The March speaker is
Robert Lassen, Ph.D., RPA
Principal Investigator, Archaeologist
Environmental Research Group, LLC
presenting
The Lubbock Megafauna Locality: Searching for Archaeology Among the Paleontology
Authors: Robert Lassen, PhD (PI, ERG) and Christopher Ringstaff (Texas State University, Texas Historic Commission, retired TxDOT)
In 2017, Cox McLain archaeologists identified some megafauna bones in a trench along the north side of a playa lake just southwest of Lubbock, Texas, during a survey for a road expansion. A few months later, TxDOT archaeologists (at the time) Chris Ringstaff and Jim Abbott re-exposed the bones to study their context and take samples for dating. The dating was unsuccessful, and the context could not rule out the possibility of human involvement, so they proposed data recovery excavations. After several years, TxDOT contracted with ERG to excavate the locality in early 2025. TxDOT and ERG carefully crafted a methodology to properly expose the known existing bones, explore for additional bones, carefully cast and remove the remains, fine-screen sediment for any possible artifacts (no matter how small), and conduct more geoarchaeological sampling to finally date the site and understand its depositional history. Preliminary results show that the bones likely belong to an assortment of sloth, mastodon, and camel and most likely pre-date human occupation in the region. Despite our best effort (and a couple of close calls) no archaeological material was found. This presentation will highlight the fieldwork efforts and cover the lab results that we have so far.
Robert Lassen has been involved in Texas archaeology for over 25 years and has worked with AmaTerra (now part of ERG) for seven years. In high school, he volunteered with the Houston and Fort Bend County Archaeological Societies, and later earn an MA in anthropology from Texas A&M and a PhD from the University of Tennessee. Robert specializes in lithic analysis, with a particular interest in Paleoindian lithics and the peopling of the Americas. He currently works as a Principal Investigator at ERG in Austin and conducts cultural resource investigations throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
Photos provided by Robert Lassen.
The next regular meeting will be held on our usual schedule, the third Tuesday of the month at 7pm at Casa Chapala's Austin location, 9041 Research Blvd., Suite 100 (Hwy 183 and Burnet Rd.) Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month, except June and December. They are free and open to the public. For those who wish to come early, we gather around 5:45 PM for dinner, drinks, and fellowship. The short business meeting starts at 7:00 PM, followed by the guest speaker's presentation.
Tuesdays 10am, ongoing Labwork for Joyful Horse materials. Sort and label pre-contact artifacts (lots of lithics!) to create teaching kits available for loan to area educators. THC Wheless Lab, 2801 Wheless Lane, Austin 78723. Send us a message from the Contact page for more details or to RSVP.
Sunday 4/28 11am-3pm TCAS will have a booth at Fall in Love with Nature Day at McKinney Falls State Park. Come see us!
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Wondering what our programs are like? View the list of speakers and topics we've had since 2006. Or watch a few of our pandemic-era programs on our YouTube channel.
