Artifacts Associated With Fossil Elephant
In December 1934, Judge J. A. Mead discovered a spear in association with an elephant skeleton near Miami in Roberts County, Texas. During 1937 this locality was excavated. The elephant bones were found in an old, now completely filled, sink which had been a water-hole. The lower part of the fill in the sink contained no recognizable fossils, but at a level 1 or 1½ feet below the present surface was a bone layer extending entirely across the sink. Above this level, no additional bones were found. No bones other than elephant were present. The conditions of occurrence indicate that several elephants are present, ranging in age from very young to mature. In the bone bed were found one scraper and three spears. One of the spears lay about 3 inches from, and at the same level as, the first cervical vertebra of an elephant. Another spear and the scraper were near elephant bones. The artifacts are of the Folsom or Folsom-like culture type. Whether the elephants were trapped or bogged at this water-hole or suffered from drought or illness is unknown. The sink in which the fossils are found is much older than the modern sinks of this region, as shown by the fact that it had become completely filled. The age of the deposits is not fully determined. It is, however, evident that important faunal and topographic changes have occurred since the artifacts and elephant remains were included in this deposit.