Although only a portion of the site had been excavated by the time major investigations were completed, the cemetery was estimated to have held at least two hundred individuals, making it one of only three large mortuary sites known in North America that date to seven to eight thousand years ago.

The others were Carrier Mills in southern Illinois and Windover in east-central Florida.

The lead archaeologist studying the materials, Bob Ricklis of the Corpus Christi office of Coastal Environments Inc., captured the significance in stark terms: “We did not know this culture existed.

Period.

We didn’t know anything about it.”

The people who had built the Buckeye Knoll cemetery were not what the dominant narrative of Archaic hunter-gatherers had suggested.

They had lifespans comparable to modern people.