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

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.