The isotope specialists who analyzed the carbon and nitrogen signatures in bone collagen produced data that would outlast the physical remains themselves — the chemical record of ancient diets now preserved in the published literature even after the bones have been returned to the earth.

All of these researchers were engaged in a race against time, in a landscape of competing claims, trying to extract as much knowledge as possible from evidence that might soon be inaccessible.

The results of their work are what we have: an incomplete but significant record of life in Texas eight thousand years ago.

The Question Of How Long People Have Been Here

The 8,500-year-old burials of Buckeye Knoll and the 7,000-year-old burials of Bering Sinkhole are impressive dates.