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The Antelope Creek Phase was an American Indian culture in the Texas Panhandle and adjacent Oklahoma dating from 1200 to 1450 AD.〔Derrick, Randall. “The Antelope Creek Focus: An Advanced, Pre-Columbian Civilization in the Texas Panhandle.” http://www.panhandlenation.com/history/prehistory/antelope_creek.htm; accessed Nov 10, 2010〕 The two most important areas where the Antelope Creek people lived were in the Canadian River valley centered on present-day Lake Meredith near the city of Borger, Texas and the Buried City complex in Wolf Creek valley near the town of Perryton, Texas. Settlements are also found in Oklahoma near the town of Guymon and the Beaver River. The Antelope Creek People were bison hunters, maize farmers, and foragers. They are best known for building large stone multi-family dwellings, unique on the Great Plains. Their culture blended Southwestern Pueblo and Great Plains characteristics. The Antelope Creek Phase is also called the Antelope Creek Focus, the Panhandle Phase, the Optima Focus, and the Upper Canark Variant.〔Gibbon, Guy E. Ed. ''Archaeology of Pre-Historic Native America: An Encyclopedia''. NY:Routledge, 1998, p. 20〕 ==Origin== The origin of the Antelope Creek people is unknown. They were the most southwestern of the cultures making up the Plains Village Tradition which stretched from North Dakota to Texas and extended westward in river valleys from the eastern woodland into the Great Plains. The Plains Villagers adopted the cultivation of corn (maize) and by 900 AD they were living in semi-permanent villages along the watercourses traversing the plains, including, for example, the Washita and Canadian rivers in Oklahoma.〔Drass, Richard R. “Redefining Plains Village Complexes in Oklahoma: the Paoli Phase and the Redbed Plains Variant.” ''Plains Anthropologist'', Vol 44, No. 168, 1999, pp. 121–140〕 By 1250 AD, these river valleys were heavily populated with villages of up to 20 houses situated about every two miles.〔”Oklahoma’s Past” http://www.ou.edu/cas/archsur/counties/garvin.htm, accessed Nov 11, 2010〕 Most authorities believe that the Antelope Creek Phase was a western expansion of farming communities from Oklahoma into the Texas panhandle or an extension southward of similar farming communities from further north.〔”Texas Beyond History.” http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/villagers/buriedcity/who.html, accessed Nov 11, 2010〕 Although farming was difficult in the dry climate of the Texas panhandle, other food resources such as bison were abundant. Bison or American buffalo are believed to have been uncommon on the southern Great Plains before 1000 AD. As the bison population expanded thereafter due to climatic conditions, they became the principal source of protein for people on the southern Plains and their abundance stimulated a growth in population and complexity of the hunting-gathering societies that had inhabited the region for thousands of years. Archaeological sites confirm increased exploitation of bison after 1200 AD.〔”Texas Beyond History.” http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/villagers/buriedcity/who.html, accessed Nov 11, 2010; Drass, Richard R. and Flynn, Peggy. “Temporal and Geographic Variations in Subsistence Practices for Plains Villagers in the Southern Plains.” ''Plains Anthropologist'', Vol. 135, No. 128, 1990, pp. 187–188〕 A major asset of the Canadian River Valley was the large deposits of colorful Alibates flint that could be chipped into tools and weapons and traded to other cultures. The present day Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument preserves more than 700 quarries where the Indians dug out the flint. Most of the quarries are holes six feet or more in diameter and four to eight feet deep. The presence of Alibates Flint was undoubtedly an economic incentive to settle nearby to control trade in the stone.〔http://www.nps.gov/alfl/historyculture/index.htm, Accessed Nov 11, 2010〕 Alibates flint tools have been found up to one thousand miles away. Most authorities believe that the Antelope Creek people were speakers of a Caddoan language and probably ancestral to the historic Wichita and, possibly, the Pawnee. That opinion is based primarily on the fact that in historic times the farming communities on the southern Plains were primarily Caddoans. An alternative thesis is that the Antelope Creek people were Pueblo Indians who moved or were pushed onto the Great Plains from their homes near the valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico. It is also possible that the Antelope Creek people were neither Caddoan nor Pueblo, but an entirely different people. Nor is it certain that all the people of the Antelope Creek culture spoke the same language or belonged to the same ethnic group.〔Brooks, Robert L. “From Stone Slab Architecture to Abandonment” in Perttula, Timothy K. ''The Prehistory of Texas''. College Station: Texas A&M U Press, 2004, pp. 334–335〕 Pioneering archaeologist Alex D. Kreiger summed up the evidence: “To attempt to classify Antelope Creek Focus as either a Plains or Puebloan culture is infeasible, for it was clearly a combination of both. … One can hardly escape the impression that the peoples of this focus were Plains agriculturalists who pushed southward from one valley to another as far as eastern New Mexico. Here contact was established with Puebloans who were expanding their territories at the same time.”〔Kreiger, Alex D. ''Cultural Complexes and Chronology of Northern Texas''. Austin: U of Texas Press, 1946, p. 73〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Antelope Creek Phase」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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