The Williamson-Plainview and Type Milnesand Sites on the Southern High Plains, New Mexico

Vance T. Holliday, Eileen Johnson, James Warnica, C. Vance Haynes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Williamson-Plainview site and the better known Milnesand site are two ancient bison (Bison antiquus) kill sites exposed during drought and wind erosion in the 1950s. The two sites are less than 500 m apart and remarkably similar, both extensive bone beds with scores of unfluted lanceolate Paleoindian projectile points: 85 Plainview and 47 Milnesand at Williamson-Plainview and 62 Milnesand and 10 Plainview at the type Milnesand site. Each site probably contained well over 30 bison from a late fall to early winter kill or kills based on data from Milnesand. Calcined bone from a hearth at Williamson-Plainview is dated to 10,282 ± 80 14C yr BP (12,065 cal yr BP; 11,935-12,180 cal yr BP), which fits well in the known age range of Plainview on the Southern High Plains. The similarities of the two sites and their archaeological assemblages further suggest that Plainview and Milnesand artifacts are essentially the same age.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)122-149
Number of pages28
JournalPaleoAmerica
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 3 2017

Keywords

  • Milnesand
  • Paleoindian
  • Plainview
  • bone bed
  • hearth

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Palaeontology

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