Adolph H. Witte Collection

Adolph H. Witte (1895–1983) was a geology teacher in Henrietta, Texas, and a long-time member of the Texas Archeological Society.

Though not formally trained in archaeology, Witte worked for the WPA Paleontological–Mineralogical Survey in Bee County during 1939.  Between 1940 and 1941 he led the Clay County Unit of the survey.1  And, in 1943 he was employed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines during a survey of Terlingua Creek and the Rio Grande in Brewster County.

Witte was employed by the Texas Memorial Museum under E.H. Sellards during Sellards’ survey of the Texas High Plains.  In 1952, he served as a foreman and an assistant archaeologist on Ed Jelks’ excavations at Texarkana Reservoir along the Sulphur River, part of the River Basin Surveys.2

Description

Witte’s personal collection of artifacts was gifted to SMU in October 1985 by his widow, although the gift was not officially entered into the SMU catalog until January 1986.  Many of the artifacts in this collection were photographed in Witte’s publications (see bibliography below).

The Witte Collection arrived at SMU organized in 29 Riker mounts, each assigned a Roman numeral.  Most of the mounts have a label or writing on the back side providing context or descriptions of the contents.  No paperwork or documentation accompanied the items when they were gifted to SMU.  The collection has previously been loaned for educational display at the Dallas Museum of Natural History.

During the 2023–2024 academic year, the Witte collection was removed from the Riker mounts (some of which had previously been crushed or broken).  The entirety of the collection was examined and each item inventoried.  Each item was labeled with an accession number, using the original Riker mount Roman numeral as a lot designator (though using Arabic numbers).

Contents

The Witte Collection was coarsely inventoried by box (labeled in Roman numerals) when it arrived at SMU. A complete inventory is in progress.

  1. 19 knives from Staley Ranch
  2. 31 Archaic points from Laird
  3. 13 Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic points from Clay County
  4. 29 points from Live Oak County
  5. 30 Archaic points from Gatesville
  6. 42 points from Gray County
  7. 30 points from Staley Ranch
  8. 26 Archaic points from Staley Ranch
  9. 27 Archaic points and 15 Neo-American points from Clay County; Groundstone objects from Halsell and Tom Roberts sites
  10. 110 points from Staley Ranch
  11. 9 Archaic points and 50 Neo-American points from New Mexico
  12. 132 Neo-American points from Clay County
  13. 37 Archaic points from Laird
  14. 15 potsherds and 4 stone tools from Landergin Mesa
  15. 39 Archaic points from Montague County
  16. 47 Archaic points from Clay County
  17. 16 Archaic points and 3 Neo-American points from Bee County
  18. 31 Archaic points and 16 Neo-American points from Sunset
  19. 45 pipe fragments, most from Spanish Fort
  20. 14 lanceolate knives from Staley Ranch
  21. 11 Archaic points from Lubbock Reservoir
  22. Box 22: 13 Archaic points from Witte Farm
  23. 12 Neo-American points from John Glascow Farm
  24. 9 Archaic points from Thaxton Ranch
  25. Trade beads from Thaxton Ranch
  26. 3 Corner-tang knives from Clay County
  27. 9 Bone awls from Cedar Springs
  28. 18 Gunflints from Spanish Fort
  29. 5 strands of trade beads

Published Works by Adolph H. Witte

  1. 1935     Archeology of a section of Upper Red River drainage. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 7: 33–38.
  2. 1936     Kitchen middens of the Upper Red River drainage. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 8: 37–44.
  3. 1938     Buried middens in the floodplain of the Little Wichita River. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 9: 103–104.
  4. 1938     Spanish Fort, an historic Wichita site. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 9: 115–119.
  5. 1942     Channelled points from Clear Fork sites in North Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 14: 27–31.
  6. 1942     Certain caches of flints from the North Texas area. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 14: 72–76.
  7. 1943     Notes on the Big Bend Region of Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 15: 108–109.
  8. 1946     Additional archeological data from North Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 17: 91–92.
  9. 1947     Certain archaeological notes on the High Plains of Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 18: 76–82.
  10. 1955     Surface points from the badlands of the upper western Cross Timbers of Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 26: 249–255.
  11. 1956     An artifact from the high terrace of Red River. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 27: 211–214.
  1. DiMichele, W.A., R.W. Hook, H. Kerp, C.L. Hotton, C.V. Looy, and D.S. Chaney. 2018. Lower Permian flora of the Sanzenbacher Ranch, Clay County, Texas. In: Transformative Paleobotany, M. Krings, C.J. Harper, N. Rubén-Cúneco, G.W. Rothwell (eds.), pp. 95–126. Academic Press, New York. ↩
  2. Jelks, E.B. 1961. Excavations at Texarkana Reservoir, Sulphur River, Texas. In: River Basin Surveys Papers. Bulletin 179. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D.C. ↩