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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

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