Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T08:41:16.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Cultural Affiliations and Chronological Position of the Clear Fork Focus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

J. Charles Kelley*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas

Extract

The importance of the Clear Fork Focus as a pre-pottery archaeological complex of north-central Texas has become generally known to archaeologists through the industry of its discoverer and principal proponent, Dr. Cyrus N. Ray, of Abilene, Texas. Unfortunately, the relationship of this complex to other and comparable archaeological cultures of Texas has been largely neglected and some regrettable misinformation in regard to its chronological position has been widely disseminated. In this paper the cultural affiliations and age of the Clear Fork Focus will be discussed in terms of the evidence presented by its discoverers and from the standpoint of new data derived from large scale excavations completed by the University of Texas in the terraces of the Colorado River near Austin, Texas. Additional information obtained by the writer through study of some twelve thousand projectile points from central, south, and western Texas, and their geographic and temporal distribution also is used.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1947

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albritton, Claude C. Jr., and Bryan, Kirk 1939. “Quaternary Stratigraphy in the Davis Mountains, Trans-Pecos Texas.” Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. 50, pp. 142374.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1938. “Deep Sites Near Abilene, Texas.” Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society, Vol. 10, pp. 2734. Abilene.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1941. “Pre-Columbian Agriculture in the Southwest, as Conditioned by Periods of Alluviation.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 21942.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk, and Ray, Cyrus N. 1938. “Long Channelled Point Found in Alluvium Beside Bones of Elephas Columbi.” Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society, Vol. 10, pp. 2638. Abilene.Google Scholar
Campbell, T. N. 1940. “Possum Kingdom Basin.” In “Recent Field Work in Texas.” Texas Archaeological News, No. 2, pp. 911.Google Scholar
Chelp, Carl 1941. “A Greenstone Head from Travis County, Texas.” Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society, Vol. 13, pp. 5862. Abilene.Google Scholar
Ekholm, Gordon F. 1944. “Excavations at Tampico and Panuco in the Huasteca, Mexico.” Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 38, Pt. 5. New York.Google Scholar
Figgins, Jesse Dade 1927. “The Antiquity of Man in America.” Natural History, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 22939. New York.Google Scholar
Hack, John T. 1942. “The Changing Physical Environment of the Hopi Indians of Arizona.Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 35, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hack, John T. 1945. “Recent Geology of the Tsegi Canyon.” In “Archaeological Studies in Northeast Arizona.“ University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 1518. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hooton, E. A. 1933. “Notes on Five Texas Crania.” Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society, Vol. 5, pp. 2538. Abilene.Google Scholar
Kelley, J. Charles, and Campbell, T. N. 1942. “What Are the Burnt Rock Mounds of Texas?AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 31922.Google Scholar
Kelley, J. Charles, Campbell, T. N., and Lehmer, Donald J. 1940. “The Association of Archaeological Materials with Geological Deposits in the Big Bend Region of Texas.” Publication, West Texas Historical and Scientific Society, No. 10.Google Scholar
Krieger, Alex D. 1943. “Archaeological Horizons in the Caddo Area.” El Norte de Mexico y El Sur de Estados Unidos, pp. 154-6. Mexico.Google Scholar
Krieger, Alex D. 1946. “Culture Complexes and Chronology in Northern Texas.” Publication, University of Texas, No. 4640. Austin.Google Scholar
Krieger, Alex D. 1947. “Artifacts from the Plainvfew Bison Bed.“ Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, October, 1947.Google Scholar
Leighton, M. M. 1936. “Geological Aspects of the Finding of Primitive Man Near Abilene, Texas.” Medallion Papers, No. 24. Globe: Gila Pueblo.Google Scholar
Mcgregor, J. C. 1941. Southwestern Archaeology. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Newell, Perry 1940. “Alto Mound.” In “Recent Field Work in Texas.” Texas Archaeological News, No. 2, pp. 223.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1929. “New Evidence of Ancient Man in America.” Scientific American, May, pp. 4301. New York.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1933. “Multiple Burials in Stone Cist Mounds of the Abilene Region.Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society, Vol. 5, pp. 1424. Abilene.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1934. “Flint Cultures of Ancient Man in Texas.” Idem, Vol. 6, pp. 10711.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1937. “More Evidence Concerning Abilene Man.Idem, Vol. 9, pp. 193217.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1938. “The Clear Fork Culture Complex.Idem, Vol. 10, pp. 193207.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1940a. “Editorial Note.Idem, Vol. 12, pp. 21112.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1940b. “The Deeply Buried Gibson Site.Idem, Vol. 12, pp. 22337.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1941. “Another Type of Gibson Site Point.Idem, Vol. 13, p. 177.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1942. “Ancient Artifacts and Mammoth's Teeth of the McLean Site.” Idem, Vol. 14, pp. 13746.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N. 1945a. “Stream Bank Silts of the Abilene Region.Idem, Vol. 16, pp. 11747.Google Scholar
Ray, Cyrus N., and Sayles, E. B. 1941. “An Agreement on Abilene Region Terminology.” Idem, Vol. 13, pp. 1756.Google Scholar
Roberts, F. H. H. Jr. 1940. “Developments in the Problem of the North American Paleo-Indian.” In “Essays in Historical Anthropology of North America,Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 100, pp. 51116. Washington.Google Scholar
Roberts, F. H. H. Jr. 1945. “A Deep Burial on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River.Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society, Vol. 16, pp. 930. Abilene.Google Scholar
Sayles, E. B. 1935. “An Archaeological Survey of Texas.” Medallion Papers, No. 17. Globe: Gila Pueblo.Google Scholar
Sellards, E. H., Evans, Glenn, and Campbell, T. N. 1940. “Pleistocene Artifacts and Associated Fossils from Bee County, Texas.” Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. 61, pp. 162758, 1659-64.Google Scholar
Webb, C. H., and Dodd, Munroe Jr. 1939. “Further Excavations of the Gahagan Mound; Connection With a Florida Culture.” Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society, Vol. 11, pp. 92128. Abilene.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S., and De Jarnette, D. L. 1942. “An Archaeological Survey of Pickwick Basin in the Adjacent Portions of the States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.” Bulletin, Bureau of American Ethnology, No. 129. Washington.Google Scholar
Wormington, H. M. 1944. “Ancient Man in North America.Popular Series, Colorado Museum of Natural History, No. 4. Pueblo.Google Scholar