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Journal of
Big Bend Studies
Volume 34
Center for Big Bend Studies
2023
v
Table of Contents
San Felipe Creek: The Hinge of The San Antonio-El Paso
Military Road
Edward J. Michal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
An Atlatl from San Esteban Rockshelter in West Texas:
The Oldest in North America?
Devin B. Pettigrew and Bryon Schroeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Dislodge the Enemy and Explore the Terrain: A Spanish Re-
connaissance of the Rio Grande, 1772–1773
Mark Santiago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
Screwworm Eradication in West Texas: Seen through the
Eyes of the Canon Ranch
William V. Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Transportation Geography of the Greater Big Bend Region:
Notes on Two Binational Freight Corridors
Michael S. Yoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
35
An Atlatl from San Esteban
Rockshelter in West Texas:
The Oldest in North America?
Devin B. Pettigrew and Bryon Schroeder
Continuing collaborative eldwork at the San Esteban Rockshelter in Presidio
County, Texas, between the Center for Big Bend Studies of Sul Ross State University
and the University of Kansas-Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund, has recovered
a sporadic but rich archaeological record. The focus is to retrieve and research the
entire Pleistocene to Holocene occupation of the Texas Big Bend region at a deeply
stratied site. Portions of the shelter preserve a robust early Holocene artifact
assemblage coeval with the temporal period dened as the Early Archaic in the
Texas Big Bend (6500–2500 BCE or 9500– 4500 Cal BP). At San Esteban, this early
Holocene record includes a robust weaponry assemblage. This paper presents the
metrics, absolute age, and morphological comparison of a single atlatl—currently
the oldest directly dated specimen in North America. The artifact shares stylistic
similarities with other atlatls from the greater Texas Big Bend area which date to
as recently as 1800 cal BP, as well as artifacts further aeld including Basketmaker
atlatls of the Four Corners region. However, a radiocarbon date indicates the atlatl
is over 6,000 years old, pushing back the date of this atlatl form into the early
Holocene.
36 Journal of Big Bend Studies 34
❖ Pettigrew and Schroeder
Introduction
In the summer of 2023, collaborative eld efforts between the Center for Big
Bend Studies (CBBS) of Sul Ross State University and the Odyssey Archaeo-
logical Research Fund (OARF) of the University of Kansas recovered the distal
end of an atlatl fragment (Figure 1) from San Esteban Rockshelter (41PS20) in
Presidio County, Texas. The shelter is on private land and is a State Antiquities
Landmark (SAL). Professional interest in the site began with documented visits
by Charles Peabody in 1909, E.B. Sayles in the early 1930s, A.T. Jackson in
1938, and Forrest Kirkland in 1939 (Boren 2016). Until recently, the rock art
has been the most extensively documented and researched aspect of the site
(Boren 2016; Lowrance 1988). The rst systematic excavation was conducted
by the Texas Archeological Society in partnership with CBBS in 2000 as part
of their annual eld school but results were never published. The most recent
OARF/CBBS work focuses on site formational processes and uncovering the
occupational history of the remaining shelter deposits (Niquette 2022). Large
pieces of roof-fall have impeded the progress of excavation, and cultural deposits
dating older than the Holocene/Pleistocene boundary have yet to be discovered
if they are present.
The primary objective of our work at the site has been to test an entire
package of sediment down to bedrock, enabling us to study a complete record
of human occupation. To date, our efforts have not found the bottom of the
shelter, and work still proceeds with this as the primary objective. The most
promising excavation for uncovering early deposits is a small block excavation
placed at the back of the shelter, which does not contain younger Holocene
deposits. Niquette (2022) modeled radiocarbon assays from this portion of the
shelter from atlatl foreshafts, a plaited mat, and cordage fragment with results
indicating that “occupation began between 6560 and 6310 cal BP and ended
between 6280 and 5980 cal
BP
” (Niquette 2022:99). In 2023, expanded excava-
tion in this back portion uncovered additional weaponry, including the atlatl
reported here.
