Honey Creek is a tributary of the

Llano River The Llano River ( ) is a tributary of the Colorado River, about long, in Texas in the United States. It drains part of the Edwards Plateau in Texas Hill Country northwest of Austin. Two spring-fed tributaries, the North and South Llano, stret ...

, and an archaeological site located on the

Edwards Plateau The Edwards Plateau is a geographic region forming the crossroads of Central, South and West Texas, United States. It is named in honor of Haden Edwards. It is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east; the Llano Uplift and the Lla ...

, between

Grit Grit, Grits, or Gritty may refer to: Food * Grit (grain), bran, chaff, mill-dust or coarse oatmeal * Grits, a corn-based food common in the Southern United States Minerals * Grit, winter pavement-treatment minerals deployed in grit bins * G ...

and Streeter, in

Mason County, Texas Mason County is a rural county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. At the 2020 census, its population was 3,953. Its county seat is Mason. The county is named for Fort Mason, which was located in the county. History ...

. The prehistoric

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

site (41MS32) has been of interest to scientific research since 1987, when Glenn T. Goode of the

Texas Department of Transportation The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT ) is a Texas state government agency responsible for construction and maintenance of the state's immense Texas state highway system, state highway system and the support of the state's maritime trans ...

uncovered it during an otherwise routine infrastructural project. Stephen L. Black and the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory included it in a wider study of burned-rock midden. Researchers have been able to date the midden at Honey Creek, used to bake native plants, to having evolved between 1110 and 1700 AD, and is the result of an estimated 165

ovens file:Double oven.jpg, upA double oven file:Four à céramique - Japan Auréa - 2011-0403- P1070446.JPG, A ceramic oven An oven is a tool that is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means o ...

used by

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

bands over that six-century period.

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

archeobotanist Phil Dering identified 14 varieties of local plants in charred remains found. The oldest artifact found at the site is the "Martindale dart point" believed to date to between 5000 and 6000 BC for hunting, but chipped and refashioned in later years to be used as a tool at the midden.

See also

References

Further reading