Alex D. Krieger

New Light On the Midland Discovery

Additional excavation in 1955 confirmed the previously reported stratigraphic sequence at Midland, Texas. Within the gray sand, which had yielded a fragmentary human calvarium, there were found additional flint flakes, burned rocks, and animal bones. Besides several small mammals, a four-horned antelope (probably Capromeryx) was present in the gray sand; horse bones occurred in the gray sand and overlying red sand. These finds make the two radiocarbon dates published in the 1955 Midland report, giving an age of about 7000 years to the gray sand, even less acceptable than previously thought. Experimental dating by the uranium daughter products technique suggests an age of about 20,000 years for the gray sand, somewhat excessive in terms of cultural correlations although supported by a single radiocarbon date and not unreasonable for the faunal assemblage. Ten radiocarbon dates from the Midland, Blackwater Draw, Lubbock Lake, and Plainview sites are discussed in terms of three possible correlations of the geological, climatic, faunal, and cultural events in the Southern High Plains.

Eastward Extension of Puebloan Datings Toward Cultures of the Mississippi Valley

THIS article is based on an address to the Society for American Archaeology at its annual meeting on May 17, 1946 at Indianapolis. A following address by Dr. Waldo R. Wedel dealt with the chronology of central Plains cultures. As the two chronologies embraced a very considerable portion of the United States and were in rather remarkably close agreement, it was suggested by retiring editor Byers that they be published in this journal. The general correspondence of our chronologies should provide an interesting and instructive check on the dating of the cultures involved, for neither depended upon the other. It has been my great privilege, and much to my benefit, to have conversed and corresponded with Wedel from time to time on archaeological problems of the Plains, but neither of us has been led by the other toward the conclusions reached in these addresses. This is not to say, of course, that further investigations will not change the picture significantly; indeed, this is to be expected. On the other hand, what can be said now with reasonable assurance lends considerable promise that the time is drawing near for an accurate and reliable dating of cultural developments in the central and southern Plains, as well as in the Mississippi Valley. The accompanying map and chart (Figs. 49, 50) have been simplified from those presented at the Indianapolis meeting.