Introduction to Panhandle Prehistory

European Explorers  
weren't the first to explore the Texas Panhandle. All natives indigenous to the area were first, explorers in their own right. Whatever their origin, natives were constantly exploring new resources. For more information go to   "EXPLORATION." The Handbook of Texas Online.

New Discoveries
in man's first occupation of North America are constantly bring revised. The following link The New World may be 20,000 years older than thought
is from an article in US News and World Report. There are other articles as well: Discovering Archaeology has other articles about the peopling of the Americas. The oldest city in the Americas, Monte Verde, Chile is an interesting article that places the first Americans in Chile. The oldest urban settlement Caral, Peru is also interesting.

Anatomically Modern homo sapiens from the Smithsonian Institute Human Origins Program discusses the origin of modern humans.

Miami, Texas One of the oldest pre-historical sites in Texas, Horse Creek proves the existence of Clovis culture hunters and Columbian mammoths in the Texas Panhandle.  For more information go to "HORSE CREEK." The Handbook of Texas Online.

Revisions: "Clovis First" theories are being challenged now that new discoveries are being made and new scientific dating techniques are being used. Scientific American's Discovering Archaeology ran several articles recently discussing new theories about the First Americans. The articles are on the Panhandle Nation server at  http://www.panhandlenation.com/prehistory/disc_arc/index.htm. 
     The January/February 2000 issue is available at Discovering Archaeology for about  $7.00 US. 

Another article that appeared in Newsweek discusses new evidence discovered in both North and South America backdates many of the earliest discoveries. I found this article in Boise Matthews' Go Southwest section of About.com

Beringia is the now submerged land area that separates Alaska in North America from Asia. It is believed that during the Ice Age, when the ocean levels were lower, an exposed land mass was used by early immigrants in their journey to North America.

Most points In reference to Clovis, Folsom and Plainview hunting points of Paleo-Indian origin, the best web site on the subject, Paleo-Indian & Other Archaeological Stuff, is maintained by Toni Baker. Baker's grandfather, mother and father made numerous discoveries in New Mexico and the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. Their collection, one of the largest in the world, can be viewed at the No Man's Land Museum in Goodwell, Oklahoma. 

Antelope Creek-phase, which refers to the prehistoric period nearest to the Columbian discoveries, "is the cultural designation assigned to a series of prehistoric sites in the upper Texas and Oklahoma panhandles utilized by semisedentary, bison-hunting, and horticultural groups during a period of aridity between A.D. 1200 and 1500" as described by Linz in  "Antelope Creek Phase," The Handbook of Texas Online: "The first  major interpretive synthesis of the Antelope Creek phase was developed by Alex Krieger (1946), who systematically described the cultural remains, employed the Midwest Taxonomic System (which defines cultures on the basis of artifact similarities) to coin the term "Antelope Creek focus" for sites in Texas, and grouped them with similar materials in adjacent regions into a poorly defined "Panhandle aspect." Subsequently, Lintz (1986) focused on examining intracultural variability for twenty-eight excavated sites in a fifty-mile segment of the Canadian River valley centered on Lake Meredith." The name sake of the Antelope Creek Focus comes from Antelope Creek where it begins in Carson County. It is mouth into the Canadian River is located at grid coordinates 35°44' N, 101°29' W, east of Sanford in southwestern Hutchinson County. View a Tiger Map of Antelope Creek.

Alibates Flint Quarry This area around Lake Meredith was a source of flint used by prehistoric inhabitants of the Panhandle. The flint was used to make various tools for hunting and other purposes. Billets, or unformed chunks of flint, were transported to other cultures through trade networks. Tools made of Alibates flint have been found in numerous locations around North America. see the National Park Service Geology Field Notes For location information see this Map.  

