![]() Today, “LeAnne” is a permanent resident of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory in Austin, or TARL. He says the site is an important glimpse into life in North American at the time. It is the ultimate trail food,” Collins says. “So they would bake these things and then they pulverized the cooked camas bulbs into a cake, kind of like a hockey puck, highly nutritious. Inside the burial pit, archaeologists also uncovered a shark’s tooth the woman possibly wore as a necklace. Archaeologists also found cooking stones – indented rock used to boil water to cook one of the main food staples for Native Americans of the period, camas – the prairie flower that produced a starchy bulb similar to a small sweet potato. This nickname contributed to decades of misinformation about the age of the skeleton and what Collins says is akin to racism against early Native Americans. Somewhere along the line, the skeletal remains earned the nickname “LeAnne.” The Williamson County Historical Commission website says it was members of the media who first began to call the remains the “Leanderthal Lady” because of the dig site’s proximity to the city of Leander. The remains dated back to the Archaic period, some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. “There were stone tools, there were fireplace-like features and so forth and so on, it was a pretty normal campsite, but then she was buried in a small pit within that,” Collins says.Ĭollins says the team found the remains in a “flexed” or fetal position and placed in what would have been a shallow grave. They found spear tips, grinding stones, and over 150 individual fire pits that were commonly used by Native American tribes during the period.Ī decade later, in 1983, excavators uncovered the burial remains of a woman. It was a massive prehistoric campground, dating back 10,000 years. That year, Collins says archeologists with the Texas Department of Transportation – who were looking to expand a nearby road – uncovered something they weren’t expecting. And that certainly is the case at what’s called the Wilson-Leonard site, just outside of Austin.īefore 1973, the land was part of the Wilson Land and Cattle Company. And sometimes, those clues can provide a whole a whole window into another world. Each section contains clues about what life was like during those years. Collins would tell you the layers of segmented soil beneath you are like a timeline. Take a minute to think about the world the way Collins does. “So when we excavate a site, the dirt has information that we need to recover.” “What was the climate like, what were plants and animals that were around, all of these sorts of things,” Collins says. ![]() He says, you might not know it, but the dirt below your feet is full of insight into what life was like before our time on earth. He’s in his 70s, and has done many archeological digs in his career. Michael Collins is a research professor at Texas State University and the chairman of the Gault School of Archaeological Research. And in the central Texas city of Leander – you could be a Leanderthal? That unfortunate nickname for residents came about because of a misconception related to the findings of an archaeological dig a few decades ba Dr. If you're from Houston, you're a Houstonian, in Austin, you're an Austinite. Note: This story has been updated throughout to reflect corrections made upon further consultation with Dr.
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