Texas Artifacts Views

Books

Kudos to Leslie Pfeiffer, the show host, for orchestrating such a well organized and ‘cleanf’ event. The show would not be what it is today if not for Leslies’s tireless efforts and contributions. Leslie arranged for several significant finds to be displayed during the show. The first was three Clovis points (out of the original eight) from the Naco site in southeast Arizona. This was the first mammoth kill associated with Clovis artifacts to be identified. The second display comprised a Clovis cache from the Gault site in south central Texas.

Rusty L. of central Texas has possibly the finest Texas type collection with outstanding examples of each type arranged by period. A few of the site collections that I was able to take in included Jim Coxt’s Spiro display containing many of the rare artifacts photographed by Dr. Bell in the 1930s. On display were Tribute Points, humongous shell pieces engraved with elaborate scenes, original cloth from costumes found within the inner Spiro Mound chamber, pearls, beads, large pipes, maces, and much more. Richard Rose had his Folsom finds from the Shifting Sands site. Other great site collections included artifacts from Paleo camps along the Canadian and Red rivers as well as artifacts from sites in Alaska, Arizona, and the Pecos region in southwest Texas.

Texas Indian artifacts are like little treasures, laying around waiting to be discovered by a pair of sharp eyes. Points and knife blades made of flint or chert are the most abundant artifacts to be found. These are commonly called arrow heads, though only the smallest of them were hafted to a reed stem and shot with a bow. Other stone implements and tools include axes, celts, scrapers, spear points and cup stones. American Indian artifacts in Texas represent many cultures and span a time period of around 12,000 years. Artifacts can be found ranging from the fluted points used by Paleo-Indian mammoth hunters to Apache arrowheads used to hunt buffalo.

Conduct research on the specific area of Texas you will be hunting. Read all you can about its archaeological history. Learn the hunting and living habits of the ancient inhabitants. Obtain topographical maps of the vicinity from the United States Geological Survey or a book store. Study them to get a feel of the local topography and to plan where you will search for artifacts.