Some Aspects of Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology in Southern Texas

This paper is concerned with the last several hundred years of the prehistoric period in the southern part of Texas. The earlier human occupation of this region, extending back perhaps 11,000 years, has been summarized elsewhere (Hester 1971a). The Paleo-Indian period is represented by scattered surface finds of Clovis and Folsom projectile points, and by a variety of "Late Paleo-Indian" point styles, such as Plainview, Scottsbluff, Golondrina, Angostura, and Meserve. The following Archaic era is poorly defined, although there are numerous surface sites and an abundance of chipped stone artifacts (cf. Weir 1956; Hester, White and White 1969). The late prehistoric era in southern Taxas shares many characteristics with contemporary cultural developments in other parts of Texas, during a period which Suhm, Krieger and Jelks (1954: 20) have termed "Neo-American". New traits which were introduced into some parts of Texas at this time include the bow and arrow, ceramics, and the practice of agriculture; present evidence indicates that of these, only agriculture was absent from southern Texas.