Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Volume 33, 1962 Page: 79
257 p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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CENTIPEDE AND DAMP CAVES
MANOS
Of the seven manos recovered from Centipede Cave, four are of lime-
stone, two are of sandstone, and one is of vesicular basalt. Except for
the last, pecking marks are visible on the grinding surfaces of all speci-
mens. The manos are small and easily held in one hand.
The most distinctive and common type has two flat, non-parallel,
grinding surfaces. Two very worn examples have working surfaces
that converge to almost a knife edge and give the mano a wedge-shaped
cross section. They are oval, 2.4 cm. thick, of limestone, and came from
the Upper Zone. Two other specimens, one oval and of limestone, and
the other rectangular and of sandstone, came from the surface.
Another mano type is oval, plano-convex, and ground on only one
surface. One comes from the Intermediate Zone, the other is Unstrati-
fied. They seem to be unmodified river cobbles.
The last form is represented by half of what originally may have
been an oval mano. It has two flat and parallel grinding surfaces. Its
diameter is 11.6 cm., and thickness is 3.4 cm. It was unstratified. It
was apparently shaped by pecking.
Comment: Pecos River Focus sites contain a variety of mano types,
but the wedge-shaped form is considered most characteristic (Kelley,
Campbell, and Lehmer, 1940: 26; Pearce and Jackson, 1933: 88; Cof-
fin, 1932: 23). The Centipede Cave collection is therefore quite typical.
MILLING STONES
Milling stones showing undeniable evidence of grinding were not
found at Centipede Cave, nor were there any of the mortar holes so
often reported for the Pecos River Focus. One limestone slab fragment,
3.7 cm. thick, and 11.8 cm. long, shows possible smoothing on both
surfaces, and is the only possible metate in our collection.
MISCELLANEOUS
The stone sample from Centipede Cave includes a number of water-
worn boulders of basalt, quartzite, quartz, and trachyte that are com-
mon in the Rio Grande. The Upper Zone contained seven, the Inter-
mediate eight, and the Lower Zone six specimens. Three showed thick
deposits of red pigment, but do not seem to have functioned as grinding
stones. One shows striations or scratch marks near the ends on both sur-
faces, and came from the Intermediate Zone. Similar scratch marks are
reported by Martin (n.d.b: 83) and Davenport (n.d.: 6). One of these77
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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/m1/85/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Archeological Society.