Heritage, Volume 14, Number 1, Winter 1996 Page: 12
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Wilson-Leonard is also significant for the early
human burial found there. These remains can
now be confidently dated to between 10,000 and
9,500 years ago. Remains of this age have been
found at only about 15 other sites in all of
North America, and most of these are far less
complete than those from Wilson-Leonard.Fragmentary stone pipe in which minute traces of a
mescaline-like substance were detected. The pipe is
about three inches in diameter, made of soft
calcareous stone, and believed to be about 3,000
years old. Pencil sketch by Pamela J. Headrick.
Courtesy of the Texas Archaeological Research
Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin.bulbs of the camas and similar species. These
all require long cooking times, either baking
or steaming. Earth ovens, which debut at
the beginning of the Archaic, are ideally
suited for this kind of cooking, and the
occasional preserved bits of foodstuffs from
these prehistoric ovens include wild hyacinth
bulbs, for example in the 8,000-year
old earth oven at Wilson-Leonard (see page
11). More westernly sites, including one in
Uvalde County, for example, have yielded
bits of charred sotol leaves also dated to
about 8,000 years ago (Ellis et al. 1995).
Cooking in any earth oven requires too
much effort to be worthwhile for a small
group, such as a single family. The prehistoric
ovens in Central Texas contain several
hundred pounds of limestone rock that
served as the heating element. Rocks were
heated very hot and, after the fire was out or
nearly so, food wrapped in wet grass or
leaves was buried in the hot rocks. Most
earth or rock ovens are built in a shallow pit
that has to be dug initially and cleaned out
for each successive use. After a few uses, therocks break up from the heat and have to
be replaced. This all takes considerable
labor. The bulk food was gathered and
prepared. All of the rocks and fuel to heat
them had to be assembled. Water or wet
vegetation also had to be readily available.
Cooking times probably ranged from
a few hours to one or more days, depending
on the particular food being cooked
and the size of the oven. Most bulk staple
foods can be prepared for long-term storage.Any group using this technology can
adapt it to whatever bulk staple is in
season in the local area. Also, changes
in plant communities that come with
long-term climatic change can be accommodated
by shifting to another bulk
staple with only minor adjustments in
the cooking process. Whatever the bulk
staple, it can be augmented by any other
plant or animal species at hand. If it is
true that specialization is the path to
extinction, then its corollary seems to
be born out by 8,000 years of successful,
generalized exploitation of the diverse
resource base of Central Texas made
possible by the effectiveness of earthoven
technology.
A s mentioned, the human population
of Central Texas increased more or
less continually during the last 11,000
years. This undoubtedly increasingly constrained
mobility and subsistence options
and may have brought about times of
political conflict, but it also led to a
cosmopolitan condition where people
exchanged commodities, knowledge, and
mates. There was communication between
speakers of different languages. The
evidence for this is seen in the presence of
exotic marine shells and obsidian in Central Texas sites. Complex ritual came to the
eastern edge of Central Texas from the
upper Mississippi valley late in the Archaic.The evidence is clear that the prehistoric
peoples of Central Texas were well
aware of the world beyond their territory.
Horticulture or agriculture had come to be
practiced in all directions (Mexico as well
as the Southwestern, Southeastern, and
Plains areas of the United States) during
what was still the late Archaic in Central
Texas. Early settlers from Europe found
Central Texas well-suited for agriculture.
So it is apparent that agriculture was neither
precluded by natural conditions in the
region or by ignorance on the part of its
inhabitants. Thus, it would seem that the
prehistoric peoples of Central Texas consciously
chose not to pursue food production,
opting instead to continue their successful
reliance on native resources. They
probably looked upon the labors and limitations
of farming with disdain.
Some specific details from investigations
at the Wilson-Leonard site are
also of interest: For instance, a fragmentary
tubular stone pipe, or "cloud blower"
(shown left, above) was found in deposits
ca 3,000 years old. This was submitted to
Jeffrey Hurst, an organic chemist in
Hershey, Pennsylvania, for analysis of any
residues that may be on the pipe from the
time it was in use. He detected minute
traces of distinctive but incomplete molecules
indicative of mescaline, a hallucinogenic
compound derived from certain
native American plants. This raises interesting
issues about the origin and development
of pipe smoking in North America
since the age of this pipe is earlier than the
known use of tobacco.12 HERITAGE *WINTER 1996
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 14, Number 1, Winter 1996, periodical, Winter 1996; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45404/m1/12/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.