The artifact represents the distal half of an atlatl that has similarities with
atlatls previously found in the greater Texas Big Bend, Northern Mexico, the
Four Corners region of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, and even
further north and east in the Missouri Ozarks. A 14 C date on a wood sample
from the atlatl demonstrates it is more than 6,000 years old, pushing this type
of atlatl into the Texas Big Bend Early Archaic, and the early Holocene on a
larger scale. This is the oldest published direct date on a preserved wooden
37An Atlatl from San Esteban Rockshelter in West Texas
Figure 1. Front, back, and side views of the early Holocene
atlatl from San Esteban Rockshelter.
38 Journal of Big Bend Studies 34
❖ Pettigrew and Schroeder
atlatl, although many other specimens inside and outside the region could be
dated. In this article, we introduce the artifact and explore its afliations with
similar weaponry from this and nearby regions.
Location and Circumstance of Find
The atlatl was recovered from the back of the San Esteban shelter at the inter-
section of the Looter and Sandal Shafts (SS). This portion of the shelter was
heavily dug out by relic hunters in the past, but limited intact deposits were
identied, and they produced several weaponry artifacts and associated thermal
features (Niquette 2022). The intact cultural deposits in both shafts are overlain
with 30–40 cm of loose brous packrat nest material interlaced with younger
artifacts. Under the unconsolidated nest is a consolidated loess matrix which
thins to the north of the shaft where large roof blocks have fallen. The collapse
of these roof blocks preserved intact remnants of the early Holocene record;
efforts to expand excavation and map them are ongoing.
In 2023, the expansion efforts against the back wall of the shelter (Units
SS9 and SS10) revealed an angular cobble placed in a small recess of the wall.
As excavation progressed, the cobble was removed, and under it was the atlatl
specimen lying at with the spur side down (Figure 2). Additional unreported
and undated weaponry were recovered from these excavation units which will
be analyzed in subsequent publications. Currently, there are at least 14 additional
dart mainshaft fragments, foreshafts, and other various composite atlatl dart
fragments found in association with the atlatl.
The Artifact
The artifact represents the distal portion of an atlatl that broke near the center
of the shaft. The proximal (i.e., handle) end is missing and was not recovered.
Patination covers portions of the break, indicating that the break occurred prior
to its deposition in the back of the shelter. Archaeologists have noted since the
early twentieth century an ancient practice of ritually “killing” atlatls and other
artifacts before depositing them in rockshelters, including purposefully breaking
atlatls and darts in half (Guernsey and Kidder 1921).
The maker of the atlatl constructed it from a branch ca. 28–30 mm in
diameter, which he/she split in half and removed the bark. The upper (dorsal)
face is slightly attened, but slopes downward towards the edges, while the
lower (ventral) face retains the rounded natural outer curve of the branch,
forming a somewhat plano-convex cross section (Figure 3). The craftsperson
39An Atlatl from San Esteban Rockshelter in West Texas
Figure 2. The San Esteban atlatl in situ.
40 Journal of Big Bend Studies 34
❖ Pettigrew and Schroeder
then excavated a shallow U-shaped groove into the split upper face from 20
mm from the distal end towards the proximal end. The groove runs off the
current break. Excavating the groove for most of the length of the shaft may
have reduced cracking during production via removal of the medulla (pith
center), which when left in freshly split green (i.e., recently living) wood can
cause desiccation cracks (checking) to form along the medullary rays as the
wood dries (Miller 1962:25). For the nal 20 mm, the craftsperson deepened
the groove to the base of the hook or “spur” to facilitate loading the nock end
of the dart against it. The spur was situated at the head of a small pronounced
ridge beginning at the tip of the spur and running off the distal end of the atlatl,
forming a pointed or curly bracket-shaped (}) distal end. At some point, the
spur broke and sheared off the center of the ridge. Because the break is heavily
patinated, it probably occurred during use, prior to deposition. The ridge is
currently ca. 2 mm high and has lost perhaps 1 mm of its original height in the
break. The surfaces of the atlatl, originally smoothed, are now covered in a
patina of sediment and stained with post-depositional animal/insect feces.
Measurements of the atlatl are provided in Figure 3.
