Analysis of a late Archaic hearth feature at the Debra L. Friedkin Site in central Texas

Summary

The Debra L. Friedkin Site (41BL1239) near Salado, Texas, is the oldest known, continually occupied site in North America. While the previous focus of excavations and analyses at the Friedkin Site has been on Paleoindian strata, this site also has extensive early and late Archaic components, and recent excavations in 2015 and 2016 uncovered a 3 m x 5 m series of five overlapping hearth features in the late Archaic strata (14C 4,000-1,250 B.P.). Projectile points, tools and organic materials such as bone and charcoal were recovered in and around these features, creating an assemblage from which multiple dates can be derived. Through a spatial analysis of projectile points and radiocarbon dating, this complex hearth feature provides the opportunity to better understand not only the site formation processes of the Friedkin site, but also the occupational chronology of the late Archaic Period of central Texas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16944