✦ The Ancient Atlas

Gault Site (Buttermilk Creek)

SettlementNorth AmericaUnited States

Open-air site on Buttermilk Creek near Florence, Texas, with one of the densest Clovis assemblages in the Americas — and, beneath it, the reason it matters: Area 15 yielded an assemblage stratigraphically below the Clovis horizon, with OSL dates of roughly 16,000-20,000 years, published as the Gault Assemblage. Together with the adjacent Debra L. Friedkin site, it broke the Clovis-first model of the peopling of the Americas in the mainstream literature. No monumental architecture: the open question here is purely stratigraphic — how deep does the human horizon go? Managed by the Archaeological Conservancy with research by UT Austin and Texas A&M; access is restricted, so coverage is documentary rather than walkthrough. Coordinates approximate.

30.8800°, -97.7200°

Look Closer — this site carries open questions: dating rests on thin stratigraphic evidence. See stratigraphy across the Atlas →
Open in the Atlas map →

Walkthrough videos (3)

The Gault Site and the Peopling of the AmericasThe Gault Site and the Peopling of the Americas · The Archaeological ConservancyTexas' 18,000(!?!) Year Old Gault SiteTexas' 18,000(!?!) Year Old Gault Site · cf-apps7865The Stones are Speaking: Gault Site Documentary - Ep 316The Stones are Speaking: Gault Site Documentary - Ep 316 · Archaeology Podcast Network

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