Age and Wood Identication
A wood sample collected from the broken end of the atlatl was submitted to
DirectAMS in Bothell, Washington, for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)
radiocarbon dating. The assay returned an uncalibrated AMS radiocarbon date
of 6033 +/- 31 (D-AMS 052232). It was calibrated using the online version of
Oxcal 4.4 (Bronk Ramsey 2021) on the IntCal 20 Northern Hemisphere calibra-
tion curve (Reimer et al. 2020); at a 95.4% condence interval, it has two
intercepts, one at 6975–6966 cal BP (.9%) and the other at 6960–6786 (94.5%)
cal
BP
(Figure 4). Because the wood sample for
14
C dating came from the interior
of the shaft, the true date represents earlier growth of the branch prior to the
manufacture of the atlatl. However, the outer curve of the shaft suggests the
atlatl was fashioned from a relatively small branch, so we suspect that the “old
wood problem” does not severely affect the date in this case.
Previously an atlatl with a round shaft and boatstone weight from a shaft
cave (NV-Wa-197) on the shore of now-dry Lake Winnemucca in Nevada was
thought to be the oldest atlatl in North America based on a radiocarbon date of
7980 +/- 610
BP
on basketry found immediately above it (Hester 1974). However,
that atlatl was more recently directly dated to 5650 BP, ca. 2,000 years younger
than the basketry (Barnes 2000:115).
41An Atlatl from San Esteban Rockshelter in West Texas
Figure 3. San Esteban atlatl metrics.
42 Journal of Big Bend Studies 34
❖ Pettigrew and Schroeder
The same form of atlatl as the San Esteban artifact is represented at several
sites in the greater Texas Big Bend (see section below), but few of these have
been dated (see Fields 2005). However, artifacts recovered by collectors from
Spirit Eye Cave (41PS25) in Presidio County, Texas, formerly a pay-to-dig site,
include three proximal ends of atlatls that are currently in a private collection.
Schroeder had the opportunity to examine and date them. The published example
returned a median calibrated radiocarbon date of 1792 BP (1872–1850, 1844 –1730
2σcal BP [p=95.4]; Schroeder and Nayapiltzin 2022: Table 2). This date is ca.
700 years younger than two Basketmaker atlatls directly dated from Arizona
and New Mexico (Fields 2005: Table 1; Moreno 2000), telling us that a very
similar atlatl was in use for more than ve thousand years in West Texas and
beyond.
Niquette (2022) reports additional recovered atlatl weaponry from this
portion of the shelter, but associated descriptions and analysis of the atlatl
weaponry are lacking. These artifacts include atlatl dart proximal (i.e., “nock”
end) mainshaft fragments, and partial and complete foreshafts with Early
Archaic “Bandy” point types (Boren 2012) hafted with pitch and sinew. Addi-
tional radiocarbon dates from these artifacts date from 6560–6310 cal BP to
6280–5980 cal BP (Niquette 2022:99). These dates are slightly younger than
the date on the atlatl and suggest that over a span of ca. 500 years atlatl weaponry
was deposited in the shelter, offering a nearly complete understanding of the
early Holocene projectile technology at San Estaban.
Additional samples were collected from the same broken end of the San
Esteban atlatl as the radiocarbon-dated material and sent to Macrobotanical
Analysis in Manchaca, Texas, for wood species identication. Leslie Bush of
Macrobotanical Analysis cut one splinter widthwise to reveal a transverse
section and the other lengthwise to reveal a tangential section and observed the
sections under a 40–55X light microscope. Her comparative analysis suggests
that the atlatl was made from wood in the genus Prosopis (mesquite) or the
genus Senegalia (acacia), both of which are represented by several species in
western Texas today (Leslie Bush, “Identication of Atlatl Wood”, 7 November
2023, manuscript on le, Center for Big Bend Studies).
Stylistic Afliations
Broad comparisons in the distribution of artifact morphology focused on specic
traits is an old pursuit, but one that remains of academic interest, although hard
boundaries between dened types rarely occur. The San Esteban atlatl ts into
43An Atlatl from San Esteban Rockshelter in West Texas
a broad general category dened by von Luschan (1896) and Krause (1905) that
includes specimens with “mixed-type” or “androgynous” distal ends, in which
a small hook (or spur) that engages a small depression on the back of the dart
(the nock) is partially or fully sunk into the head of a loading groove (Figure
5). This compares to atlatls with male distal ends with spurs situated fully above
the shaft, and female distal ends with sockets to receive the butt end of the dart.
