Research

GSAR was established to foster, sponsor, and conduct primary research on the earliest peoples of the Americas. Our research goals are to understand the social diversity of PaleoAmericans, explore their origins, and trace their movements and cultural developments through time. The spread of modern homo sapiens into the Western Hemisphere marks the final chapter of the story of human dispersals around the world. The many diverse experiences over the course of this long history bind all of us together into a shared humanity, and are important for understanding our modern global community.

Beyond exploring this rich past, GSAR uses the research process to motivate learning, inspire intellectual curiosity, and foster an appreciation for the importance of conserving our irreplaceable cultural resources.

Current Research

GSAR is currently sponsoring archaeologicalinvestigations at August Pine Ridge, Belize. This study area has produced anastonishing quantity of Archaic and Paleoindian materials in the process ofquarrying sand in support of regional construction activities. From what we’veseen so far, this study area is one of the most extensive sites known inCentral America with an occupation record going back to the TerminalPleistocene, as much as 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. This period includes theClovis interval, as well as contemporary Fluted Fishtail period defined inSouth America. Additionally, based on our findings so far, August Pine Ridgemay be one of the few sites in Central America that was inhabited nearlycontinuously during the entire Preceramic period. Artifact evidence here spansfrom approximately 13,000 to 3000 years ago, or when settled Maya villagesfirst started to appear across northern Belize.

The Pine Ridge Preceramic Project focuses on documenting materials collected from primary excavation and also pieces borrowed from residents of the August Pine Ridge village. An important goal for the project also involves helping local stakeholders, from village residents to a national audience, understand and value Belize’s rich Preceramic record. Our ongoing activities include:conducting controlled excavations; carrying out laboratory analyses and documentation of important specimens and samples; and collaborating with regional partners on developing educational content to help build a deeper awareness of the Archaic and Paleoindian records in the region, and in Belize.

• Sponsors Report 2024 <link>
• Highlights from 2023 Season of Pine Ridge Preceramic Project <link>
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Affiliated Researcher with the Gault School of Archaeological Research (GSAR), Austin, Texas
Research Associate at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL), Austin, Texas

Among the most distinctive Paleoindian projectile points are those with flutes; the negative scars of elongated flakes produced from the base on both faces of the point. The first fluted points documented in good stratigraphic contexts were found at the Folsom site in New Mexico in 1927. These points were discovered in direct association with bones from an extinct form of bison. Similar points were found at other sites in Texas, such as Lipscomb, in Lipscomb County.After the Folsom site was accepted as evidence for ice-age human presence in North America, many archeologists did not initially distinguish between the various fluted point points that was being discovered. In 1933 when excavations began at Blackwater Draw, near Clovis in New Mexico, archaeologists saw significant variation between what was then termed as “Folsomoid”, or “Folsom-like”, from the generalized “True Folsom” type. Similar “Folsom-like” points were being discovered at Dent, Colorado in 1932 and at Miami, Texas in 1934. During a conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1941, it was suggested that the other forms of Folsom type should be called Clovis and True Folsom would be termed Folsom. Numerous Clovis and Folsom points have been discovered in Texas, but as yet there have only been statewide surveys carried out on Clovis points. This project will be the first comprehensive Folsom point survey to document as many Folsom point occurrences as possible and record their regional distribution.

• The Texas Folsom Fluted Point Survey (TFFPS): A Basic Overview <link>
• An Update on the Inaugural Texas Folsom Fluted Point Survey (TFFPS), Current Status of the Texas Clovis FlutedPoint Survey (TCFPS) and introducing the Texas Borderlands Clovis and Folsom Point Survey (TBCFPS) <link>

GSAR Occasional Papers

Important Publications