     In the Report on Archaeological Salvage in the Sanford Reservoir Area (Panhandle Archaeological Society Publication No. 4, 1986, page 3) a publication that references the excavations of the Canadian River Valley in the early and mid 1960's prior to the construction of the Sanford Dam, author F. E. Green states that, 

     "It is not known when prehistoric peoples first began mining Alibates Flint, but it is likely that intensive quarrying operations were begun only after the Canadian River Valley was occupied by the semi-sedentary peoples of the Panhandle Pueblo Culture (Panhandle Aspect) about A.D. 1100." 
And furthermore, 
     "Nomadic hunting groups and other prehistoric migrants moving across, or up and down the Canadian River Valley probably utilized the Alibates flint cobbles picked up from terrace outcrops, or simply knocked chunks of flint from available outcrops encountered along their routes of travel."

A list of  numerous Antelope Creek Phase Sites can be found in the article "Antelope Creek Phase," The Handbook of Texas Online. Several of the sites in the Lake Meredith Recreational Area are scientifically documented in the Report on Archaeological Salvage in the Sanford Reservoir Area (Green, E. F., Panhandle Archaeological Society Publication No. 4, 1986)

The Buried City Complex was part of the Panhandle Pueblo culture and was adjacent to the Antelope Creek focus. David Hughes of the University of Oklahoma argues that the contemporaneous Buried City was culturally distinct from the Antelope Creek

Caddoan peoples flourished on the western edge of the woodlands of eastern North America between 1000 B.C. and A.D. 1550. For more information visit "The Caddoan Mounds State Historical Site," The Handbook of Texas Online.

Mississippian Woodland culture are those civilizations that flourished from the vast resources around the Mississippi River from the Clovis period until the Europeans began to occupy the river basin.

The Paleo-Indian Period: Clovis

More information about Weather conditions during the Paleo-Indian period can be found in an article called "PALEOENVIRONMENTS," The New Handbook of Texas.
Additionally, comprehensive analysis of the age of the Panhandle Aspect cultures have been made in 1966 by Baerreis and Bryson. In the course of dating artifacts and studying climatic conditions, they found that

southern movement of peoples who formed the Panhandle Aspect occurred as a result of the initiation of drought conditions in the north around A. D. 1250. This climatic episode, which we have designated the pacific Climatic Episode, lasted until around A. D. 1450 and during this interval the Panhandle Aspect would presumably have received greater precipitation. We assume that many of the Panhandle Aspect sites located on lateral streams and near headwaters of tributaries were dependant upon local rainfall for their agriculture and hence the occupation of the region would probably terminate around A.D. 1450 when the climatic episode ended. 

This article can be found in the Report on Archaeological Salvage in the Sanford Reservoir Area (Green, F. E., Panhandle Archaeological Society Publication No. 4, 1986, page 111). The original literature is Historical Climatology and the Southern Plains: A Preliminary Statement, 1965, from the Bulletin of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society, Vol. 13, pp. 69-75, and Dating the Panhandle Aspect Cultures, 1966, also from the Bulletin of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society, Vol. 14, pp. 105 - 116 by David A. Baerreis and Reid A. Bryson. 
     Another hypothesis describing a similar drought on the southern plains during this supposed wet period can be found in Stephen A. Hall's Late Holocene Paleoecology of the Southern Plains. Quarternary Research, Vol. 17, pp. 391-407. Orlando, Florida, 1982. The Antelope Creek Focus flourished because of fossil springs from the Ogallala Aquifer. They also declined because of deteriorating weather conditions. This can be found in Christopher Linz's Architecture and Community Variability within the Antelope Creek Phase of the Texas Panhandle, PhD. dissertation, 1984,  University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. 

General climatic conditions during the paleo-Indian period are discussed in an article by C. Vance Hines in Discovering Archaeology's The First Americans series. 
His article, New World Climates, are available online at 
http://www.panhandlenation.com/prehistory/disc_arc/climate.htm. The January/February 2000 issue is available at Discovering Archaeology for about  $7.00.

