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Geoarchaeology and Geochronology of the Miami (Clovis) Site, Southern High Plains of Texas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Vance T. Holliday ,
C. Vance Haynes Jr. ,
Jack L. Hofman  and
David J. Meltzer
Vance T. Holliday
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
C. Vance Haynes Jr.
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Jack L. Hofman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045
David J. Meltzer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275
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Abstract

The Miami site, excavated in 1937, is in a small "playa" basin on the High Plains surface. The site is one of the earliest documented co-occurrences of Clovis points and mammoth. Reinvestigation of the site and related collections was undertaken to better understand the stratigraphy, geochronology, and archaeology. The basin, 23 m diameter × 1.6 m deep, filled with (1) dark gray silty clay, and (2) near the top of the section, a lens of well-sorted silt or loess. The basin started to fill ca. 13,700 yr B.P., the loess dates to ca. 11,400 yr B.P., and the bone bed probably dates to ca. 11,400-10,500 yr B.P. The loess may be the local manifestation of a "Clovis drought." The partial remains of five mammoths (three adults and two juveniles) were recovered in 1937; no other animal remains are known. The bone is heavily weathered and there are no clear indications of human modification. Artifacts found at the site include three Clovis points and a scraper found among the bones and two flakes and a scraper found on the surface near the playa. The origins of the bone and stone assemblage are uncertain but four scenarios are offered: a successful mammoth kill, an unsuccessful kill with wounded animals dying at the watering hole, opportunistic scavenging following natural deaths, or a palimpsest of multiple deaths following both natural and human causes.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , March 1994 , pp. 234 - 244
Copyright
University of Washington

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