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| **ANTELOPE CREEK PHASE**. Antelope Creek phase is the cultural        |
| designation assigned to a series of prehistoric sites in the upper    |
| Texas and Oklahoma panhandles utilized by semisedentary,              |
| bison-hunting, and horticultural groups during a period of aridity    |
| between A.D. 1200 and 1500. General similarities in architecture,     |
| subsistence, and artifact assemblages indicate that the Antelope      |
| Creek people participated in the Plains Village horizon, which        |
| included many bison-hunting and horticultural village societies with  |
| similar adaptations resident in the mixed-grass prairies extending    |
| from north central Texas to North Dakota. The Antelope Creek phase    |
| and adjacent Buried City complex (found along Wolf Creek in the       |
| northeastern Texas Panhandle) are the two southwesternmost societies  |
| of the Plains Village horizon and the only two to reside in           |
| contiguous-room, pueblo­like villages and to employ stone masonry      |
| routinely in the foundations and walls of their structures. Village   |
| sites attributed to these two societies are generally riverine and    |
| extend from Tule Creek below Palo Duro Canyon^qv^ north to the North  |
| Canadian River valley in the Oklahoma panhandle and across the width  |
| of the Texas Panhandle.                                               |
|                                                                       |
| The first excavation, conducted in 1907 by T. L. Eyerly at the        |
| \"Buried City\" south of Perryton, drew widespread attention to       |
| village ruins on the Plains. Other early fieldwork consisted mainly   |
| of reconnaissance surveys by Warren Moorehead of Phillips Academy,    |
| Andover, Massachusetts, Ronald Olson of the American Museum of        |
| Natural History, J. Alden Mason of the Pennsylvania Museum, and Floyd |
| V. Studer^qv^ of the Panhandle­Plains Historical Museum.^qv^ Most of   |
| these studies attempted to examine cultural influences on areas       |
| between the Southwestern Puebloan and the Mississippian mound         |
| builders. The diligent work of William C. Holden,^qv^ of Texas Tech,  |
| during the 1930s at Tarbox Ruin, Antelope Creek 22 Ruin, and          |
| Saddleback Ruin in the Canadian River valley demonstrated the Plains  |
| orientation of the phase. Considerable information on the artifact    |
| assemblage and village structure was gained from the Work Projects    |
| Administration^qv^ excavations (1938-41) at eight sites in Texas      |
| (including the type sites of Antelope Creek 22 and Alibates Ruin 28,  |
| north of Amarillo), and the 1964 salvage work at sites within Lake    |
| Meredith^qv^ along the Canadian River. Other important excavations in |
| the Canadian River valley of Texas were conducted at the Sanford,     |
| Roper, Pickett, Cottonwood Ruins, and Jack Allen sites, sponsored by  |
| the Panhandle­Plains Historical Museum;^qv^ excavations in three ruins |
| along Big Blue Creek and the Buried City by the Texas Archeological   |
| Society;^qv^ work at Landergin Mesa, north of Vega, by the Texas      |
| Historical Commission;^qv^ and surveys around Lake Meredith by the    |
| Bureau of Reclamation. In the Oklahoma panhandle, excavations have    |
| focused on the Stamper Site, McGrath Site, and Two Sisters Site, in   |
| the vicinity of Guymon.                                               |
|                                                                       |
| The first major interpretive synthesis of the Antelope Creek phase    |
| was developed by Alex Krieger (1946), who systematically described    |
| the cultural remains, employed the Midwest Taxonomic System (which    |
| defines cultures on the basis of artifact similarities) to coin the   |
| term \"Antelope Creek focus\" for sites in Texas, and grouped them    |
| with similar materials in adjacent regions into a poorly defined      |
| \"Panhandle aspect.\" Subsequently, Lintz (1986) focused on examining |
| intracultural variability for twenty-eight excavated sites in a       |
| fifty-mile segment of the Canadian River valley centered on Lake      |
| Meredith.                                                             |
|                                                                       |
| The age of the Antelope Creek phase is established from more than     |
| eighty radiocarbon dates, five archeomagnetic dates, and five         |
| obsidian-hydration dates. In addition, eighteen Puebloan ceramic      |
| types linked to tree-ring dates in their source areas permit the      |
| cross-dating of additional site contexts. The phase abruptly started  |
| by about A.D. 1200 and terminated by A.D. 1500. Sites immediately     |
| predating the Antelope Creek phase have not been identified; however, |
| general cultural similarities in cord-marked ceramics suggest that    |
| Antelope Creek may have developed from an indigenous \"Woodland       |
| Period\" manifestation present in the Panhandle^qv^ by A.D. 400. The  |
| extensive collection of dates has allowed the delineation of some     |
| trends in culture change through time for the Antelope Creek-phase    |
| components in the Canadian River valley.                              |
|                                                                       |
| The excavation emphasis on architectural sites has produced a         |
| distorted image of Antelope Creek settlement patterns, since          |
| activities at nonarchitectural sites are poorly understood. Three     |
| classes of architectural sites have been delineated: multiple family  |
| hamlets with twenty or more \"residential rooms,\" single-family      |
| \"homesteads,\" and subhomesteads or field-hut sites that lack        |
| residential rooms. Each of these site types may also be associated    |
| with a series of smaller architectural features. The structures at    |
| any of these site types may consist of one or more free­standing       |
| buildings, or small­to­large contiguous-room blocks made of multiple,   |
| repetitious residential rooms and other associated room types.        |
| Contiguous-room structures tend to be earlier than single-room        |
| buildings.                                                            |
|                                                                       |
| Typically, an Antelope Creek residential room is a large (135 to 650  |
| square-foot) rectangular building, oriented roughly in cardinal       |
| directions with a low, eastward-extended entryway. The walls often    |
| have unshaped, vertically placed, stone-slab foundations either       |
| aligned with the wall axis or, in the Buried City area, set           |
| perpendicular to the wall. Upper walls may be of horizontal masonry   |
| or adobe.^qv^ The roof configuration is uncertain but might have been |
| flat or hipped with grass thatch. Four interior roof-support posts    |
| often occur around a central hearth. The floor level of residential   |
| structures is a foot or more below the ground surface, with the       |
| distinctive presence of slightly elevated plastered activity areas or |
| benches flanking a depressed work-area \"channel\" extending          |
| east-west through the central third of the room. Pit features or bins |
| may be present on the benches. Many residential rooms contain a dais, |
| or platform-altar, located within the channel against the west wall   |
| or recessed into the west wall. The intact extended entryways with    |
| polished stones flanking the low tunnels at Alibates Ruin 28 indicate |
| that access was gained by crawling or stooping.                       |
|                                                                       |
| Other auxiliary rooms include small (75 to 430 square-foot) circular  |
| to rectangular areas. These are rarely semisubterranean, but          |
| construction methods are similar to those used in the wall and        |
| foundations of residential rooms, except that they lack the           |
| distinctive central channel and roof-support posts. Some of these     |
| rooms may contain interior hearths or storage pits, but most do not.  |
| The entrance was gained through ground-level or upper-wall openings.  |
| In addition, extramural slab-lined cists, hearths, and storage pits   |
| are relatively common.                                                |
|                                                                       |
| Burials occur either inside rooms, in exterior midden areas, or in    |
| defined cemeteries located 150 to 300 feet from structures. Burials   |
| are often flexed single interments beneath slabs. The occurrence of   |
| burials above floor levels within a six-foot-tall mound covering a    |
| contiguous room structure at Alibates Ruin 28 suggests that wall      |
| remnants in abandoned buildings served as mnemonic markers for        |
| burials. Few burials display evidence of violence; although at        |
| theFootprint Site (Lake Meredith) several disarticulated individuals  |
| occurred on the house floor, and a cluster of ten skulls was          |
| intrusive to the burned structure. Three ossuary pits inside the same |
| room contained seven to ten individuals interred with Antelope        |
| Creek-phase artifacts. The cranial pile may comprise trophy skulls    |
| obtained in retaliation for hostile raids. Grave goods are rare, but  |
| when present reflect gender­related utilitarian tool kits. No          |
| significant status differentiation is evident from the grave goods.   |
|                                                                       |
| The economy is based on a hunting-gathering-horticulture pattern.     |
| Bison was the preferred game, followed by deer and antelope; however, |
| a broad exploitation pattern may be inferred from a wide range of     |
| small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, clams, and waterfowl. Most |
| bones are extensively smashed, indicating the extraction of marrow    |
| and bone grease. A wide range of charred wild and domestic plant      |
| remains has been found in small quantities. These include hackberry,  |
| mesquite, plums, cattail stems, persimmons, prickly pear, purslane,   |
| goosefoot, grass seeds, sunflower seeds, corn, squash, and beans.     |
| Local foods may have been supplemented by products obtained from      |
| trading blanks and nodules of the local chert resources. The          |
| occurrence of extensive quarry pits at the Alibates Flint             |
| Quarries,^qv^ northeast of Amarillo, and caches of large, thin        |
| bifaces at the Alibates Ruin document the intensive prehistoric       |
| mining and manufacturing occurring during the Antelope Creek phase.   |
|                                                                       |
| The artifacts from Antelope Creek-phase sites reflect specialized     |
| tool kits for mundane activities. The hunting and animal-processing   |
| kits consist of an abundance of small side-notched and unnotched      |
| arrow points; alternately beveled, diamond-shaped, and oval knives;   |
| end and side scrapers; guitar­pick-shaped scrapers or preforms;        |
| gravers; bone awls, pins, and spatulate tools; bone wrenches;         |
| freshwater clamshell scrapers; hammerstones and anvil stones;         |
| globular, cordmarked (or fabric-impressed) pots; and perhaps          |
| scored-rib rasps. Horticultural and construction implements are best  |
| represented by an abundance of socketed hoes, \"squash knives,\" and  |
| digging-stick tips made from bison scapulae and leg bones.            |
| Domesticated and wild seeds were ground on basin­shaped stone slabs    |
| and one­handed manos. Woodworking implements are suggested by drills,  |
| scrapers, gravers, expedient flake knives and rarely hafted axes.     |
| Stone and bone or wood tool manufacturing is represented by the       |
| presence of hammerstones, antler billets, pressure flakers, shaft     |
| straighteners, awl sharpeners, abrading stones, biface caches, and    |
| abundant chipping debris. Evidence of weaving and basketry is         |
| represented by a few charred, coiled baskets, bone needles, awls, and |
| sherd spindle whorls. Little is known about Antelope Creek-phase arts |
| or religion. Elbow and tubular pipes are relatively common. Pecked    |
| rock art at hamlet sites depicts human footprints, quadrupeds, stick  |
| figures, and bas­relief turtles. Occasional building stones and thin   |
| bifacial knives are smeared with red hematite.                        |
|                                                                       |
| Quantities of trade materials are present on many Antelope            |
| Creek-phase sites. Sites postdating A.D. 1350 on the average show a   |
| 4,600 percent increase in the occurrence of trade goods over the      |
| earlier sites. Most materials are from the Southwestern Pueblos,      |
| where exotic painted ceramics and lithic resources occur; foreign     |
| objects from the Plains may be more difficult to identify and are     |
| underreported. Trade goods from the west include eighteen types of    |
| Southwestern ceramics, turquoise beads and pendants, obsidian nodules |
| and tools, marine-shell beads (both disc and whole *Olivella*         |
| shells), conch-shell gorgets, conus-shell tinklers, and tubular       |
| pipes. Trade goods from the Central Plains may be represented by some |
| collared-rim ceramic vessels and Niobrara jasper, whereas East Texas  |
| influences are represented by rare Caddoan ceramics. The trade goods  |
| seldom occur in special settings (as grave goods or in platform-altar |
| contexts), and they are mostly redundant with indigenous tool forms   |
| and functions. For example, more than 4,100 Southwestern obsidian     |
| flakes were recovered from Alibates Ruin 28, located less than a half |
| mile from the Alibates chert quarries. The redundancy in trade and    |
| the marked increase in frequency suggest that the goods may represent |
| gifts used to solidify reciprocal relations that may have extended to |
| trade in tobacco and staple foods that reduced local risks of         |
| economic failure.                                                     |
|                                                                       |
| The Antelope Creek phase was able to flower on the High Plains during |
| drought because of fossil springwater reserves that continued to flow |
| from the Ogallala Aquifer. The people were able to capitalize on      |
| local conditions and develop a mode of living similar to that of      |
| groups to the north and east. The change in architecture from         |
| contiguous room structures to one­room buildings may reflect greater   |
| periods of seasonal mobility and shorter duration of village          |
| occupation. Shifts in settlement toward springs, the intensification  |
| of trade in redundant goods and perhaps foods, and intercultural      |
| raiding are all regarded as attempts by Antelope Creek people to      |
| maintain a stable village life while coping with deteriorating        |
| climatic conditions. Worse droughts, coupled with the arrivals of     |
| Apachean groups around A.D. 1500, ended this adaptation. Cultural     |
| continuity with modern Indian groups is tenuous; presumably the       |
| Antelope Creek people moved northeastward and merged with similar     |
| Plains Caddoan peoples, such as the Pawnees or Wichitas.              |
|                                                                       |
| Large collections of artifacts and records from all of the WPA        |
| excavations and many other projects are on file at the                |
| Panhandle­Plains Historical Museum, Canyon. Artifacts from W. C.       |
| Holden\'s early studies and F. E. Green\'s excavations at sites       |
| within Lake Meredith are at Texas Tech University, Lubbock. Artifacts |
| from other excavated sites within Lake Meredith are at the Texas      |
| Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin.     |
| Most materials from the Oklahoma panhandle sites are at the Stovall   |
| Museum, University of Oklahoma, Norman. Small collections and notes   |
| from other surveys are on file at the National Park Service, Fritch,  |
| Texas; the American Museum of Natural History, New York; the Arizona  |
| State Museum, Tucson; the University of Pennsylvania Museum,          |
| Pittsburgh, and the No Man\'s Land Museum, Goodwell, Oklahoma.        |
|                                                                       |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY: Alex D. Krieger, *Culture Complexes and Chronology in   |
| Northern Texas, with Extension of Puebloan Datings to the Mississippi |
| Valley* (University of Texas Publication 4640 \[Austin, 1946\]).      |
| Christopher Lintz, *Architecture and Community Variability within the |
| Antelope Creek Phase of the Texas Panhandle* (Norman: Oklahoma        |
| Archaeological Survey, 1986).                                         |
|                                                                       |
| *Christopher Lintz*                                                   |
|                                                                       |
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Last Updated: February 15, 1999\
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