 More information about Paleo-Climatology can be found at the National Geophysical Data Center. Data sets can be downloaded from The World Data Center System. The information is provided by National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Canadian River was, and still is, the fertile crescent of the Texas Panhandle. A complete topographical map of the River through the Panhandle can be found at Panhandle Nation's Canadian River Composite Map Series

More information about the Ogallala Aquifer can be found at the North Plains Ground Water District web site.

The John Miller Morris article on "Exploration," in the Handbook of Texas Online provides some information about population during the Paleo-Indian period. Bob Izzard's booklet,  Alibates: The Legend, states that there were "more people then [in the Texas Panhandle Antelope Creek phase] than now" could not possibly be true; in 1990 the Panhandle maintained a population of more than 300,000. A population of such magnitude in a small area requires a tremendous commercial/transportation infrastructure. Retired Park Ranger Wes Phillips says that there may have been 30,000 at most. Izzard's booklet is available at Hastings Books and Records or from the Tangleaire Press, 2605 S. Hughes, Amarillo, TX. 79109. (806)-376-7139.

The Llano Estacado, or "Staked Plains" is briefly described in a short article by The US Geological Survey.

The Ice Age can be studied in numerous locations around the web. A good place to start is The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. Additional information can be found at Institute for Ice Age Studies at New York University.

Discovering Archaeology notes from Discovering Archaeology: The First Americans Issue 7, January/February, 2000. Kenneth B. Tankersley, a geoarchaeologist and specialist in peopling of the Americas, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Kent State University. The articles are on the Panhandle Nation server at  http://www.panhandlenation.com/prehistory/disc_arc/index.htm. The January/February 2000 issue is available at Discovering Archaeology for about  $7.00.

Thomas R. Hester and Ellen Sue Turner, authors of  TEXAS PREHISTORY," The Handbook of Texas Online

Discovering Archaeology's article by J.M. Adovasio and D.C. Hyland are available on the Panhandle Nation server at http://www.panhandlenation.com/prehistory/disc_arc/index.htm . 
The January/February 2000 issue is available at Discovering Archaeology for about  $7.00

Beyond Clovis in the Panhandle

Texas Prehistory Hester and Turner,  TEXAS PREHISTORY," The Handbook of Texas Online.

Once thought to span thousands of years, the Clovis era is now dated to a few hundred, roughly from 11,400 to 10,900 radiocarbon years ago (13,325 - 12,975 cal BP).  The text of that article, The Clovis Hunters by Jack  L. Hofman,  are available on the Panhandle Nation server at  http://www.panhandlenation.com/prehistory/disc_arc/index.htm . 
The January/February 2000 issue is available at Discovering Archaeology for about  $7.00

Discovering Archaeology has other articles about the peopling of the Americas. The oldest city in the Americas, Monte Verde, Chile is an interesting article that places the first Americans in Chile. The oldest urban settlement Caral, Peru is also interesting.

Other sources include the aforementioned Hester and Turner,  TEXAS PREHISTORY," The Handbook of Texas Online.

The existence cemeteries is discussed more in depth in "Antelope Creek Phase," The Handbook of Texas Online.

Antelope Creek referenced in "Antelope Creek Phase," The Handbook of Texas Online.

Buried City is referenced in "Buried City Complex," The Handbook of Texas Online.

The Antelope Creek Phase

Antelope Creek Phase  "is the cultural designation assigned to a series of prehistoric sites in the upper Texas and Oklahoma panhandles utilized by semisedentary, bison-hunting, and horticultural groups during a period of aridity between A.D. 1200 and 1500" as described by Linz in  "Antelope Creek Phase," The Handbook of Texas Online: "The first  major interpretive synthesis of the Antelope Creek phase was developed by Alex Krieger (1946), who systematically described the cultural remains, employed the Midwest Taxonomic System (which defines cultures on the basis of artifact similarities) to coin the term "Antelope Creek focus" for sites in Texas, and grouped them with similar materials in adjacent regions into a poorly defined "Panhandle aspect." Subsequently, Lintz (1986) focused on examining intracultural variability for twenty-eight excavated sites in a fifty-mile segment of the Canadian River valley centered on Lake Meredith." The name sake of the Antelope Creek Focus comes from Antelope Creek where it begins in Carson County. It is mouth into the Canadian River is located at grid coordinates 35°44' N, 101°29' W, east of Sanford in southwestern Hutchinson County.

