The Early Archaic People — Who They Were And How They Lived

The Early Archaic period in Texas, spanning roughly from 10,000 to 6,000 years before present, represents the phase when human populations on the plateau and coastal plain were completing their adaptation to the post-Pleistocene world.

The great megafauna — the mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, camels, horses, and other large animals that had characterized the Pleistocene — were gone by the beginning of the Archaic period, or were in their final decline.

The extinction of these animals was one of the defining events of the period, and its causes are still debated: climate change, human hunting pressure, or some combination of both.