This October for Texas Archeology Month, TARL is offering a series of online lectures, free and open to all. Our second lecture (“A Trade-Friendly Environment”) included unpublished data and the recording will be shared when our speaker clears this with his co-authors. The third lecture took place on October 27 and is available for viewing below.

Dr. Casey Wayne Riggs, Steward with the Texas Archeological Stewards Network and farmer at Pasigono Farms in Lamesa, Texas, presented recent research from his doctoral dissertation, completed at Texas A&M University.

Careless, Spiny, and Succulent: Terminal Late Prehistoric (A.D. 1250-1535) Plant Foods of the Eastern Trans-Pecos

In this talk, Dr. Riggs discusses nine sites in the eastern Trans-Pecos region that have occupations dating to the Terminal Late Prehistoric/Perdiz point time period and have evidence of plant foods. Investigation of these archeological plant food remains made it possible to reconstruct the inhabitants’ diet and look at which were the most likely important foods. Dr. Riggs explains how his new research changes our understanding for the region and the time period.