Demolition Road: A New Clovis Site in the Middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico J. David Kilby, James D. Gallison, Roberto Herrera, David Wilcox and Valerie Renner Current Research in the Pleistocene 23:54-55 (2005) In January of 2004, archaeologists with engineering-environmental Management, Inc. visited a previously recorded lithic artifact scatter of unknown affiliation on Kirtland Air Force Base (AFB) near Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the purpose of determining site eligibility to the NRHP (Kilby and Gallison 2005). Surface inspection revealed a single diagnostic artifact, a Clovis projectile point fragment, along with a scatter of 161 lithic artifacts. The site is located on a residual fan with a west/southwest aspect adjacent to a low gradient drainage with dense grass cover. Immediately north of the site are two low hills that provide open views east toward the Manzanita Mountains and south and west along the Rio Grande valley. A series of test excavations uncovered an additional 296 lithic artifacts from a compact soil formed in silt loam. The 30-40 cm deep A/C-Bt-Btk profile represents a soil that formed over a period of a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of years. While no single occupation surface was identifiable, artifacts are concentrated in the Bt-horizon between 10 and 25 cm below the surface and normally distributed, suggesting that there is potential for an interpretable stratigraphic context for the assemblage. Geomorphic investigation of the drainage indicates that it represents a former marsh or cienega with at least two major stands, the earliest dating 5450 + 80 RCYBP (Beta 193087). Any record of earlier stands of the marsh along this portion of the drainage appears to have been eroded at some time in the early Holocene. The Clovis point is a heavily reworked basal fragment made on obsidian from the Jemez Mountains, located 90 km to the north. The point exhibits dense scratches in a cross-hatched pattern within the channel flake scars on both faces, similar to the vertical scratches visible upon specimen #107 from the Fenn cache (Frison and Bradley 1999:19). The distal end is either heavily reworked or curiously resharpened to a narrow point on an otherwise obtusely angled tip. It is not clear if the point was reworked during the Clovis period or at some later time; however, there is no noticable difference in the degree of weathering on the original surface compared to the retouched surface. In addition to the point base, 3 cores, 1 complete biface, 5 biface fragments, and 11 flake tools were identified. Flake tools include marginally retouched flakes, notched flakes, and gravers. The complete biface is a large early stage basalt bifacial core with edge grinding. Each of the biface fragments represents the margin of a relatively large biface characterized by sinuous edges and some edge grinding. A substantial remnant facet (Wilke et al. 1991) is visible on one of the margins.