Calf Creek Horizon Evidence at the Gault Site (41BL323); a description of the imagery found in the Volume 5 cover border design

Dated to ca. 6,000 – 5,750 cal BP considerable amounts of material culture associated with what is identified as the Calf Creek Horizon by Don G. Wyckoff, has been recovered from the Gault site (Wyckoff pp. 1-8, 1994). The natural response to this evidence was to expand upon previous understandings of this time period (Wyckoff and Shockey 1994) (Weber 1994) (Wyckoff and Shockey 1995) (Drass 1999). Directed by Michael B. Collins, a considerable amount of effort was invested by the author to develop a deeper understanding of the human manufacturing behaviors behind the production of the dart points of this horizon throughout the Southern Plains. An upcoming book edited by Jon C. Lohse, Don G. Wyckoff, and Margorie Duncan (Lohse In Press) will feature many insights into this horizon and these point technologies by the author from the Gault School of Archaeological Research (GSAR) and Elton Prewitt from the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory (TARL).The sample of imagery presented here comes from two primary periods of investigation. There is material from the Pearce Collection located at TARL, excavated by J. E. Pearce and his crewmen in 1929 and 1930 (Collins 2011). There are also specimens that relate to GSAR investigations between 1999 and the current day (Williams 2018). The assembled imagery consists of significantly refurbished Andice points, point fragments, Andice stems, several Bell point specimens that have clearly seen service in the ancient past, potential Andice preforms from the Pearce Collection (illustrated by Sergio J Ayala), a practice notching piece, and notching flakes that are a byproduct of Andice point manufacturing. These images comprise a tiny fraction of the Calf Creek Horizon materials from the Gault site. This evidence demonstrates both the discard of exhausted points and tremendous quantities of Andice and Bell point manufacturing at the Gault site. This does not include the nearly 3,000 Andice and Bell point specimens that are said to have been collected from the site during the years when the property was a pay-to-dig operation (Hester 1992) (Collins 2011).Archaeologically, we know very little about the hunter gatherer groups that are the creators of the extraordinarily complex dart points that mark this horizon in time throughout the Southern Plains. Technologically however, we now understand that there are three dart point forms that are contemporaneous, intergrade morphologically, and share similar reduction strategies, techniques, flaking patterns, and reduction sequences. They are the Andice and Bell dart points of Texas and the Calf Creek dart points associated with southeast Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma (Ayala, Technology and Typology of the Calf Creek Horizon In Press).