Architectural and Cultural Variation in the Texas Panhandle: The 1996 Texas Archeological Society Field School at the Harrison-Greenbelt Site (41DY17)

This thesis reports the findings of the 1996 Texas Archeological Society (TAS) Field School, held at the Harrison-Greenbelt site (41DY17), a Plains Village site in the southeastern Texas Panhandle near Clarendon in Donley County. Site 41DY17, known to contain deep cultural deposits and architecture, was selected for the field school due to its potential to add to the archaeological knowledge of Plains Village occupations in this part of the panhandle, which lacks robust archaeological literature or well-defined taxonomy or chronology, particularly for the Late Prehistoric period. The data recovered by TAS in 1996 indicate that at least two temporally distinct groups occupied the site. The earlier of these groups, located in a separate but adjacent component from the latter, provides the first clear evidence of a transitional stage of Plains Village development that does not fit the diagnostic and characteristic traits of any previously defined culture. This transitional Plains Village component is proposed as the type site of the Salt Fork Complex, a cultural manifestation first defined in this thesis. Additionally, the Harrison-Greenbelt site reveals a sequence of cultural development in the valley of the Salt Fork similar to that of the Custer and Turkey Creek Phases in western Oklahoma. The latter component more closely resembles previously defined Southern Plains Village cultures (i.e., Antelope Creek Phase, Buried City Complex, Turkey Creek Phase, and Zimms Phase), but is most similar to Plains Village sites left culturally unaffiliated by previous archaeologists (i.e., the Jack Allen Site, Long View Site, and Chill Hill). A careful examination of the literature on Southern Plains Village cultures was compared with the artifacts, ecofacts, faunal remains, and architectural data recovered during the 1996 TAS Field School. While primarily focused on architecture, this thesis touches on all artifact classes and details how they relate to other Plains Village sites and cultures in the Southern Plains to better understand the Harrison-Greenbelt site’s place within the broader Plains Village horizon.