Our next regular meeting will be Tuesday, October 15, 2019 at 7pm at Santa Rita Cantina's central location, 1206 W 38th St (26 Doors shopping center). 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.
The October program will feature Dr. Tom Williams, Assistant Executive Director at the Gault School of Archaeological Research (GSAR), speaking on
The Upper Paleolithic of Texas: The Early Human Occupation of the Gault Site.
Excavations at the Gault Site, Central Texas, have recovered a significant assemblage of stone tools, referred to as the Gault Assemblage, from the lowest stratigraphic deposits. These earliest cultural materials were recovered from excavation Area 15 and include an early projectile point technology unique in the Upper Paleolithic of North America. Dating using Optically Stimulated Luminescence confirm the presence of humans in Texas before ~16,000 years ago. This talk will explore the age and use of this early technology and where it fits into the broader context of the early peopling of the New World.
Thomas Williams is the Assistant Executive Director of the Gault School of Archaeological Research and a Research Associate with the Prehistory Research Project at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin. He has worked on the Gault Site collections for the past 6 years and has published on the early cultural materials. His research focus is the earliest human occupations of the Americas and specifically the stone tool technology, manufacturing processes and broader patterns in global human expansion. He earned his PhD in Archaeology from the University of Exeter, UK.
Wondering what our programs are like? View the list of speakers and topics we've had since 2006.
Upcoming
October 11-13: Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting, Amarillo
October 15: Regular October meeting
