Spatial and Sedimentological Analyses of Redeposited Paleoindian Projectile Points from McFaddin Beach, Texas

Summary

McFaddin Beach (41JF50), in Jefferson County, Texas, is a 32 kilometer-long beach, stretching from High Island in the west to Sea Rim State Park (next to the mouth of the Sabine River) in the east. Since the 1950s, artifacts from almost all periods of Texas pre-history have been recovered on this beach. The projectile points found on McFaddin Beach are redeposited material from an offshore, submerged location. Results indicate that projectile point distribution is significantly correlated to longshore drift and hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico. Recent studies have been performed to test whether artifact distributions along the beach are correlated with sediment grain size patterns and distributions along the coast. This paper discusses the results from these studies and the role currents, longshore drift, and hurricane activity have on artifact distribution and implications they may have for identifying the offshore site location of these artifacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage