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GAULT SITE
ENGRAVED STONES
CLOVIS CULTURE
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS

EST. 11,500 TO 11,0OO YEARS AGO
PAGE 2 OF 2 PAGES
COPYRIGHT SEPTEMBER 30, 2003 PETER A. BOSTROM
Cache of three Clovis artifacts, 1 point & 2 stones.
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"STACKED" AS FOUND
GAULT SITE
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS
PRIVATE COLLECTION

    This cache of three artifacts were found in this position by David Olmstead on the Gault site. He found them several years ago while digging there. The larger stone on the bottom is engraved on one site with a "checkerboard" pattern. The one on the top is engraved with what seems to be random designs. The artifact in the center is a heavily resharpened Clovis point made of Alibates chert. The largest engraved stone, on the bottom, measures 5 5/8 inches (14.3 cm) long and 1 1/2 inch (3.8 cm) wide.

   Engraved stones and pebbles are fairly rare in North America. They are especially rare from the earliest Paleo-Indian sites. Collins and Hester report in "Interpreting the Clovis Artifacts from the Gault Site" that "Clovis-age engraved stones are presently known from only two sites in the western hemisphere besides Gault, one specimen each from the Clovis site in eastern New Mexico and the Wilson-Leonard site just north of Austin, Texas". The Gault site has produced at least 30 engraved stones. The engraved stones from the Gault site are engraved with almost exclusively geometric patterns.

Alabates Clovis point from the Gault site.
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CLOVIS POINT
GAULT SITE
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This is the Clovis point that David Olmstead found "sandwiched" in-between two engraved stones on the Gault site. One ear is damaged and it's been extensively resharpened to the point where it was probably no longer useful as a spear point. The configuration of it's placement in between two engraved stones is interesting. But the reason why it was left in this position over 11,000 years ago can only be theorized. This Clovis point is made of Alibates chert and measures 2 1/4 inches (5.7 cm) long.

   On two sites in North Carolina, Hardaway and Doerschuk, as many as 272 engraved slate fragments and water worn pebbles were found. The Hardaway site produced most of them. The majority of the designs were either random scratches or simple geometric patterns. One example that is illustrated in the Hardaway site report has a "checkerboard" design. Hardaway and Doerschuk are multi-component sites with their earliest horizons extending well into the Archaic period. J.L. Coe reports that "In the excavated area, sixteen engraved slate fragments and five engraved pebbles were found at various levels, but their cultural association remains as much an enigma at the Hardaway site as was true at the Doerschuk site".

Checkerboard design engraved stone.
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ENGRAVED STONE
"CHECKERBOARD" DESIGN
GAULT SITE
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This Engraved stone was found in direct contact with an extensively resharpened Clovis point made of Alibates chert. The fluted point was "sandwiched" (see above picture) in between this stone, which was on the bottom and another smaller engraved stone that was on the top.
   This stone is engraved on one side with a "checkerboard" design. There are several pairs of vertical parallel lines that bisect several other pairs of horizontal parallel lines at approximately 90 degree angles. This engraved stone measures 5 5/8 inches (14.3 cm) long and 1 1/2 inch (3.8 cm) wide.

   An anthropology scholar who traveled the world beginning in the 1930's, named Carl Schuster, studied endless varieties of geometric patterns, symbols and designs. One explanation he gives for some of those patterns are that they represent clothed figures. He calls them "robed figures." He believed that many of these engraved stones, that that he documented all over the world from all time periods, represent ancestor figures. Some engravings, he believed, represented clothing worn on stylized ancestor figures.

Engraved stone with random designs.
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ENGRAVED STONE (cast)
GAULT SITE
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This engraved stone is engraved on both sides with random designs. The lines bisect other lines at all angles. It was found by David Olmstead while digging on the Gault site several years ago. He found it laying on top of an extensively resharpened Clovis point made of Alibates chert. The Clovis point was also lying on top of another larger engraved stone. This engraved stone measures 4 inches (10.1 cm) long and 1 1/4 inches (3.1 cm) wide.

   In Australia, the churinga (or tjurunga depending on spelling) engraved stones (also wood) are individually linked with legendary ancestors along with a myth or tale connected with the location where they are hidden. Carpenter writes in "Social Symbolism In Ancient & Tribal Art" that "Pebbles were incised the way human flesh was scarified, and scratched the way skin garments were scratch-decorated. Then both pebbles and garments were dusted with red ochre. Australian aborigines incised stones 'to make them bleed' and filled those incisions with ochre." Carl Schuster believed that "dressed stones represented, originally, ancestral spirits, comparable in many ways to Australian churingas / tjurungas.

Engraved stone with parallel lines.
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ENGRAVED STONE (cast)
GAULT SITE
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This engraved stone was found by David Olmstead approximately 5 feet (152.4 cm) below the surface on the Gault site. This example is engraved with several parallel lines that extend lengthwise along with other parallel lines that cut across them at three different angles.
    Engraved stones like this example have been found on Stone Age sites around the world. They have been found on Paleolithic sites in Europe, on Early Neolithic sites in Japan, and very early sites in Australia. This engraved stone measures 2 3/4 inches (7 cm) long.

     The specific meaning behind each engraved stone has been lost. Much of what is known are basic concepts. For example, if you look closely at many of the different cultural designs around the world, especially cloth, what seems like solid textures, are really tiny repeated separate designs that are attached to each other, each one representing an ancestor. It's like a primitive mathematical formula that represents an endless chain of human life.------------ "Sit beside me, and do as I do", says the basket-maker to her tiny daughter. "Stand behind me, and do as I do', says the dancer to the novice. Not tombs, not libraries, but living people are the great preservers." Carpenter and Schuster

"REFERENCES"

1963, Tindale, Norman B. and Lindsay, H.A., "Aboriginal Australians", p.105.
1964, Coe, Joffre Lanning, "The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont", The Doerschuk site, p. 53 and The Hardaway site, pp. 81 & 82.
1984, Munn, Nancy D., "Religion In Aboriginal Australia", The Transformation of Subjects Into Objects In Walbiri and Pitjantjatjara Myth, p. 66.
2000
, Wisner, George, "Texas Site Suggests Link With Europe's Upper Paleolithic," Mammoth Trumpet, Vol. 15 # 1.
2001
, Collins, Michael B. & Hester, Thomas R., "Research--The Gault Site--Site Description," Web site for "Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory."

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