What The Excavation Revealed

Archaeologists from the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory conducted formal excavations at Bering Sinkhole between 1987 and 1991.

The work was led by Leland C.

Bement, who would later publish his doctoral dissertation on the site through the University of Texas Press.

Below its vertical shaft entrance, the sinkhole opened into a larger chamber measuring approximately twelve by forty feet, at least twenty-five feet deep.

This chamber was filled with natural sediment — accumulated over thousands of years as material fell or washed in from above, as animal remains entered the shaft, and as deliberate human burials were placed within.