The Plainview Site: 1962 Discoveries

Abstract

The Plainview site, in Running Water Draw of northwest Texas, was excavated in 1945 and is the type locality for the Plainview artifact style. The artifact assemblage was associated with a bone bed of Bison antiquus which likely resulted from at least two kills. The Plainview style is one of the best known of the unfluted Paleoindian artifacts, but much remains unknown about the site itself. A visit to the site by C.V. Haynes and J.J. Hester in 1962 provides a few additional clues about the site. Active quarrying southeast of the original excavations yielded more probable B. antiquus remains and two Plainview artifacts from the same stratigraphic position as the original finds. The artifacts fit well into the type assemblage. The possibility that the artifacts were associated with bone separated from the original finds hints at repeated Plainview-age use of a larger area for harvesting bison.