REDLAND OAKS ARTIFACTS

Artifacts are items made, modified, or utilized by humans. For millions of years humans have made, modified or utilized items found readily available in their environment in order to meet their basic needs and to improve the quality of their lives.

Archaeologist have traditionally subdivided artifacts into morphological classifications based on distinguishing attributes and/or functional characteristics. Some artifacts can be used as chronological markers because they have distinct characteristics and their type have been recovered in situ with datable materials. The materials associated with the artifact is dated using radiocarbon dating or other dating methods to determine their age and therefore the approxiamate age of the artifact. With the information provided from these in situ artifacts, archaeologists are able to identify assembleges of artifacts that are common to certain periods of time within a geographical local.

In Texas, cultural time periods are divided into the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Late Prehistoric and Historic. These periods are often further sub-divided into phases and are usually distinct for each region found within the state.

We used the chronology presented by Thomas R. Hester for South Texas, A Field Guide to Stone Artifacts of Texas Indians (Turner and Hester, 1992) and Prehistoric Artifacts of the Texas Indians (Davis, 1995), to assist students in identifying some of the stone artifacts and for cross-dating. Since the Redland Oaks' artifacts had been displaced, neither relative nor absolute dating was possible.

We also relyed the expertise of C. K. Chandler, A Texas Historical Commission Steward and archaeologist. Mr. Chandler kindly donated his free time to review the analysis made on the Redland Oaks Artifacts. He and Mrs. Kay Hindes also visited the school to commend the students for their efforts. Mr. Dan R. Davis, Jr. generously donated a copy of his book to the school library and gave us permission to use any of his information or photographs in our educational effort.

Below are examples of the artifacts discovered, analyzed and described by students. They are grouped by cultural periods from the Historic through the Paleo-Indian. The objects were scanned and are actual size in the section that describes them.