Krause observed that in the Americas, the mixed type, which he refers to as
“the old Mexican atlatl” (Krause 1905:631), is distributed from the Arctic into
South America, with numerous examples in use by various Mesoamerican
cultures at the time of European contact.
More specically, the San Esteban atlatl is similar to many artifacts extend-
ing from the Southwest into central America that have board-like shafts (produced
by attening the upper and sometimes lower faces), loading grooves leading
to mixed spurs, and two nger loops centered around indentions at the handle
for insertion of the index and middle ngers. However, within this type, sig-
nicant variation still occurs (Ferg and Peachey 1998). Some have weights or
small charms bound to the shaft but many do not. Some have thin, exible
Figure 4. OxCal output of the San Esteban atlatl radiocarbon age.
44 Journal of Big Bend Studies 34
❖ Pettigrew and Schroeder
shafts while others are thicker and rigid. Some taper dramatically outward
towards the distal end while others taper only slightly or have parallel-sided
shafts. Some are decorated with paint or incised designs, and in central Mexico
with gilded carvings, but many are left bare. Pronounced variation also occurs
in the shape of the distal ends, including square, triangular, rounded, and curly
bracket-shaped ends. Grooves may be 3 cm long to nearly the full length of the
shaft; spurs may be situated from less than one to several centimeters from the
distal end, seated fully in the groove, rising partially above the shaft, or situated
at the head of a ridge (for examples, see LaRue 2010; Whittaker 2015). Kellar
(1955) suggests that most of these variations are stylistic (i.e., non-functional),
perhaps with the exception of atlatl weights. But based on our observations and
replications of a number of artifacts (www.basketmakeratlatl.com), unweighted
forms can have equivalent or higher integral mass relative to weighted forms
as a product of having thicker and more robust shafts.
Several researchers have examined this type of atlatl and compared mor-
phological characteristics across artifacts (Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda 1956;
Cosgrove 1947; Cressman et al. 1940; Ferg and Peachey 1998; Fields 2005;
Grange 1952; Hester et al. 1974; Kellar 1955; Krause 1905; LaRue 2010; Pet-
tig rew 2018; Stodiek 1993). Weights and charms tend to be attached to Basket-
maker atlatls from the Four Corners, which also tend to have thinner and
therefore lighter shafts than atlatls found further south and east (Ferg and
Peachey 1998; LaRue 2010). Finger loops on atlatls from southern Arizona
south into central America can be made from bone, shell, stone, or wood integral
to the wooden shaft of the atlatl. In contrast, loops from examples in West Texas
and the Four Corners tend to be made of hide and, less frequently, animal sinew
or plant ber (Ferg and Peachey 1998). In the Four Corners and West Texas
regions, signicant variation occurs in the construction of the loops and how
they are attached, apparently reecting individual preference more than a
cultural blueprint, while other features are more regionally consistent.
The San Esteban atlatl shares stylistic traits with other atlatls in this category
from West Texas, northern Chihuahua, and southeastern New Mexico, most
notably in the long loading groove, a spur situated at the head of a pronounced
ridge, a shaft that does not taper signicantly towards the distal or proximal
ends, and the general width and thickness of the shaft—these atlatls tend to be
thicker and more rigid than Basketmaker atlatls from the Four Corners, with
heavier integral wood shafts and no known weights or charms (Ferg and Peachey
1998; Pettigrew 2018). The most similar examples to the San Esteban artifact
45An Atlatl from San Esteban Rockshelter in West Texas
come from Ceremonial Cave in the Hueco Mountains of West Texas (Cosgrove
1947: Figures 68a, b); Rockfall and Little Pine Caves in the Guadalupe Moun-
tains of southeastern New Mexico (Fields 2005; Mera 1938: Plate 11-1); and
Coyote Burial Cave in Coahuila, Mexico (Cosgrove 1947:48– 49).
