Archaeological geology of the Lubbock Lake site, Southern High Plains of Texas

Abstract

The Lubbock Lake site is a well-stratified archaeological locality in Yellowhouse Draw on the Southern High Plains of Texas. It has a cultural record that spans the past 11,000+ yr that is contained within a thick sequence of sediments and soils. The sequence at Lubbock Lake is one of the most closely integrated records of late Quaternary human occupation, sedimentation, and soil formation documented in North America. Stratum 1 (11000 yr B.P. and older) was deposited by a meandering stream and contains Clovis-age cultural remains. Stratum 2 is composed of lacustrine sediments (11000 to 10000 yr B.P.) and overlying marsh deposits (10000 to 8500 yr B.P.), with Paleoindian material in both units. The Firstview Soil (8500 to ∼6300 yr B.P.) formed in the top of stratum 2. Stratum 3 (∼6300 to ∼5000 yr B.P.) contains early Archaic material, eolian and marsh deposits suggestive of warm, arid conditions; and the Yellowhouse Soil, indicating a brief period of landscape stability. Stratum 4 (5000 to 4500 yr B.P.) is primarily an eolian unit that marks the second of two periods of severe drought in the middle Holocene. The Lubbock Lake Soil, formed in stratum 4 (beginning 4500 yr B.P.), coincides with the late Archaic and Ceramic periods and documents landscape stability and a return to climatic conditions similar to those of today. Stratum 5 contains late Ceramic, Protohistoric, and Historic archaeological material within eolian and slopewash sediments (and the Apache and Singer Soils), which indicate several shifts toward aridity within the past 1,000 yr.