The Clovis people
The Clovis are an Early Paleoindian people (roughly ~13,000–12,700 years ago) identified by their distinctive fluted, lance-shaped stone points for big game hunting – mammoth and mastodon during the end of the Last Ice Age – and associated toolkit. Clovis technology is widely distributed across North America and is especially important to researchers because it marks one of the earliest well-documented prehistoric tool traditions on the continent.
The most important Clovis-period discovery in Bastrop County is the Hogeye Clovis cache (near present-day Elgin). Archaeologists recovered a cache of Clovis projectile points, preforms, and bifaces that were buried in a slope deposit and later unearthed in the 2000s. Subsequent study and excavation by researchers (including Michael Waters and colleagues) documented the geological context, lithic technology, and how the cache was buried and preserved. The Hogeye materials are widely cited in the literature and are the principal direct evidence for Clovis activity in Bastrop County.
A number of publications have analyzed the Hogeye assemblage (for example, lithic-reduction and geochemical sourcing studies), showing the cache contains many well-made Clovis bifaces and points and providing insights into raw-material use and mobility.
Bastrop County contains many recorded archaeological sites spanning Paleoindian, Archaic, and Late Prehistoric periods. While Hogeye is the county’s headline Clovis find, other local sites (McCormick, Pease, Powell Bend area, etc.) document later occupations and the long-term use of the landscape.
Why the Hogeye cache matters
- It’s a rare, in-place (buried) Clovis assemblage that helps archaeologists reconstruct behavior (tool production, caching behavior), landscape use, and how such finds become buried and preserved in Central Texas sediments.
- Analyses of the cache contribute to broader debates and rare insights about Clovis chronology, mobility, technological sophistication, and raw-material procurement across Texas and the southern Plains.
Primary Academic Sources
Holliday, Vance T. (2015).
Paleoindian Geoarchaeology of the Southern High Plains.
University of Texas Press.
– A broader regional context of early Paleoindian sites in Texas, including discussion of Central Texas caches.
Waters, Michael R., et al. (2011).
The Hogeye Clovis Cache, Texas: A Study of Clovis Behavior, Technology, and Mobility.
Texas A&M University, Center for the Study of the First Americans.
– The foundational monograph on the Hogeye discovery, excavation, and interpretation.
Jennings, Thomas A., et al. (2012).
“The Hogeye Clovis Cache, Central Texas: Geoarchaeological Context and Technological Analysis.”
Journal of Archaeological Science, 39(8): 2853–2860.
– Detailed stratigraphic and technological analysis; includes artifact drawings and context photos.
Waters, Michael R. and Stafford, Thomas W. Jr. (2013).
“The First Americans: Clovis Origins and Adaptations.”
Journal of Archaeological Research, 21: 55–93.
– Discusses Clovis adaptations across North America, including Hogeye as a case study.
Public Resources
- Texas Beyond History: https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/paleo/index.html
– Excellent overview of Paleoindian lifeways and tools in Texas, with photos of Clovis points from various regions. - Center for the Study of the First Americans (CSFA) – Texas A&M University: https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/csfa/
– Features summaries of current Paleoindian research and occasional Hogeye reference materials. - Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL): https://sites.utexas.edu/tarl/
– Repository for Bastrop County site records and artifact archives.