The Canadian River valley must contain hundreds of prehistoric sites dating from the Paleo Indian era through the modern, post-Columbian period of 1520 A.D. Many believe the river was, and is today,  too salty to use as a water source for both humans and animals, thus the main water source for the prehistoric inhabitants was fossil springs and rain water stored playas or in man-made vessels. 

Wolf Creek in Roberts County is part of the Wolf Creek that runs from Ochiltree County in the Texas Panhandle into the Canadian River in Oklahoma at grid coordinates 36°35' N, 99°30' W. 

Perryton is the place name nearest to the Buried City Complex, found along the Wolf Creek in Ochiltree County. 

The Buried City and Antelope Creek cultures were the farthest southwest cultures of the Plains Village horizon. They were a separate culture from the pueblo and desert cultures of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Plains horizon cultures,  "which included many bison-hunting and horticultural village societies with similar adaptations resident in the mixed-grass prairies extending from north central Texas to North Dakota," were in fact, primarily agricultural in the Texas Panhandle due to the weather conditions of the time period.

Agricultural products were their primary food sources, Report on Archaeological Salvage in the Sanford Reservoir Area (Green, F. E., Panhandle Archaeological Society Publication No. 4, 1986, page 109 - 110).

The best source of information about Antelope Creek architecture is the Report on Archaeological Salvage in the Sanford Reservoir Area (Green, F. E., Panhandle Archaeological Society Publication No. 4, 1986) which contains drawings and photographs of excavations and artist's conceptions of the different types of dwellings. Linz has an in depth explanation of the architecture in his article on the Antelope Creek culture.

   In the Report on Archaeological Salvage in the Sanford Reservoir Area (Green, F. E., Panhandle Archaeological Society Publication No. 4, 1986, pages 109 - 110) there is an interesting but short discussion of Antelope Creek horticulture and food sources. 

"Although the use of beans and squash has been inferred, definite evidence of these food items was obtained from Room I at the Footprint Site. From this evidence it can be concluded that the people of the Antelope Creek Focus cultivated corn, beans and squash, and that they gathered locally available natural foods. The presence of charred grain of an unidentified variety at the Footprint Site presents the interesting possibility that the harvesting of wild grains may have been a significant food gathering activity." 

A good explanation of food sources can also be found in Linz's Antelope Creek article. A list of trade items can also be found as well.  

Interesting information is also available about prehistoric trade in Hester and Turner's "TEXAS PREHISTORY," The Handbook of Texas Online.

For more information about trade items refer to Linz's Antelope Creek article, Hester and Turner's Prehistory article and the Report on Archaeological Salvage in the Sanford Reservoir Area (Green, F. E., Panhandle Archaeological Society Publication No. 4, 1986).

The Niobrara river in Nebraska is the namesake for the jasper. For more information go to The Niobrara National Scenic River web site.

In the prehistoric Texas Panhandle the Ogallala Aquifer provided drinking water for humans and animals through fossil springs. Today the economy flourishes from wells drilled into the Aquifer. More information can be found at the North Plains Ground Water District web site.

The Apacheans occupied the Panhandle region about A. D. 1500 and replaced the prehistoric Panhandle Aspect. See E. F. Green's article on the disappearance of the Antelope Creek Focus from the Texas Panhandle in the Report on Archaeological Salvage in the Sanford Reservoir Area (Green, F. E., Panhandle Archaeological Society Publication No. 4, 1986, page 111).