What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

I envision this symposium to highlight researchers who are engaging in exciting and new scholarship in the state of Texas, both at the graduate, faculty, and contract level. The temporal range and subject matter for this session is left intentionally broad to reflect the diversity of work being conducted in the state.

Other Keywords
Historical Archaeology • Material Culture and Technology • Public and Community Archaeology • North America: Southwest United States

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)
Documents
  • Biographic Rock Art on the Southern Plains and Politics through Equestrian Imagery (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jenny Ni.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Plains Biographic Tradition rock art, through recording the military exploits of Plains warriors and associated historical events, was an important method of earning prestige and political influence in Plains cultures. As it developed alongside the increasing integration of equine pastoralism, the Plains Biographic...

  • Collaborative Research at the Paint Rock Site (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Eric Schroeder.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Paint Rock Project is a Native American collaborative research project that centers on the conservation of Native American heritage and culture facilitated by the Campbell Family, tribal elders, and researchers from Abilene Christian University and the Edwards Plateau Archaeological Research Group. Situated within the...

  • Community-Based Learning Opportunities in History and Heritage: Rice University Course in Archaeological Field Techniques and Public Archaeology in Brazoria County, TX (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail Antinossi.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There’s a lot going on in Texas Archaeology, some of which includes new ways of teaching, learning, and engaging. At Rice University, undergraduate students excavate at plantation sites in Brazoria County alongside descendants of those who were once enslaved in these same spaces, working in partnership with local museum and...

  • An Examination of Indirect Percussion Knapping Tools in Texas: Experimentation, Observations, and Analytical Implications (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Ringstaff.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of flintknapping experimental design, archeologists must consider raw materials and knapping tools that best replicate those used in the production of the artifacts being studied. While conducting research on indirect percussion as a reduction method in Texas lithic assemblages, a collections and literature review...

  • <html>Historical Archaeology of <i>Tejano</i> Erasure in the Rio Grande Valley</html> (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Edward Gonzalez-Tennant.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Anglo settlement of the Rio Grande Valley began in the late 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup> century. Part of this colonization involved the whitewashing of the region’s history, including the erasure of Tejano communities, descendants of earlier Spanish, Mexican, and Mestizo settlers. Historical scholarship...

  • <html>The Materiality of Indigenous Persistence: 18<sup>th</sup> century Bone-Tempered Pottery</html> (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelton Sheridan.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> This paper shares findings and interpretations from my doctoral research centered around the persistence of Indigenous practice, as can be observed through the analysis of bone-tempered pottery from the 18<sup>th</sup> century sites of San Antonio missions and Rancho de las Cabras. Bone-tempered pottery is ubiquitous...

  • More Than Square Nails and Abandoned Fields: Toward an Archaeology of Black Agrarianism in Central Texas (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jordan Davis.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The centrality of agrarianism to African American experience cannot be overstated. Although profoundly shaped by the legacies of racial chattel slavery and sharecropping, the story of Black agrarianism is not reducible to narratives of forced labor, exploitation, and ecological alienation. Ideologies of racial uplift and...

  • The Search for Spanish Livestock and the Possibilities of a Forgotten Collection (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Myriah Allen.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> The introduction of Spanish horses and other livestock played a pivotal role in the Indigenous ethnogenesis of the Plains Indian Horse Cultures in the 16<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> centuries. Before Spanish livestock were available, the Southern Plains nomadic tribes moved across this landscape with dog-pulled...

  • Uncovering Mill Creek's Buried Past: Deep Excavations and Precontact Insights from Site 41AU103, Austin County, Texas (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Aaron Norment.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2024, archaeologists from Environmental Research Group, LLC (ERG), in collaboration with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), undertook data recovery excavations at site 41AU103 in rural Austin County, Texas. This deeply buried and highly stratified site, located along the banks of Mill Creek, revealed multiple...

  • Using Geophysical Survey Methodologies to Assist Descendant Communities in the Recording and Preservation of African American Cemeteries in Texas (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Todd Ahlman.

    This is an abstract from the "What’s Going on in Texas? Current Topics in Texas Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. According to the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, there are hundreds of known and unmarked African American cemeteries in Texas. Some of these cemeteries have been uploaded to the community-based project and likely represent only a small fraction of African American cemeteries in the state. Many African American cemeteries...