CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS ROLE IN HUMAN CULTURAL ADAPTATIONS: PALEO-ENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTION IN THE HOLOCENE OF CENTRAL TEXAS

Between 100 BC and 1200 AD, there were extreme changes in Native American culture in the southeastern United States, specifically a change from semi- sedentary, tribal-like communities, to the large Mississippian chiefdoms. Archaeologists have suggested that changing climates were one cause that led to this shift. However, as these cultural transitions did not happen uniformly or everywhere, the role of climate in this transition has been contested.

Specifically, in central Texas, the Mississippian culture never developed providing an excellent case study to test this hypothesis. Using micro-mammal community structure and isotope analysis as a proxy for climate change, I examined climatic shifts occurring between the Archaic (c.2014 BP) and the Late Classic Periods (840 BP) from three central-Texas archaeological sites.

The micro-mammal and isotope analysis were compared to climatic proxies published from the literature and used to establish whether or not similar climatic events were occurring in central Texas as in the Mississippian southeast.

Results indicated that that there was a shift to warmer and dryer conditions between 2014 BP and 840 BP. This is consistent with evidence from speleothems and channel trenching data. However, these results appear to differ from the observed contemporaneous climate stasis in the nearby Southeastern Woodlands. This illuminates effects of climate change in central Texas on human cultural adaptations in the area and stresses the importance of local paleo-climatic reconstruction.