On September 8, the Museum of the Big Bend in partnership with the Center for Big Bend Studies and Humanities Texas, opened the highly anticipated exhibit, “Removing the Shroud of Mystery: Archaeology in the Big Bend.” Found across the vast Big Bend region of Texas are clues left behind that […]
Two large, side-by-side thermal features (each over 2 m in width) were excavated at a site on the Canon Ranch in June 2011. One of these contains a relatively dense pavement of stones, the other a looser pavement/stone-free center. The juxtaposition of these distinctively shaped features—within several meters of one […]
The Logan’s Terrace (41TE676) site—located near the Pecos River on the Nature Conservancy’s Independence Creek Preserve—was tested in 2010 with several excavation units. Large mammal bones had previously been discovered eroding from several localities along a cut bank and subsequent analysis had identified these as bison bones. Since bison remains […]
The Birthday site was discovered in 2009 at the edge of the ecotone separating the lowland desert and lowest foothills of the Davis Mountains. In settings such as this, diverse floral and faunal communities occur in tandem with concentrated archaeological sites. Three separate thermal features exposed in erosional cuts across […]
In the summer of 2010, CBBS personnel discovered a discrete, short-term campsite of Late Prehistoric peoples that promises major scientific returns. Termed the Perdiz Trail site (02-269, and radiocarbon dated to A.D. 1450—1530, this small, rather nondescript campsite was occupied by a group of hunters for only seven to ten […]
The John Z. and Exa Means Cache, discovered in 2002 by D. Craige Means and his sons, Samuel and Jesse, contains over 1,250 stone arrow points. Importantly, the discoverers contacted CBBS archaeologists about their find and allowed archaeological participation during excavation of a portion of the cache feature, thus ensuring […]
Tranquil Rockshelter, located near the headwaters of Terlingua Creek, was originally test excavated in 2007. Because the results were so promising, a CBBS crew, eight archaeological field school students, and several volunteers returned to conduct a full scale excavation. Over the course of the season, seventeen square meters were excavated […]
The Graef Petroglyph Site is a horizontal bedrock petroglyph site located in Reeves County, at the edge of mesa country bordering the Stockton Plateau. The site includes petroglyphs that bear similarities to the Chihuahuan Desert Abstract Style of the Western Archaic Tradition, a widespread hunter-gatherer rock art complex that ranges […]
In 2006, Jim Olson, owner of the Holguin Ranch in Presidio County, graciously provided funding for the formal recording of previously located sites on his ranch, the evaluation and submittal of sites potentially eligible for the Texas Historical Commission’s State Archeological Landmarks (SAL). A total of 14 sites were formally […]
Hidden away in a remote and rugged area of the western Chinati Mountains in Presidio County is a newly discovered, prehistoric rock art site that promises to add significantly to our rock art database for the Big Bend. The CBBS was informed of the existence of the site by the […]
