Hi All,
New Years Day, my son Chris Fraser, cousin Brad Stiles & friends Earl & son Seth Ray & I left SE KS & hammered 710 miles SW to Campwood, TX. Having made plans by contacting Nacho in advance, we were ready for 2 full days on the screens. Bright & early the next morning, after breakfast at the Casa Falcon in Campwood, we followed Ike Postell to the Digsite, just 2+ miles outside of Barksdale along the ever flowing crystal clear Nueces River. Day one went well, met some new folks on the screens & everyone found artifacts, doesnt get better than that! Heres shots from Jan. 2 at Nachos site:
"In-Situ" of a Lajita that was on top
Another point on the top pile of dirt:
My son Chris & his nice Montell he found:
Chris & my days finds for Jan. 2:
Brads finds for Friday:
Chris & my finds for Saturday:
Brads finds for Saturday, note the BLACK eccentric he scored, WOW!:
A KILLER Andice another digger scored on Saturday, on my table, congrats on this super piece Bud!:
Our Kansas gang on Saturday, before we left for home, left to right: Chris, John, Earl, Seth & Brad. I will get Earl & Seths finds posted soon from this fun trip. later, John
Great Report John, the good photos tell all! Thank You greatly for sharing them with us! I am a ranch owner here at Camp Wood, and I know that was a long way to come. Nacho & Ike are good on the loaders, and treat folks well.
Mornin John, As I warned you yesterday, more comments on how you started '09 !
First pic, UPSTREAM, compliments Travis' report pic DOWNSTREAM, metally join them and what a terrific
location the residents of that camp had !
The standout black eccentric might not be just a one of a kind. In the STONE ARTIFACTS OF TEXAS reference book, there is a picture under "multi-notched early archaic lithics" that has basic similarity to yours.
Said to be "BELL/ANDICE HORIZON" not out of the
question for being with all those older points.
Wonder if that Complete Montell Chris found could be defined as an EARLY form of the later "buck tooth " ?
in the first pic layout there seems to be two other brokes that might be similar to the complete.
Same frame, bottom right, could that be a JETTA base ?
Thanks everyone for the comments, SH you were up bright & early this am to post, perhaps your "digging" today? :) Its easy to sure see like you said about the river pics Travis & I took, of how the river was a key item in the survival & life of early man there. No doubt water flowed way back then, similiar to its stream now, providing water, and constant food items when they didnt hunt land animals/plants. I wonder what type of shelter the indians WAY back then 3000-7000+ years used along the river & in the hill country for shelter?? How about comments & ideas on this, as we know tepees, lean-to's, etc. were used by indians the last few hundred years, was that still the shelter for the people from even further back??
I took photos of Earls & Seths finds from Jan. 2-3, will get them posted later today. John
John, re accomodations in this part of the world. I personally dont know much about the early shelters.
Some "professional" accounts just state " there were none as the people were transient " [ nomatic with the game and seasons ].
There must have been more to it though as some camps have ACRES of burned fire rock that
represents food making for more than a couple of days per visit.
Speaking of a camp indicator. . . . . Yours pics of mountains of soil look pretty barren !
Those La Jita close ups are great [ especially in focus !] but again show the"potting soil',
Narry a snail to be seen!
Rock shelters, no matter how small [ even crawl in heighth ] always seem to yield flint flakes from occupation.
AND , , , , , ,, speaking of soil. . . . . Have you seen any of it in KS ?? [ or in May when the snow melts ! ]
Heres Earl & Seth's Finds from Jan. 2-3 at Nachos, Earls large Kinney Blade came out freshly broken on the table in 3 pieces & they managed to find the 2 largest pieces, it woulda been a G-9 and look at the andices, bottom right, what awesome points.....
S Hal,
Thanks for the info on shelters, I guess we can all only imagine what they really used thousands of years ago, but it seems that they would have had to have used something when there was rain, and cold & wet weather. We saw some snails in the dirt we screened those 2 days, but we were staying mostly on the outsides of a midden, though we had our share of midden rock to throw off the tables sometimes.
I personally have never seen midden rock here in KS, like the way it occurs in Texas. We do find some reddened small burnt limestones on fields where we knew it was a campsite, I call them firerocks, just another name for midden rock maybe? But its never in the amount or concentrations that I have seen from Central through West Texas. I have walked many miles of creeks & rivers here & have never seen the snail lines or any midden layers in the banks or walls like whats seen in Texas. Maybe those snails couldnt live this far North? Anyone else seen the snail lines Hal speaks of in OK or KS?? I think digging could be done up here, but finding camps as old & established as you all do in TX, well, I havent had any success myself punching a few holes in the ground, but maybe someone has, who knows? Just a few thoughts for you SH, Thanks, John :)
John, the last of the finds posted really compliment a good report.
Re your Kansas camps vs Texas burned midden camps, even within the TX borders there are big variations.
For instance "out west " where there is no top soil or
east TX where there is Too much top soil [ silt & fe limestone outcrops] OR take the case of that young fellow in North TX, that has a mano camp with
burned sandstone !
Your report is a good example for anyone else wanting an interesting vacation. . . .BUT it also shows that a " working vacation " can be very strenuous.
Not counting drive time and burger & tinkle stops, this is the way it looks like your time on the screens went; ; ;
5 people
8 hours per day = 40 man hours per day
X 2 days = 80 man hours on the screens
X 60 minutes = total man minutes = 4800 minutes
246 worked pieces [ +/- ? ]divide into minutes
Each screener in your group was finding a worked piece of flint every 19.51 minutes.
IF each screeners time was proportionatly offset, that means a worked piece was being
found every 3.92 minutes.
Certain not your average relaxing "cruise ship" vacation !