Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument
| Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument | |||
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| Location: | Texas , United States | ||
| Specialty: | Most important flint source for the Plains Indians | ||
| Next city: | Amarillo | ||
| Surface: | 5.5 km² | ||
| Founding: | August 21, 1965 | ||
| Visitors: | 4028 (2007) | ||
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Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument is a protected area by the type of National Monuments in the northern US state of Texas . It preserves the sites of flint found in the hills above the Canadian River . The National Monument was designated in 1965. It is maintained by the National Park Service as part of the adjoining Lake Meredith National Recreation Area and is only accessible on tours led by rangers and therefore has only a small number of visitors.
The area has been archaeologically examined and has both extraction and processing sites as well as ordinary living and resting areas and hunting camps . The name Alibates refers to a cowboy Allen (Alie) Bates - who settled on a creek in the middle of the 19th century - now Alibates Creek .
Flint mining
In the north of what is now Texas there are outcrops of flint in various places , but the stone is of the best quality in the table mountains on the Canadian River. Because it is very conspicuous in color, finds in the entire Great Plains and in the southwest of the deposits of Alibates could be assigned. Alibates flint was collected around 13,000 years ago and made into blades and other tools. The members of the Clovis culture also made their characteristic projectile points (Folsom and Clovis) partly from the local flint. Arrowheads were still made from the flint of the area by the Plains Indians until around 1870.
At first the material lying on the earth's surface was used. When these supplies ran out, the flint had to be "mined". The flint was extracted by hand from small pits rarely more than 2 m in diameter. In order to find unweathered stones, the graves had to penetrate 30–50 cm below the surface into the up to three meter thick layers of dolomite . Most of the pits could only be used between a good one and almost three meters, but almost 700 small pits were opened on the largest table mountain alone, which is today's National Monument. Due to the dry climate, the cuts and the excavated material are still visible around the pits.
Agriculture culture
In the period from 1200 to 1450, a climatic fluctuation - combined with an increase in the annual amount of precipitation - enabled the emergence and expansion of arable farming. The (roasted) grains and beans found at the investigated settlement sites of the Plains Village Indians along Alibates Creek provided C14 data to determine the age of these finds. When the living conditions deteriorated again, the Indians tried to assert themselves in this area by increasing their dedication to hunting, as the people who had previously settled in this area had learned over millennia of adaptation, but now other tribes, coming from the north, pushed in their territory, the Plain Village Indians, were ousted. Around 1540 the Spaniard Coronado met Indians on his expedition in this area who cut buffalo meat with flint blades. Since the 16th century, the Pawnees and Hidatsa had expanded their hunting grounds south. These inhabitants lived from hunting, and found leftovers and pottery shards also document an intensive trade in imports of grain, poultry and tobacco from the area of the lower Mississippi River , New Mexico and Arizona. The trade in the coveted flint - mostly made into arrowheads and tools (blades) - enabled the continuous settlement of this area even outside the traditional hunting season. It was not until the 19th century, when the settlers also established themselves in the northern parts of Texas with the support of the US military, that the Indian population disappeared from this area.
Tourism offers
The area managed by the park administration is hiked through in marches lasting several hours, the settlement areas and hunting camps of the Pawnees and Hidatsa located in a grandiose natural landscape are approached and interesting facts about the life of the Indians are reported. With a practical demonstration, elementary processing techniques on flint blanks are demonstrated.
Web links
- National Park Service: Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument (official site; English)
- National Park Service: Geology of the Alibates Area