Lubbock’s first citizens arrived about 12,000 years ago. They may have been passing through the area, but they left clues about their culture that researchers are discovering today. The public can tour the archaeological excavations at the Lubbock Lake Landmark and learn more about the humans and animals of the past during the three-day Archaeology in Action activities.
Set for July 18, 19, 20, the Lubbock Lake Landmark will host a range of activities and tours free to the public from 9 a.m. to Noon. Tours start at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. daily.
Located in a bend of Yellowhouse Draw in northwest Lubbock, the Landmark is an internationally known archaeological site and nature preserve. While there may be sites in North America that reveal human habitation older than 12,000 years, the Landmark is unique in that its record of humans is continuous. Animals have passed through the area as far back as three million years ago. The draw for humans and animals is that a source of water was always available.
The Lubbock Lake Landmark regional research program is also unusual in that its work focuses on the entire Quaternary Period, the time from before the last Ice Age, about 2.6 million years ago, until the present. Archaeological sites typically do not focus on such a broad time period. Much of this time is before people entered North America, yet the Landmark’s scope encompasses the natural world as well as the cultural. Large animals such as mammoths, giant camels standing seven feet at the shoulder and armadillos three feet tall, and six feet long went extinct at the end of the Ice Age and different animals became dominant. The ancient bison is one of the very few animals that survived the changing environment and evolved into the smaller animal we know today. Also in the area was the American Lion, a fearsome creature whose remains are rarely found outside the LaBrea Tar Pits. An exhibition featuring the lion is on display at the Landmark’s Nash Interpretive Center.
While Lubbock Lake’s archaeological importance was first discovered in 1936, excavation work was infrequent. In 1972, Eileen Johnson arrived at Texas Tech University and conducted her first field excavations. She has overseen research at the Landmark and other regional sites for 51 years.
For information about Archaeology in Action, go to lubbocklake.ttu.edu or find us on Facebook and Instagram.