The Big Blade

In June 2009 we (the two Chris's, Bob and I) were up in Canyon on one of our jaunts up in Canyon, Tejas, cataloging artifacts found at the Alibates 28 site.  This was pretty intensive work, involving thousands of artifacts in a multipart, three person process of pulling the boxes from the stacks, opening the boxes, pulling out each individual item, calling out the multipart item number, weighing it, measuring it three dimensions, entering all this information into a database and then reading it back to ensure proper entry (and I was quite capable of screwing this part up!), and then photographing it from two, and sometimes three of those dimensions. 

Whew! 

If this sounds as if it could be mind boggling, try repeating thousands of times!

But then it was dealing with some truly beautiful material, and sometimes we just had to stop and admire what we'd come across. 

This was the case with The Big Blade...

This was a big one indeed!  And even after puttings hands on enough outstanding artifacts to make an avocationalist salivate, this one was indeed outstanding...

And like happening across that celebrity that you've always admired and wanted to meet in a chance encounter, what else is there to do but to have your picture taken in their presence to prove that you really, really were there, sharing that time in space and hoping that in some small way to impress your friends afterward...

It sure made Chris smile!

Bob's eyes were popping out!

And I'm still wearing that shit eating grin on m'face everytime I think about it!

Alibates Flint Quarries Survey Pictures

Time for some more pictures from the August 2009 survey of the Alibates flint quarries conducted in August of 2009.  These pictures present a side of the quarries that aren't usually seen by most visitors due to vulnerable status of this historic archaeological site.  Tours are available and where this particular location can be seen by the public at large, though it pays to call up in advance to make sure that a tour is on since this is one of the less visited of our National Monuments.  (Don't forget to click on the pictures for larger images...)

Here Chris is measuring one of the round quarry sites located on the hill where tours are led.  It's impressively large, fairly deep, and surrounded by so much beautiful flint debitage it's hard to believe!  There are numerous similar quarry sites up here, though not all the quarry sites out here are necessarily dug down, like this one was.  Many are on hillsides, like the ones seen behind Chris, as well as actually on the hill down away from him. 

Here is one of those boulders, which as one can see from the centimeter marker at the base isn't really all that large.  It is especially interesting because of the sizeable white quartz inclusion it reveals.  Smaller quartz inclusions are not unusual in Alibates flint, but this one is pretty impressive.

Why is Bob smiling like this?  He holds in his hand another interesting find from the survey.  It appears to be a piece of Alibates flint with paleo-flaking!

The Alibates flint quarries are not considered a paleolithic site, but since the Antelope Creek Phase quarriers weren't there to run them off, it's entirely likely that people had been sneaking into the location for thousands of years before them, possibly even leaving evidence of their intrusions behind!

This is one of the most archaeologically significant sections of the quarries, off limits to visitors and actually quite a way from the normally beaten path.  It is the location of Alibates 28, where the much investigated dwelling sites of the quarriers were located.  There are actually the scattered remains (and beleive me, very little does remain) of many dwelling sites scattered around this one, but since we spent so much time at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum going over the artifacts from this area, it was an absolute joy to get to visit see just what it looked like now and how it contrasts to the images created in the minds eye by going over maps of the area so many times.

To the right is the interior of the ruin, and on the left can be some of the few remaining uprights of the dwellings. The stone slabs in them was not laid flat, one upon another, but rather placed upright in two running rows which were then filled and mudded over. 

Here is a closer view of the two rows of slabs which constituted the inner and outer walls, again with a centimeter rule for scale. 

Working in such an environment does start to have its effect after a while, some of which can be quite unexpected.

After a while Chris began to beleive he was some sort of ArcGIS shaman, which in he is in many respects.   However, we had to remind him that no, nothing can be take away from the site and after a slight struggle we did convince him to take the antlers off his head and leave them where he found them.

Alibates Flint Quartz

During a survey of the Alibates Flint Quarries with Bob, Chris, Paul Katz and Arlene Wimer in August, 2009, I came across this fragment of flint with quartz inclusions along one edge. It was one of the more amazing pieces of Alibates flints I've seen, after going through thousands of pieces at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum over the past few years.

It is not an artifact as such, but surely if such pieces were encountered by the original excavators they must have have thought what came to my mind...this could make a hell of a nice piece!


This is another view along the quartz edge, showing the almost amethyst like qualities of these crystals. What a beauty! (Click on the pictures for a larger image...}

Here we see the pale blue banding of the flint along one side which blends seamlessly with the translucent crystals on top.

A slightly different view of the same piece, with a centimeter marker to give it some measure of it's size; it was a fistul! In retrospect a picture of the otherside was unfortunately not taken, largely due to the excitement we felt at this discovery.

Paul, who did the original survey of the site and which we were rechecking with GPS readings, and Arlene, the Ranger who accompanied us on this survey, both acknowledged never seeing such a piece before. And since the policy at this monument is strict in that nothing can be removed from this National Monument, it was handed over to Arlene, hopefully for display at the headquarters. Everyone should get a chance to see this beauty!