ALTITHERMAL ARCHAEOLOGY AND PALEOECOLOGY AT MUSTANG SPRINGS, ON THE SOUTHERN HIGH-PLAINS OF TEXAS

Excavations at Mustang Springs on the southern High Plains of Texas have yielded a relatively fine-grained record of late Pleistocene to middle Holocene environments and climate. The site contains over 60 Altithermal age water wells, direct evidence of the human adaptive response to this locally severe drought and of a drop in the water table of nearly 3 m. New radiocarbon dates from the wellfield are substantially earlier than previously published age estimates, putting the age of well digging in a brief period at the onset of the Altithermal. Human adaptive strategies during this period are yet undetermined, but the evidence points to generalized and highly mobile strategies and to the conclusion that this wellfield is surely not unique. The geology of Mustang Springs helps explain the scarcity of other Altithermal age sites on the southern High Plains. © The Society for American Archaeology 1991.