PRODUCED BY Archaeology Research Program Department of Anthropology Southern Methodist University WITH FUNDS PROVIDED BY Tarrant County Water Control and Improvement District Number 1 written by: L. Mark Raab and Randall W. Moir typesetting by: James E. Bruseth graphic layout by: Chris Christopher 1981 Archaeology [1] has a number of popular stereotypes usually involving expeditions to remote parts of the Earth in search of ancient tombs, lost cities or long-extinct races of Man. The archaeologi

One way of understanding the RCAP is to look at how archaeologists work. People frequently ask what is an archaeological site ? How do you find sites? How do you excavate and what do you look for? What do you do with the things that you collect? During 1980-81, an archaeological survey ( Figure 2 ) was completed in the project area. During the survey, an effort was made to develop the most complete inventory possible of prehistoric and historic sites . Sites were recorded by examining the entire

Recent studies suggest that humans have occupied North America for at least 20,000 years. These prehistoric Indians were the first people to live in North America, probably entering the New World first by way of a great land bridge between what is now Siberia and Alaska. True pioneers, they entered a vast land that had never before contained humans. Once in the New World, their culture developed over thousands of years into several successive stages and spread over the whole of North America and

Since 1925, when flint spear points were found embedded in the bones of a kind of long-extinct bison, scientists have known that Native Americans lived in this country for tens-of-thousands of years. We call these people the “Paleo” Indians, after the Greek word for ancient, to refer to the oldest inhabitants of this continent. Intriguing as these people are, however, we understand little about them because we have found few traces of their habitations. The most distinctive trait of these people

Following the Paleo-Indian stage of cultural development, we know that population continued to grow steadily over thousands of years. We know this trend occurred because we find many more sites . In the project area, for example, we find that about half of all prehistoric sites that can be related to a cultural stage are from the Archaic stage (over 300 prehistoric sites were recorded during 1980-81). Even though these sites were occupied over thousands of years, they are a striking contrast to

Throughout much of eastern North America we know that tremendous cultural changes occurred in the few centuries before and after the time of Christ. The society of simple hunters and gatherers in Archaic times gave way to a much more advanced type of society for reasons that are not entirely understood at present. We do know that Woodland stage peoples began building huge earthworks; sometimes as burial mounds, sometimes in the forms of animals such as snakes. From a social point of view, big ch

The Neo-American stage, also called the Mississippian stage in the eastern U.S., was the last prehistoric culture stage, and the one with the most complex culture. During this stage, large pyramid-shaped earthen mounds, complex ceremonialism, long-distance trade, heavy reliance on crops such as corn and squash, and a complex social order, with powerful chiefs at the top of the ranking system, all merged. The prehistoric Caddo Indians of East Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana are an excell

The archaeological story of people in this area during the last 150 years is no less exciting than its prehistoric counterpart. From the material remains, sites , and structures that these people have left behind, we see a picture of the rapid taming of a frontier, its rural agricultural florescence at the turn of this century, and then its decline under adverse economic conditions. Much of the rural landscape still contains a significant percentage of early twentieth century structures in varyi

What can we expect to gain from looking at broken pieces of plates, bottles, animal bones, buttons, and window glass 50 or a 100 years old? Aren’t museum collections and written histories adequate for providing information about rural life from 1870 to 1910? Unfortunately, there is a big difference between the type of information available through antiques, books, people, and archaeology . Artifacts represent fragments generally resulting from the discarding or breaking of common items. Most ant

The first few permanent settlers came to this area soon after Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836. Settlement increased tremendously after Texas achieved statehood as families migrated westward. Most of these earliest settlers constructed log cabins for dwellings. About ten log cabin sites possibly dating to the mid-nineteenth century have been located in the area. Overall, however, we see a picture of families with widely different resources facing the same rural frontier. On th

Archaeology (also spelled archeology ): In the United States, archaeology is taught and practiced as one of the four major subfields of anthropology (with anthropological linguistics, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology). The aim of archaeology is the understanding of past human societies. Archaeologists not only attempt to discover and describe past cultures, but also to develop explanations for the development of cultures. Archaeologist : Anyone with an interest in the aims and me

There are several organizations that encourage interest and education in archaeology by members of the public. Some of these organizations are listed below. The first is the Texas Archaeological Society, Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78285 . This society is composed of avocational archaeologists from all walks of life. It holds an annual meeting in the fall during which members present papers on various aspects of Texas archaeology . Each