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SUMMARY OF TERRESTRIAL FAUNAL REMAINS Table 16
Species	Inland Sites	Coastal Margin Sites
Deer	49	41
Land Turtle	46	15
Snake	16	31
Rat	15	99
Land Bird	16	12
Bison	21	10
Rabbit	24	14
Gopher	16	5
Skunk	3	4
Mouse	11	4
Raccoon	11	10
Opossum	15	8
Badger	2	0
Antelope	5	0
Squirrel	4	4
Beaver	5	0
Bear	1	2
Mink	1	0
Muskrat	0	3

SUMMARY OF AQUATIC FAUNAL REMAINS Table 17
Species	Inland Sites	Coastal Margin Sites
Mussel	27	0
Alligator	12	15
Water Bird	7	11
Water Turtle	16	23
Gar	24	27
Misc. Fish	15	26
Frog	12	4
Catfish	15	18
Drum	15	17
Bass	6	0
Bowfin	10	6
Sunfish	7	0
Rangia	0	200+
Oyster	0	24
Shark	0	22
Redfish	0	2
Sea Trout	0	6
Sheepshead	0	6

ACQUISITION

Birds, Ducks, etc.
There are two way to catch/kill fowl. First, put salt on its tail. Second, disable or kill it. This requires either hitting it with a stone or other fairly heavy object, or 'shooting' it with an arrow or spear.

Fresh Water Fish
A few, very few, fishhooks have been found. There is little other evidence on how fish were caught. Could prehistoric man have used nets for fishing? We have no evidence of nets, because of that old problem: vegetable matter decays. But that certainly doesn't preclude the possibility. Small fish may have been scooped by hand from shallow water locations. Traps and weirs may have been used. Large fish may have been speared or shot with arrows. Would a hunter/gatherer a thousand years ago have experienced the same joy at spearing a large mouth bass as today's fisherman when he hooks the same species?

A number of plants have anesthetic properties. These may have been used in prehistory to stun fresh water fish. The body of water needs to be stagnant, or, at least, slow moving. The plant matter is processed in some manner (dependent on the plant). The resulting pulp, liquid, or powder is dumped into the water. The fish go to sleep, and float to the surface for easy pickins. Soapberry fruits, crushed green black walnut husks, even burned seashells (produces lime) can be used to poison or anesthetize fish.

Bison and Other Game
Throughout Southeast Texas prehistory, virtually every food source was utilized. Game acquisition could well have been a driving force in the evolution of projectile points.
The PaleoIndians hunted the megafauna, though they were not common in the area. Deer and turtle became the most popular game.

Vegetable Material
Agriculture was not practiced during Southeast Texas prehistory, the hunter/gatherer lifestyle remained constant throughout. Collecting prickly pear, nuts, acorns, and grasses would have been a time consuming activity. Kept dry, nuts in unbroken shells can be stored for several months.

PREPARATION

Rangia
When harvested, Rangia are tightly closed, and require heat to open. Roasting, steaming, and boiling are the options. Roasting is by far the simplest method. Throw some clams on the coals, wait a few minutes, remove and eat. We won't address the 'remove' step. Perhaps it was done with a lot of burned fingers. There is no evidence of this method as burnt shell has not been found at any coastal margin sites. This method may have been more common than the evidence suggests; (Neck 1991:17) has shown much burnt shell has already disintegrated due to chemical changes brought on by the fire. Neck's data however, is extremely limited. It is based on the findings from one inland site, using freshwater clams.

Boiling obviously requires a vessel and water. Again, only a few minutes of boiling will open the shells. As I prepared this section, I began wondering about boiling water in a ceramic container. 1,000 to 1,100 BTus are needed to boil a gallon of water. One pound of hardwood generates 8,000 to 9,000 BTu. Some home cooktops have burners which generate 15,000 BTu, boiling 2 gallons of water in 6 minutes. Even in optimal conditions, boiling a gallon of water on an open fire would have to take 30 minutes, or more. The coastal margin is usually windy, the wood damp, if not sodden. These factors add a lot of time to dinner preparation.

An alternate method of boiling involves heating rocks over an open fire, then placing the hot rocks in the water container. Then, the cooled rocks are removed and additional hot rocks added. This process continues until the water boils, and during cooking. This method is effective. A gallon of water will boil within 10 minutes using just 3 or 4 stones.

Boiling in a vessel allows large quantities to be prepared. The large number of pottery sherds found along the coastal margin indicate boiling shellfish was a popular method. The larger shell midden sites contain thousands of pottery sherds.

Meats
Throughout Southeast Texas prehistory, meats were mostly prepared by grilling over an open fire, probably of oak. There is no evidence of seasonings or marinades. It has been shown through experiment that earth ovens could have been used to roast game. We have found no evidence that this method was used for meats, just that it is possible. Meats were also dried for storage and later use. The dried meat could have been eaten like jerky, or ground up, mixed with nuts, maybe berries or fruit, and animal fat to hold it all together, to make the first trail mix.

Vegetable Material
The preparation of vegetable materials required the most effort. Acorns, for example, just don't taste very good straight off of the tree. The white oak acorn can be roasted and eaten, but red oak acorns have acids in the meat. To make them edible, the meat has to be extracted from the shell, and the acid leached from the meat. There are several methods, but all require water. The shells can be cracked, the acorns boiled, and the water drained off. Another method involves just soaking the cracked acorns in water, pouring off the water, and repeating until the meat is edible. It can then be eaten roasted or boiled, crushed into flour for a type of bread, or made into a soup or mush.

The western zone of Southeast Texas is well known for its pecan trees. Pecans are easy to collect and require no processing, other than cracking open, to eat. Would a prehistoric chef have prepared a pecan crusted deer steak?

The seeds of the mesquite tree, also known as 'beans,' are a nutritious food source. They can be eaten raw, roasted, or ground into flour. Prickly pear fruit can be eaten fresh. If the juice of the prickly pear fruit is squeezed out, it can then be dried for long term storage. The leaves, or pads, of the prickly pear can be boiled or grilled after removing the thorns. Neither pad nor fruit are extremely nutritious. Pecans have about 9 times the protein of prickly pear.

The tougher vegetable matter consumed by our prehistoric inhabitants required boiling or cooking in earth ovens using fired clayball heating elements. Many floral food sources in Southeast Texas contain toxins or have other unpleasant attributes. Nettles have stinging hairs. Raw pokeweed is poisonous. So, proper preparation is mandatory. Pokeweed, elephant ears, and others must be boiled with several water changes. Nettles require boiling for 15 minutes or so to remove the toxins. Some plants must have the skin or rind removed prior to cooking.

CONCLUSION

The hunter-gatherer in Southeast Texas was an opportunist. Any and every available food source had to be utilized in order to survive. Learning which plants had edible parts, and how to prepare them, would have been a trial and error process. There were no books or websites to turn to. Each generation learned by on the job training. Acquiring and preparing their daily meal was nothing short of a full-time job.

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This Page Last Updated: July 19, 2004