Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Volume 33, 1962 Page: 75
257 p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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Comment: Burins appear in all three zones at both Centipede and Damp caves. At
Centipede Cave they appear in essentially the same frequency in all zones,
whereas at Damp Cave, burins are most common in the Upper Zone (Table 8).
At Centipede Cave burins constitute between 3.0 and 4.9% of the total tool types;
at Damp Cave they range between 3.3 and 6.5% of the total tools (tables 3 and 4).
Since our analysis includes a large number of doubtful tools (i.e., crude bifacials),
the burin frequencies recorded are quite low.
BURIN SPALL ARTIFACTS (Fig. 21)
Description: Burin spall artifacts are large burin spalls that show minute or fine
use retouching at one end. The spalls range in length from 2.0 to 6.5 cm., and so
were probably removed by percussion. The four-sided, essentially rectangular
spalls and the three-sided triangular spalls were used at both Centipede and
Damp caves.
No. of Specimens: 63; Damp Cave-49, Centipede Cave-14
Comment: Burin spall artifacts at Damp Cave have about the same frequency in
all three zones, but at Centipede Cave these tools are proportionately most common
in the Lower Zone (Table 8).
It is as difficult to interpret the significance of the different distributions at
both caves as it is to understand why Damp Cave should produce 49 spall arti-
facts and Centipede Cave only 14. These tools are quite thin, and are probably
the finest tools in our collection. It is possible that the screening crews differed
in their ability to spot these flakes, but this possibility seems unlikely.
The burin spall artifacts from Centipede and Damp caves seem to be function-
ally related to those from Iyatayet (Giddings, 1956) except that our own speci-
mens are much larger.
POSSIBLE BURINS (or Angle Gravers)
Description: These doubtful tools are crude, pointed cortex flakes that range in
length from 3.0 to 5.0 cm. They lack the negative bulb of percussion just below
the point that is diagnostic of true burins, and do not show evidence of use. There
is an excellent possibility that this grouping is a potpourri of broken flakes, excep-
tionally crude burins, and the general discard or waste of the chipping industry.
They are given a statistical place in this study because originally these pieces were
classed among the burins. More rigid inspection resulted in their exclusion from
the burin classification, but did not exclude them from the "doubtful tools" cate-
gory.
Number of Specimens: 46; Damp Cave-24, Centipede Cave 22
Comment: Possible burins were found in all three zones at Damp and Centipede
caves, where their frequency almost exactly parallels that of burins. The signifi-
cance of this is obscure.
UNCLASSIFIED UNIFACIALS
Description: This group consists of all unifacial tools with some evidence of retouch-
ing. They are so incomplete that they could not be further classified.Number of Specimens: 60; Damp Cave-26, Centipede Cave-34
73
CENTIPEDE AND DAMP CAVES
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Texas Archeological Society. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Volume 33, 1962, periodical, 1962; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1013817/m1/81/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Archeological Society.