Exceptions to these spatial morphological patterns certainly occur, most
notably in a thin and weighted atlatl from Baylor Rockshelter in West Texas
(Fenenga and Wheat 1940), corroborating a much earlier recognition of broad
similarities in archaeological materials between the Texas Big Bend and Four
Corners regions (Smith 1932). An atlatl proximal end from the Missouri Ozarks,
the Montgomery atlatl (see Figure 4), also shares similarities with these artifacts
from the Trans-Pecos (Pettigrew 2018). Unknown to Pettigrew at the time, a
long, narrow slit carved completely through the shaft of the Montgomery atlatl
is mimicked by two very similar slits carved into the loading groove of an atlatl
from an unknown site in West Texas, which is published in a relic-hunter
magazine (Reyes 1999). These are the only occurrences of narrow slits carved
through the shafts of these atlatls that we know of. These close similarities in
specic characteristics are strong indications of cultural afliations/interactions
over broad space.
Even further aeld, Garnett and Sellet (2023) interpret bone and antler
open-ring artifacts from Upper Paleolithic deposits in Europe as atlatl nger
loops, noting striking similarities with stone, bone, and shell nger loops on
Mexican atlatls (Ekholm 1962; Whittaker 2015). Currently, the European Upper
Paleolithic open rings comprise the oldest direct evidence for atlatls in the world
and also suggest that a similar atlatl form could stretch into deep antiquity,
either independently invented or transmitted.
Ferg and Peachey (1998) have noted that Krause’s (1905) “Mexican” type
has similar distribution to Uto-Aztecan speakers, while atlatls with round shafts
and male hooks (rising above the shaft and not preceded by a groove) on the
western coasts of North and South America match the distribution of Hokalte-
can speakers; atlatls discovered on the Baja Peninsula are most similar to
examples from Ecuador and Peru (Massey 1961). However, the early date on
the San Esteban atlatl is 2,000 years earlier than the earliest projected arrival
of Uto-Aztecan speakers in North America (Shaul 2014). The extremely wide
spatial and temporal distribution of this form indeed makes any cultural or
linguistic afliation challenging and at least somewhat problematic.
46 Journal of Big Bend Studies 34
❖ Pettigrew and Schroeder
Conclusion
The San Esteban atlatl represents a common atlatl form in the greater Texas
Big Bend, spanning eastward and northward to the Ozarks, westward across
the Southwest, and southward into Mexico. The early date on the San Esteban
atlatl bracketing 6975 to 6786 cal BP, compared to younger dates on this atlatl
type of around 1800 cal BP from the region (Schroeder and Nayapiltzin 2022),
indicates the same general form of atlatl persisted for at least ve millennia.
The implication for the lack of change in the overall morphology of the atlatl
is an expansive topic that must consider weapon ballistics and applications,
available raw materials, symbolism and belief systems, cultural transmission,
and actualist abilities/limitations.
The preservation of additional weaponry from the region should help us
further address the overall static form while building on our knowledge of the
effectiveness of this hunting technology. We advocate that the San Esteban
example should further direct additional radiocarbon dating on atlatls, which
may reveal even earlier dates and help future morphological analyses.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the San Esteban Rock Shelter landowners, the Bar
Triangle Ranch LLC., who are incredible stewards of this important site. The
work was supported by the Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund at the
University of Kansas and Director Dr. Rolfe Mandel, who is an invaluable
research partner and mentor. Leslie Bush for her quick turnaround and analysis
of the atlatl wood. Drew Sitters at the Texas Historical Commission who oversees
the SAL and offered thoughtful comments. Finally, a big thank you to all the
dedicated crew and volunteers who have crawled through the dust to salvage
the important record at San Esteban.
47An Atlatl from San Esteban Rockshelter in West Texas
Figure 5. Examples of atlatls: (top) replica of an atlatl from Arkansas with a round
shaft and male hook; (middle) a “Mexican” atlatl with attened upper face, mixed
spur, and nger loops—interpretation of the Montgomery atlatl from Missouri (see
Pettigrew 2018); (bottom) showing the manner of gripping a Basketmaker atlatl.
48 Journal of Big Bend Studies 34
❖ Pettigrew and Schroeder
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