Burnet Cave
Encyclopedia
Burnet Cave is an important archaeological and paleontological site located in Eddy County, New Mexico
Eddy County, New Mexico
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*77.4% White*1.4% Black*1.5% Native American*0.7% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.0% Two or more races*16.0% Other races*44.1% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 within the Guadalupe Mountains
Guadalupe Mountains
The Guadalupe Mountains are a mountain range located in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The range includes the highest summit in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, , and the "signature peak" of West Texas, El Capitan, both located within Guadalupe Mountains National Park, as well as Carlsbad Caverns...

.

Physical details

The cave has a southern exposure and is reported as being 21m (70 feet) from the canyon
Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...

 floor. It has an elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of 1402 m (4600 feet) according to Shultz and Howard (1935).

Archaeological Finds

Excavation began in Burnet Cave, NM under returning student E. B. Howard who was working under Alden Mason's Southwestern Expeditions sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. The first southwestern trip was in 1929 and Bill Burnet showed them this cave on one of the first trips west. The early field seasons at Burnet Cave were 1930, 1931, and 1932, and they went back again in 1936 and 1937 (Howard 1936:22, 1943b). Additional survey work in the Guadalupe Mountains was done in 1934 as well but no new early sites were found (Howard 1935).

The first Clovis point
Clovis point
Clovis points are the characteristically-fluted projectile points associated with the North American Clovis culture. They date to the Paleoindian period around 13,500 years ago. Clovis fluted points are named after the city of Clovis, New Mexico, where examples were first found in 1929.At the right...

 found in the modern era was excavated in situ at Burnet Cave, NM five feet, seven inches below ground surface on the edge of a hearth with burnt bison and musk-ox bones in August 1931(UPenn Museum catalog # 31-47-36) (Boldurian and Cotter 1999:73). This find predates the Dent Site
Dent Site
Dent Site is a Clovis culture site located in Weld County, Colorado, near Milliken, Colorado. It was the first site to provide evidence that man and mammoth co-existed in the Americas....

, Clovis, and all others pretending to be the first in situ Clovis find in the Americas. Until about 1950 Burnet Cave was considered to be among the handful of truly reliable intact Clovis sites but about that time it seems to have fallen out of favor because it was a cave, with an unusual Clovis faunule, that lacked the dramatic visions of the Mammoth-killing big game hunters myth then coming into vogue.

Burnet Cave was the first multi-component Paleoindian site excavated. The Clovis layer was four feet below the lowest layer containing Basketmaker
Basketmaker (culture)
The Basketmaker culture of the Ancient Pueblo People began about 1500 BC and continued until about AD 500 with the beginning of the Pueblo I Era...

 material. The fine dirt was run through a ¼” screen at the front of the cave, something quite unusual for archaeological fieldwork at this time (Boldurian and Cotter 1999:7). The poet Loren Eiseley
Loren Eiseley
Loren Eiseley was an American anthropologist, educator, philosopher, and natural science writer, who taught and published books from the 1950s through the 1970s. During this period he received more than 36 honorary degrees and was a fellow of many distinguished professional societies...

 was a member of Howard's crew and wrote scathingly about his experiences in the Guadalupe Mountains.

Paleontology finds

  • Aves: Aechmophorus occidentalis, Cathartes
    Cathartes
    The genus Cathartes includes medium-sized to large carrion-feeding birds in the New World vulture family. The three species currently classified in this genus occur widely in the Americas.- Description :...

     (
    C. aura Brodkorb), Coragyps (C. atratus, C. occidentalis), Gymnogyps (G. californianus amplus), Accipiter
    Accipiter
    The genus Accipiter is a group of birds of prey in the family Accipitridae, many of which are named as goshawks and sparrowhawks. They can be anatomically distinguished from their relatives by the lack of a procoracoid foramen. Two small and aberrant species usually placed here do possess a large...

