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Nick Morales outlines South Texas archaeology and collecting rules at Mission Historical Museum lecture
Summary
At a Mission Historical Museum lecture, retired University of Texas Pan American staffer Nick Morales reviewed lithic materials, tool types and field documentation methods, and cautioned that collecting on public lands is illegal while collecting on private land with permission is allowed.
Nick Morales, retired University of Texas Pan American computing staff and longtime amateur archaeologist, gave a roughly 45-minute public lecture at the Mission Historical Museum on the archaeology of South Texas, the stone materials ancient peoples used for tools, and best practices for documenting finds.
Morales told the audience the coastal sediments where some artifacts are found were deposited by the Rio Grande and described local rock types such as chert, petrified wood and rhyolite that ancient toolmakers used. He also discussed differences among projectile points, atlatl (spear-thrower) darts and smaller arrowheads, and demonstrated how to document finds in the field using GPS and simple logging methods.
The lecture provided context for why particular rocks were favored for tools, noting that…
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