Leland Bement’s analysis of the Bering Sinkhole population found evidence of physical activity levels that would be extraordinary by modern standards — the kind of bone remodeling that results from a lifetime of walking, carrying, and working in ways that sedentary modern people never experience.

The people of the Edwards Plateau were physically demanding animals, shaped by the requirements of a mobile subsistence life in a landscape where everything required effort.

Their teeth told a similar story.

Dental wear patterns at ancient Texas sites show the kind of abrasion that comes from eating food processed with stone tools — grit and stone particles worked into the food during grinding and pounding, wearing down the tooth surfaces over years of eating.

The teeth of Archaic Texas hunter-gatherers are often worn to the root by middle age.