Archeological Excavations
Excavations undertaken in 1930 and 1931 in the Texas Panhandle uncovered the Saddleback and Antelope Creek ruins on the Canadian River. In 1932, Holden directed a field school at the Tecolote ruin near Las Vegas, New Mexico. In 1933, 1935, and 1937, he uncovered the Arrowhead Ruin, including a rare D-shaped kiva. Holden's students excavated and restored this Early Glaze-period pueblo ruin located east of Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1950, he directed excavations at the Bonnell site near Ruidoso, New Mexico, on a mesa ruin similar to the Antelope Creek site. In 1937, Holden found evidence of Southwestern prehistoric culture at Murrah Cave on the lower Pecos River. In 1938, he investigated Blue Mountain Cave west of Odessa, Texas. In 1940, he investigated Fingerpoint Cave in Borden County, Texas.
Holden's most significant archeological discovery occurred near his home in Lubbock in 1937, when two of his students found a Paleo-Indian flint point in Yellow House Draw. The flint point was on the bank of a small natural lake that the city was dredging to open an ancient spring. Holden played a crucial role in the long struggle to preserve the site. In 1989, the site was designated the Lubbock Lake National Historic and State Archeological Landmark.
Holden led archeological field trips to Mexico in 1934, 1936, 1938, and 1940. In the spring of 1934, he took students on an expedition to study the bellicose Yaqui of the state of Sonora. Texas Tech sponsored a second expedition in 1935. Thereafter, Holden published Studies of the Yaqui Indians of Sonora, Mexico. The report touches on Yaqui education, marriage, child-rearing, and household economy.
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