Posted on 08/28/2006 12:11:13 AM PDT by ValerieUSA
An archaeology crew excavated what its members think is a prehistoric skeleton from the banks of Lake Travis on Sunday.
Evidence at the site indicates that the skeleton is between 700 and 2,000 years old, most likely dating back about 1,000 years, members of the excavation crew said. The nearly intact skeleton is being donated to the University of Texas for further study.
The skeleton was found Aug. 9 by an Austin man riding a personal watercraft on Lake Travis. David Houston had pulled onto the sloped southern bank, admiring a nearby house, when he saw a jawbone, teeth and a forearm in the clay soil less than six feet away.
Houston, a self-professed archaeology nut who said he has "home-schooled" himself on the subject for nearly a quarter-century, said he knew immediately that the skull dated hundreds of years at least. Its teeth are ground down, he said, consistent with eating food that is stone-ground and thus has tiny rock fragments in it.
The find left him a little startled.
"I kind of did a double take," Houston said. "I thought, 'Am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing?' "
After seeing the skeleton, Houston called friend Bill Grace, whose job with Travis County is to help maintain Pace Bend Park. The job also gives him some familiarity with government rules on such discoveries. Grace helped find others interested in the excavation and ensured that the group did not run afoul of any regulations.
In the meantime, the two covered the skeleton in mud to prevent looting and keep it from drying out while they assembled a crew to remove it.
On Sunday, a nine-person team of professional archaeologists, graduate students, a forensic anthropologist and others removed the skeleton and analyzed the site, which they said was probably a prehistoric camp.
Pieces of evidence are still being weighed.
Andy Malof, an archaeologist with the Lower Colorado River Authority, said that an on-site examination of the body suggested that it is less than 1,000 years old. But, he said, arrowheads found by Houston and Grace, called darl points, lend themselves to a burial taking place between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago.
Scattered about the bank were flat rocks the team said were probably used to grind food. Malof said some rocks were arranged like a hearth.
Evidence of the camp had been submerged by Lake Travis, which was created after Mansfield Dam was finished in 1941. The site was uncovered when the lake fell below its usual level.
As of Friday, the lake had dipped to 649.4 feet above sea level, about 16 feet below its August average, according to the LCRA.
"I just know how rare these things are," Houston said. Prehistoric peoples usually "buried very few people during that time. They were usually burned."
Malof characterized such finds along the Colorado River as "fairly unique."
"The significance of this is really an understanding of the ways of people who lived here in the past," he said. "It gives us information about their health, their diet, stresses and their environment."
Malof asked that the exact location of the site not be released to avoid attracting looters to the property, which is privately owned. He also asked that photographs of the remains not be published out of respect for a burial site.
The declining lake levels have led to a rash of unauthorized digs. Unauthorized digging at historical sites on public land is illegal, with violators facing fines ranging from $50 to $1,000 and up to 30 days in jail.
An unauthorized dig could also result in valuable information being lost, said Bob Wishoff, who was present for the excavation and runs an archaeology Web site, dirtbrothers.org. He lauded Houston for coordinating with professionals.
The skeleton is certainly not the oldest found in Central Texas. In 1982, archaeologists found the grave of an Ice Age woman near Leander. She became known as Leanderthal Lady, and hers are the oldest known female remains in Texas, buried between 11,000 and 8,000 B.C.
The skeleton found by Houston is homo sapiens, Malof said. It was probably a woman about 40 years old, he said.
Other tests, he said, will be performed as funds become available and should give more precise information.
So was this the first skeleton in the closet?
The Lavenderthal Woman smells really good!
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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