastal Plain.  La Tierra 21(4):17-21.  Download

1996    The Shell Assemblage from Morhiss (41VT1), an Archaic Site on the West Gulf Coastal Plain.  Southeastern Archaeology 15(2):211-229. Download

Dockall, John E, and Helen Danzeiser Dockall
1999    Knapping Implements in Mortuary Context: A Case from Morhiss (41VT1) with Comparative Data from Texas and the Midcontinent.  Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 70:547-562. Download

Duffen, William A.
1940    Morhiss Site.  Texas Archeological News 2:16-18.

Fox, Daniel E., Robert J. Mallouf, Nancy O'Malley, and William M. Sorrow
1974    Archeological Resources of the Proposed Cuero I Reservoir, Dewitt and Gonzales Counties, Texas. Archeological Survey Report 12, Texas Historical Commission and Texas Water Development Board. [Appendix 6 has photographs of a sample of chipped stone tools from Morhiss Mound.]

Hall, Grant
1981    Allens Creek: A Study in the Cultural Prehistory of the Lower Brazos River Valley, Texas.  Research Report 61.  Texas Archeological Survey, University of Texas, Austin.

1998    Prehistoric Human Food Resource Patches on the Texas Coastal Plain. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 69:1-10

2002    Archaeology at the Crestmont Site. General Investigations Report 1. Archaeology Laboratory, Texas Tech University. Lubbock.

Hard, Robert J. and M. Anne Katzenberg
2011    Stable Isotope Study of Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Diet, Mobility, and Intensification on the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. American Antiquity76(4):709–751.

Hudler, Dale, Keith Prilliman, and Thomas Gustavson
2002    The Smith Creek Bridge site (41DW270): A Terrace Site in De Witt County, Texas.  Studies in Archeology 35, Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.  Archeology Studies Program, Report No. 17, Environmental Affairs Division, Texas Department of Transportation.

Jackson, A.T. (compiler)
1939    Quarterly Progress Report, WPA-University of Texas Archeologicall Project, July 1 to September 30, 1939. Manuscript on file at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas, Austin.

McClure, William L.
1990    A Snake “Necklace” from the Morhiss Site.  La Tierra 17(1):9-12.  Download

Taylor, Anna J., and C. Lynn Highley
1995    Archeological Investigations at the Loma Sandia site (41LK28): A Prehistoric Cemetery and Campsite in Live Oak County, Texas.  Studies in Archeology 20. Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, the University of Texas, Austin.

Weinstein, Richard A.
1992    Archaeology and Paleogeography of the Lower Guadalupe River/San Antonio Bay Region.  Coastal Environments, report submitted to the Galveston District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.