Stone Cairns of West-Central Texas

The Cairn Burials exhibit builds on decades of research by early archeological investigators Cyrus Ray, Edward Sayles, Joe Ben Wheat, Robert Forrester and others, as well as recently compiled information from other sources. The exhibit was written by Susan Dial in collaboration with Darrell Creel, drawing from unpublished records in files of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, numerous articles in early bulletins of the Texas Archeological Society, and more recent archeological publications, as listed below.

Heather Smith executed the web programming and created graphics and image montages for the exhibit. Jonathan Jarvis assisted with site identifications for the base map used in the Explore the Sites section, and Laura Nightengale photographed numerous artifacts from the E. B. Sayles collections at TARL. Other contributors include Larry Riemenschneider, director of the Concho Valley Archeological Society, who provided images and information for site 41CN94.  Douglas Boyd of Prewitt and Associates, Inc., and Steve Black, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Texas State University, served as reviewers.

Work on the Cairn Burial exhibit was supported by donations from The Mitchell Family Foundation, the Council of Texas Archeologists, the Texas Archeological Society, Friends of TARL, and individual members of these organizations.

Print Sources

Arnn, John Wesley, III
2012    Land of the Tejas: Native American Identity and Interaction in Texas, A.D. 1300 to 1700. University of Texas Press.

Boyd, Douglas
1997    Chapter 10: Late Prehistoric I Period, A.D. 500 to 1100/1200. In Caprock Canyonlands Archeology: A Synthesis of the Late Prehistory and History of Lake Alan Henry and the Texas Panhandle-Plains, Vol. II  by Douglas K. Boyd, pp.271-333. Reports of Investigations No. 10, Prewitt and Associates, Inc.

2004    Chapter 10: The Palo Duro Complex.  In The Prehistory of Texas edited by Timothy K. Perttula, pp. 296-330. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.

Boyd, Douglas K., Jay Peck, Steve A. Tomka, Karl W. Kibler, and Martha Doty Freeman
1994    Data Recovery at Lake Alan Henry (Justiceburg Reservoir), Garza and Kent Counties, Texas: Phase III, Season 3. Reports of Investigations No. 93. Prewit and Associates, Inc. Austin.

Cloud, William A.
2002    Rough Run Burial: A Semi-Subterranean Cairn Burial from Brewster County, Texas. Journal for Big Bend Studies 14: 33-84.

Collins, Michael B. and Peggy Caddell
1984    A Prehistoric Burial at Lake Spence: Preliminary Findings.  Transactions of the 19th Regional Archeological Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas: 99-106

Creel, Darrell
1990   Excavations at 41TG91, Tom Green County, Texas.  Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation Publications in Archaeology Report 38, Austin.

Decker, Susan, Stephen L. Black, and Thomas Gustavson
2000    The Woodrow Heard Site, 41UV88: A Holocene Terrace Site in the Western Balcones Canyonlands of Southwestern Texas. Studies in Archeology 13, Texas Archeological research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin.

Forrester, Robert E.
1951    A Series of Eighteen Indian Skeletons Excavated in Shackleford County, Texas.  Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 22:132-143.

1987    The Moran Point from North-Central Texas. Bulletin of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society 36: 131-136.

Godwin, Molly Ficklen
1981    Appendix A: A Concho River Cairn Burial. In A Cultural Resource Inventory of the Proposed Stacy Reservoir, Concho, Coleman, and Runnels Counties, Texas.  Volume III, Appendices, pp. A1-A24. Espey, Huston & Associates, Austin.
 
Harris, R. K. and Inus Marie Harris
1968    Cyrus N. Ray: Bibliography and Contributions to Texas Archeology. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society  38: 130-134.

Hooton, Dr. Ernest A.
1933    Notes on Five Texas Crania. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 5: 25-38.

Huckell, Bruce B., Darrell C. Creel, and G. Michael Jacobs
1997    E. B. "Ted" Sayles, Pioneer Southwestern Archaeologist. Kiva 63(1): 69-95.

Hrdlicka, Alex
1938    Skeletal Remains from Northern Texas.  Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 10: 169-192.

Jackson, A. T.
1941    Pendants and their Uses. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 13:12.

Keeley, Lawrence
1997    War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Oxford University Press, New York.

Lintz, Christopher and Patrick O’Neill
1993    The Assessment of Rock Cairns for Human Burials. In Cultural Resource Investigations in the O.H. Ivie Reservoir, Concho, Coleman, and Runnels Counties, Texas,  Volume II: Test Excavations at Prehistoric Sites and Assessment of Rock Cairn Features by Christopher Lintz, Abby C. Treece, Fred M. Oglesby, Karl Kibler, Patrick O’Neill, W. Nicholas Trierweiler, Charles Frederick, J. Michael Quigg, and A. J. Taylor, pp. 633-662. Mariah Associates, Inc., Austin.

Mallouf, Robert J.
1987    Las Haciendas: A Cairn Burial Assemblage from Northeastern Chihuahua, Mexico. Office of the State Archeologist Report 35, Texas Historical Commission, Austin.

1989    Clovis Quarry Workshop in the Callahan Divide: The Yellow Hawk Site, Taylor County, Texas. Plains Anthropologist:34:81-103.

