The Gore Pit Site: An Archaic Occupation in Southwestern Oklahoma and a Review Of the Archaic Stage in the Southern Plains

Abstract

The Gore Pit site (34CM131), which is within the city limits of Lawton, Comanche County, Oklahoma, has been revealing evidence of Archaic occupation through excavation and surface collection since 1963. The site is contained in the bottom of a large borrow pit which was sera ped to a depth of 15 to 20 feet by he Highway Department.The pit is on the active flood plain of East Cache Creek and borders the creek a few feet to the east. The artifacts recovered by surface collection include projectile points, scrapers, scraper planes, Clear Fork gouges, andgrinding stones and basins. Three burned rock middens were excavated, one of which yielded radiocarbon dates, 6030 + 300 B.P. (Bastian 1964) and 6145+ 130 B.P. (GX1558). In the spring of 1968, a partially preserved, semiflexed human burial was discovered in the pit. There were no associated artifacts. A radiocarbon date obtained from the apatite fraction of the bone resulted in a determination of 7100+350 B.P. (GX2009). The earliest Archaic on the Southern Plains is presently dated around 6000 B.P. However, there is a paucity of dated and documented sites for the preceding 2000 years. Archaic subsistence patterns occur at least 2000 years earlier in areas to the west and east. The origin and age of the earliest Archaic in the Southern Plains remains undetermined. The Archaic must ultimately be identified on the basis of subsistence patterns and not on the basis of projectile point styles.