The Formative Caddo lived throughout the Arkansas Valley of eastern Oklahoma and the West Gulf Coastal Plain region of east Texas, northwest Louisiana, southwest Arkansas, and southeast Oklahoma between approximately A.D. 850 -1150. While these communities shared similar material traits, their ritual practices and traditions are rather distinct between the two areas. This dissertation uses a communities of practice approach for understanding the ritual dynamics and cultural variability of southern and northern Caddo people by conducting a detailed analysis of the different contexts in which groups produced, used, distributed, and deposited formative fine ware pottery.
Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis is used to determine whether Formative Caddo finewares were made locally in the Arkansas River Basin or produced by their Gulf Coastal Plain neighbors to the south. The INAA results, in concert with a stylistic study indicating very few potters had the knowledge to produce them, show that Formative Caddo finewares were made in the southern Caddo region and exported north to Arkansas Valley mound centers where ritual elites used them for mortuary use. These findings suggest an extensive history of specialized ritual production and long-distance exchange between two diverse areas of the Caddo much earlier than expected.