Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Volume 69, 1998 Page: 1

                                
Prehistoric Human Food Resource Patches
on the Texas Coastal Plain
Grant D.Hall
ABSTRACT
The Texas coastal plain is remarkable for its ecotonal diversity and natural food productivity. This study
takes a look at broad patterns in the occurrence of such food resources, with emphasis on the aquatic products
of rivers and bays, nuts and acorns, animals, and prickly pear fruit. These resources converged in parts of the
coastal plain to form areas that were especially productive to prehistoric hunter-gatherers. These food resource
patches clearly had a profound affect on the behavior and character of people present on the Texas coastal plain
over the past 4,000 years.

INTRODUCTION
In an earlier study focusing on the interpreta-
tion of prehistoric aboriginal cemetery distribution
and character, I noted that the Texas central coastal
plain "was blessed with a variety of plants and
animals which, in their aggregate, would have pro-
vided a superabundance of native foods to prehis-
toric hunter-gatherers" (Hall 1995a:637). I
attempted to show that native pecans were the most
critical of these food resources in terms of the defi-
nition of Archaic territories across the region, but
this idea was not supported by the pattern of known
cemeteries relative to native pecan distribution. I
concluded my study by observing that: "It was the
variety and density of the aggregate of native food
resources of southeast Texas that contributed to the
area's attractiveness of prehistoric human groups"
(Hall 1995a:644). Here, pecans will again be briefly
considered, but more attention will be paid, in terms
of broad patterns of resource availability, to the
coastal plain's rich mosaic of food resources con-
sidered only marginally in the earlier study. These
include the natural products of Holocene flood
plains, bays and estuaries, the Post Oak Belt, the
Cross Timbers, and prickly pear fields.
The Texas coastal plain is defined for present
purposes as extending from the Sabine River
catchment in the northeast to the Rio Grande
catchment in the southwest (Figure 1). The region
is bounded on the southeast by the Gulf of Mexico
and on the northwest by the Balcones Escarpment

and Edwards Plateau. The climate, landforms, and
floral and faunal communities to be discussed have
been in place for the past 2000 to 4000 years, and
this will be the period of Texas prehistory relevant
to this study.
LATE PLEISTOCENE AND
HOLOCENE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE COASTAL PLAIN
During the Pleistocene, when sea level was
100 m below that of today, Texas rivers were
coursing down steeper regional gradients to a
coastline that was 65 to 160 km seaward from
where it is at present (Frazier 1974:22). Because
of the steeper gradients, water was flowing down
the river channels faster, cutting deep, V-shaped,
relatively straight channels. Due to a wetter Pleis-
tocene climate throughout the catchment basins,
the rivers were also carrying more water than in
later times. As glaciers began to retreat, sea level
gradually rose, river gradients decreased, water
flow rates slowed, and the deep valleys began to
fill with alluvium.
Following stabilization of modern sea level,
the channels of Texas rivers became more sinuous,
creating active aggradational environments where
spring floods, periodic channel abandonment, and
formation of oxbow lakes were more common
events in the broad, flat alluvial plains that were
developing. Coastward, the flooding of the river

Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 69 (1998)