Murray Springs: A Clovis Site With Multiple Activity Areas in the San Pedro Valley, Arizona

by Haynes, C. Vance, Jr.; Hucknell, Bruce B.; Agenbroad, Larry D. (CON); Frison, George C. (CON); Hemmings, E. Thomas (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780816525799
• ISBN10: 081652579X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-05-31
• Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr

Summary

The Murray Springs Site in the upper San Pedro River Valley of southeast Arizona is one of the most significant Clovis sites ever found. It contained a multiple bison kill, a mammoth kill, and possibly a horse kill in a deeply stratified sedimentary context. Scattered across the buried occupation surface with the bones of late Pleistocene animals were several thousand stone tools and waste flakes from their manufacture and repair. Because of the unique occurrence of an algal black mat that buried the Clovis-age surface immediately after abandonment, the distributional integrity of the artifacts and debitage clusters is exceptional for Paleoindian sites. Excavation of the Clovis hunters' camp 50 to 150 meters south of the kills revealed artifactual evidence typical of hunting camp activity, including hide working and weapons repair. Impact flakes conjoining with Clovis points clearly tied the camp to the bison kill. The unique nature of the site and this comprehensive study of the excavated material constitute one of the most important contributions to our knowledge of Paleoindian hunters in the New World.

Table of Contents

Clovis investigations in the San Pedro Valley	p. 1
Quaternary geology of the Murray Springs Clovis site	p. 16
Modern vegetation of the Murray Springs area and the upper San Pedro Valley	p. 57
Molluscan faunas of the San Pedro Valley, Arizona	p. 62
Buried animal kills and processing localities, areas 1-5	p. 83
Bison ages from dentitions at the Murray Springs Clovis site, Arizona	p. 138
The hunting camp at Murray Springs	p. 146
Clovis lithic technology : a view from the upper San Pedro Valley	p. 170
Clovis paleoecology as viewed from Murray Springs, Arizona	p. 214
Afterword : does the past have a future at Murray Springs?	p. 226
Radiocarbon dating at Murray Springs and curry draw	p. 229
Nature and origin of the Black Mat, Stratum F[subscript 2]	p. 240
Chemical evaluation of the black mat deposit at Murray Springs	p. 242
Pyrolytic gas chromatographic mass spectrometry analysis	p. 245
[superscript 13]C-NMR spectral analyses of the black mat samples	p. 247
Sources of Obsidian at the Murray Springs Clovis site : a semi-quantitative x-ray fluorescence analysis	p. 250
Vertebrate specimens from Murray Springs areas 1-5	p. 255
Geological and archaeological investigations at Murray Springs, area 9 and trench 13N	p. 266
Identification numbers of illustrated artifacts from the Murray Springs site	p. 273
Murray Springs project field personnel, volunteers, and site visitors	p. 276
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