Welcome to LUAS!
The Llano Uplift Archeological Society (LUAS) was organized by people who are interested in the protection, conservation, and study of historic and prehistoric materials and sites in the Llano Uplift and adjacent areas of the Texas Hill Country. The Llano Uplift, also known as the “Central Mineral Region,” is a unique geological area of the state composed of primarily granite, gneiss, and schist.
The organization’s primary goals include educating membership, students, and the public, and supporting other groups, researchers, and educators with similar interests.
LUAS meetings are free and open to the public. LUAS now meets in the Falls on the Colorado Museum (2001 Broadway, Marble Falls) at noon on the second Saturday of every other month beginning with January. Most meetings feature a speaker from Central Texas with expertise in archaeology, history, geology, or other related subject.
CURRENT NEWSLETTER
LUAS mailing address: P. O. Box 302 Kingsland, TX 78639
Title: Recent Projects in Texas Archaeobotany: Hueco tanks, Karankawa Canoe, and Robertson County CRM
Abstract: Plants identified from three recent archaeological projects show diverse food resources used by indigenous ancestors in Texas as well as the importance of objects of cultural patrimony for modern descendants.
At Hueco Tanks, an oasis in the Chihuahuan Desert, agave or agave family plants were the most common food plants cooked in earth ovens from the Late Archaic through Historic periods. Fruit seeds and grains, including corn, were found as well. Spatial patterning in the woods used for fuel was also instructive.
A canoe currently on display at the Institute of Texan Cultures is believed to have been made by Karankawa Indians. Modern descendants, now organized as the Karankawa Kadla, expressed an interest in knowing more about the canoe. With permission, a wood sample was removed and identified as cottonwood.
A cultural resources management project in Robertson County shed light on plants foods chosen by people living on the Post Oak Savannah from Late Archaic through Late Precolumbian times. Earth oven plants included camas and greenbriar, with grains, legumes, and possible medicinal plants also recovered along with hickory and acorn nutshells.
Bio: Leslie L. Bush is a paleoethnobotanist, an archaeologist who specializes in identifying bits of plants
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