Archeologist(s) ____________________________ Team _________________

     Written records of Texas history begin with the accounts of the Spanish explorers, which was less than 500 years ago. However, the first people came to Texas more than 12,000 years ago. Many clues to how past cultures lived have been left behind in many places.The clues to the unwritten story of those thousands of years lie buried in the earth. Archeologists are social scientists who seek information about prehistoric and historic peoples through the study of materials left by peoples of the past. They are detectives using the materialremains as clues to learn how past peoples lived. Archeologists use artifacts, features (areas that show evidence of human activity) and other remains as clues to past behavior. They study the material of the culture that includes any object or structure that is made or altered by humans. In an archeological site, material culture includes areas that show evidence of human activity. Some examples are burned rocks surrounding a hearth, mortar holes made in bedrock, concentrations of butchered animal bone, spear or pottery pieces or rock art.
     No evidence of humans in the New World or United States is found until very late in the Pleistocene or Ice Age. The most severe period of glaciers was also the latest. It is called the Wisconsin in North America. It lasted from about 80,000 years ago until around 7000 BC, when the earth’s glaciers began their final retreat. Since the last Ice Age about 12,000 years ago or 10,000 BC, the land surface of the Texas coastal zone has undergone deposition. The rivers have deposited soils to form the coastal zone.
     Since the land surface has been building up because of soil deposits, the older the archeological site, the deeper it will be. If a site has been used during different periods, the material may be deposited in layers or strata. In a site, the older layer will be the deeper one. As an archeologist you are going to prepare a chart of the artifacts for each time period on the Texas coast.

Materials: paper, ruler, copy of “Archeological Time Periods and the Texas Coast”

Procedure:

The Archeological Time Periods and the Texas Coast

Paleoindian Period (10,000 - 6,000 BC)

     Archeological evidence has revealed that the first people came to the Texas coastal region about 12,000 years ago. This was during the time when the glaciers of the last Ice Age were beginning to melt. The beach was some 40 to 50 miles wider and sea level was about 300 feet below where it is now. The shoreline was miles out into the Gulf. The coast did not look like it does today. What are beaches today were part of the inland prairies during this time. The river valleys of 12,000 years ago are the bays today.
     The people of that time were nomadic hunters and gatherers. They banded together in small groups, moving from one area to another in search of food. They lived along rivers for water. Animals also were attracted to the water. The humans relied mostly on big game hunting for food but they also hunted smaller game and gathered wild plants. As they moved about the land they left scattered artifacts and a few kill sites that give clues to their culture. Unfortunately many of their remains are under the bay waters and underthe waters of the Gulf.

     At the McFaddin Beach site near Port Arthur, archeologists have found a large number of Clovis points that have washed ashore. The Clovis point is a projectile point that was very effective in killing the mammoths and other Ice Age animals. Around 9,000 BC, the large spearheads became smaller and more finely formed. These developed into the Folsom points, which were more suitable for hunting the smaller bison.

Archaic Period (6,000 B. C. - A. D. 500)