     (A. cooperi), Buteo swainsoni, Falco mexicanus Falco sparverius, Tympanuchus pallidicinctus, Oreortyx pictus, Meleagris gallopavo, Grus canadensis, Bubo virginianus, Asio flammeus, Colaptes auratus, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, Loxia curvirostra.

  • Aves (Extinct): Meleagris (M. crassipes)

  • Mammals: Antilocapra americana, Bassariscus astutus, Canis latrans, Canis lupus, Conepatus mesoleucus, Cynomys ludovicianus, Dipodomys (D. ordi), Felis concolor, Lemmiscus curtatus, Lepus
    Hare
    Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...

    (L. townsendii and L. alleni), Lynx rufus, Marmota flaviventris, Microtus
    Microtus
    The genus Microtus is a group of voles found in North America, Europe and northern Asia. The genus name refers to the small ears of these animals. There are 62 species in the genus....

     (M. lonqicaudus, M. mexicanus, M. pennsylvanicus), Mustela nigripes, Navajoceros fricki, Neotoma cinerea (N. lepida or N. stephensi, N. mexicana), Odocoileus hemionus (O. virginianus), Ovis canadensis, Cratogeomys
    Cratogeomys
    Cratogeomys is a genus of rodent in the Geomyidae family. It was previously considered a subgenus of Pappogeomys.It contains the following species:* Yellow-faced Pocket Gopher...

    (C. castanops
    Yellow-faced Pocket Gopher
    The Yellow-faced Pocket Gopher is a species of pocket gopher that is native to shortgrass prairies in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico....

    ),
    Peromyscus maniculatus
    Peromyscus maniculatus
    Peromyscus maniculatus is a rodent native to North America. It is most commonly called the Deer Mouse, although that name is common to most species of Peromyscus and is fairly widespread across the continent, with the major exception being the southeast United States and the far north.Like other...

    , Sorex
    Sorex
    The genus Sorex includes many of the common shrews of Eurasia and North America. Members of this genus, known as long-tailed shrews, are the only members of the tribe Soricini of the subfamily Soricinae...

    , Spermophilus variegatus, Sylvilagus audubonii
    Desert Cottontail
    The Desert Cottontail , also known as Audubon's Cottontail, is a New World cottontail rabbit, a member of the family Leporidae....

    , (S. nuttallii
    Mountain Cottontail
    The Mountain Cottontail or Nuttall's Cottontail is a species of mammal in the Leporidae family. It is found in Canada and the United States.- Description :...

    ),
    Taxidea taxus, Thomomys bottae (T. umbrinus), Vulpes velox (V. vulpes).

  • Mammals (Extinct): Arctodus
    Arctodus
    Arctodus — known as the short-faced bear or bulldog bear — is an extinct genus of bear endemic to North America during the Pleistocene ~3.0 Ma.—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately three million years. Arctodus simus may have once been Earth's largest mammalian, terrestrial carnivore...

    sp., Bison antiquus
    Bison antiquus
    Bison antiquus, sometimes called the ancient bison, was the most common large herbivore of the North American continent for over ten thousand years, and is a direct ancestor of the living American bison....

    , Camelops
    Camelops
    Camelops is an extinct genus of camels that once roamed western North America, where it disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene about 10,000 years ago. Its name is derived from the Greek κάμελος + , thus "camel-face."-Background:...

    , Equus tau, E. francisci
    Equus francisci
    Equus francisci is an extinct species of Equus which was native to North America. Specimens of E. francisci have been found from northern Texas to southern South Dakota and in Alberta, Canada. Evidence shows this species to have evolved in North America.The species Equus francisci was...

    , Mexican Horse (E. conversidens), E. alaskae, Euceratherium collinum, Stockoceros onusrosagris

  • Reptilia: Phrynosoma douglasii (Rickart), Phrynosoma cornutum (Rickart), Crotaphytus collaris (Rickart), Sceloporus (Rickart).
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