Transactions of the Regional Archeological Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas: 1983 Page: 53
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CRANE COUNTY
41 CR 4
Burial
On July 4, 1977, a group of picnickers in the Penwell Sandhills
found some bones eroding out of a active sand dune near the crest.
They uncovered a portion of the skeleton, discovering, in the area
of the hands, a number of dart points. They removed the skull, which
came out in many pieces. They gathered up the numerous pieces and
placed them in a brown paper bag.
The following morning a member of the group told her employer.of
the discovery. The employer became quite concerned.over the discovery.
She contacted the State Archeologist, Curtis Tunnell, and reported the
find. Mr. Tunnell contacted Francis and Teddy Stickney to investigate
this report.
We made contact with the.member of the group and were shown the
location of the burial and given the brown paper bag containing the
fragments of the skull. Later we were allowed to photograph and sketch
the dart point, which she had in her possession, but unable to see the
other points which had been distributed among the other members of the
group.
On September 4, 1977, after.signing a release of liability,
permission to excavate was received from the present landholders of
the ranch where the burial was located, Tanque, Inc. of Odessa, Texas.
We removed the sand from around the burial very carefully, attempt-
ing to find or locate the burial cist, but could not. There had been
too much activity around the burial site. We started a pedestal around
the skeleton and very carefully removed the sand from around and over
the skeleton.
The burial was in a flexed-position, on the right side, with the
head and shoulders lower than the hip area. The head was oriented in
the southwest and the legs and feet in a northeasterly direction, face
was to the southeast. The hands had been placed in the upper shoulder
area where the dart points had been found. The knees had been left in
an elevated position above the hip area, as if the burial cist had not
been wide enough to get them down on the level of the remainder of the
body.
Upon uncovering the hands and upper arm area, we found four arti-
facts lying in the hollow (between the upper and lower long bones) of
the flexed left arm. There were a bone awl, a piece of hollowed-out
proximal end of antler, a whetstone or anvil stone, and a modified
small animal scapula. Probably these artifacts were a tool-kit and
may have been in some kind of bag or pouch when buried. The arrow-
heads may have been in this kit or possibly hafted on shafts when
they were placed in the burial. The group of picnickers were not
familiar enough with these artifacts to realize their importance to
collect them.53
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Transactions of the Regional Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas: Index to Volumes 1-57 [1965-2024] (Book)
Index to the proceedings of the regional archeological symposium including separate lists by subject, title, author, and volume along with subject categories, a map of regions, and Texas county abbreviations.
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Transactions of the Regional Archeological Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas: 1983, book, 1984; United States. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1661464/m1/61/?q=+date%3A1945-1972: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Southwestern Federation of Archaeological Societies.