Texas Archaeology
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
The ecological regions of Texas are diverse — something the Parks and Wildlife archaeological team knows well.
Our team has to become proficient in all of those different areas, and there are very different ways to find the archeology of those areas.
Margaret Howard is archeology survey team leader at Parks and Wildlife. Some areas of the state give up their secrets more easily than others.
In the Pineywoods, it’s deep below the pine needle blanket that’s on the ground;’ it’s very well preserved but it’s hard to find. Out in West Texas, it often shows on the surface, so it’s easy to find, but then it’s very vulnerable to erosion, or even vandalism.
Even though there are more than a million acres of parkland to survey, knowing where to look for artifacts is easier than you might think.
Humans are just not as different as you might want to imagine. We’ve had a number of cases where ancient campgrounds were below the campgrounds that are used today. We are humans; we’re walking across the ground the way that humans once did. Humans are thirsty, humans need to eat, they like shade and protection from the weather. And so, if you look at those aspects of the landscape, you can figure out where people tended to live.
Learn how Parks and Wildlife archeologists use the clues left behind from peoples’ activities to gain insight in Texas’ past when you log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife Website.
That’s our show for today …For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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