Meroney, W. P.
1936    A Mass Burial near Waco.  Bulletin of the Central Texas Archeology Society 2: 59-60.

Prewitt, Elton R.
1974    Archeological Investigations at the Loeve-Fox Site, Williamson County, Texas. Texas Archeological Survey Report 49, The University of Texas at Austin.

Ray, Cyrus N.

1929.    A Differentiation of the Prehistoric Cultures of the Abilene Section. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 1: 7-22.

1930   Report on Some Recent Archaeological Researches in the Abilene Section. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 2: 45-58.

1932   Archeological Research in Central West Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 4: 63-70.

1933    Multiple Burials in Stone Cist Mounds of the Abilene Region. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 5:14-24.

1936    Some Unusual Cremated Burials Found Near Colorado, Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 8: 9-16.

1937    More Evidence Concerning Abilene Man. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 9: 193-217.

1939    Some Unusual Abilene Region Burials. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 11: 226-250.

1940   Reports and Editorials: Four Sand Dune Man Burials; Texas Technological College Digs Near Abilene. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society  12: 241-243.

1946    Two Multiple Stone Cists Structures. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 17: 18-27.

Ray, Cyrus and E. B. Sayles
1941    Reports and Editorials: An Agreement on Abilene Region Terminology. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 13: 175-176.

Riemenschneider, Larry
2001    The Miller Site Burial (41CN94) Coleman County, West-Central Texas. The Steward Vol. 6:91-99.  Texas Historical Commission, Austin.

Sayles, E. B.
1929    Some Types of Archaeological Sites Near Abilene, Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 1: 43-49.

1931    Preliminary Report of the Archaeological Survey of Texas. Unpublished ms. on file at Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin.

1934    Texas Burial Customs. Unpublished ms. on file at Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin.

1935    An Archaeological Survey of Texas. Medallion Papers XVII, Gila Pueblo, Globe, Arizona.

Shafer, Harry J.
2006    People of the Prairie: A Possible Connection to the George C. Davis Site. Texas Department of Transportation and Prewitt and Assoc., Inc.

1969    Archeological Research in the Robert Lee Reservoir Basin, West Central Texas. Papers of theTexas Archeological Salvage Project 17. Texas Memorial Museum, Austin.

Shafer, Harry and Thomas R. Hester
2008    A Phase I Archaeological Survey of Joshua Springs Park and Preserve, Kendall County, Texas. Report 63, Abasolo Archaeological Consultants, San Antonio.

Thoms, Alston V.
2000    Tool-Stone Procurement Areas on Callahan Divide; A Survey of Camp Barkeley, Taylor County, Texas. Technical Report No. 2, Center for Ecological Archaeology, Texas A&M University.

Turner, Ellen Sue and Thomas R. Hester
1999    A Field Guide to Stone Artifacts of Texas Indians. 2nd edition. Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, Lanham, Maryland.

Turner, Ellen Sue, Thomas R. Hester, and Richard L. McReynolds
2011    Stone Artifacts of Texas Indians. 3rd edition. Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, Lanham, Maryland.

Watt, Frank  H.
1936    A Prehistoric Rock Shelter Burial in Bell County, Texas.  Bulletin of the Central Texas Archeology Society 2: 5-27.

Wheat, Joe Ben
1940    Quarterly Report September 30-December 31, 1940. Archeological Project, O. P. #665-66-3-411. Unpublished ms on file at Museum of Texas Tech University.

1940    Quarterly Report July 1-September 30, 1940. Archeological Project, O. P. #665-66-3-411.  Unpublished ms on file at Museum of Texas Tech University.

Witte, A. H.
1955    A Double Indian Burial from Donley County, Texas. Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 28:82-86.

Woolsey, A. M. 
1936a    Field Notes, Reconnaissance in Eastland and Shackleford Counties. Anthropology Museum, University of Texas, Austin, June 1936. MS on file, TARL Records.

1936b   Notes on Field Work at N. J. Brewster Farm, Shackleford County, Texas.  June 5, 1936  University of Texas Centennial Exposition-Anthropology. 

Wright, Bill
1968    Cyrus N. Ray, 1880-1960. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society  38: 126-129.

Wulfkuhle, Virginia Ann
1986    Investigations into the Prehistory of the Upper Clear Fork of the Brazos River, Fisher and Jones Counties, Texas. Unpublished Master's thesis, The University of Texas of Austin.

Links

Other cairn burial sites on TBH:

Harrell Site
Texas Beyond History exhibit on a Young County site containing a small cemetery thought to predate A.D. 1300. Based on arrangements of the skeletons in the mass graves and the finding of arrow points among the bones, it is clear that some suffered a violent death.

Rough Run and La Haciendas Burials
Two cairn burials documented in the Big Bend area represent a distinctive burial tradition dating to approximately A.D. 1400-1750 and are thought to be associated with the Cielo complex.

To learn more about archeology and opportunites to participate in field work:

Texas Archeological Society
Founded in 1929, the TAS now has 1,500 members. One of the oldest and largest such organizations in the nation, the society is devoted to research, public education, and the preservation of Texas history. Check the website for details on membership, field school, and training opportunities.