Hill Country Archeological Association

06/04/2026

Join HCAA on July 18 to hear Gus Costa speak on the Nighthawk Project. It's FREE and open to the public.

When: Saturday, July 18, 12:30pm
Where: Riverside Nature Center, 150 Francisco Lemos Street, Kerrville, TX 78028
Speaker: Dr. August "Gus" Costa, an independent consulting archaeologist that provides specialist support in geoarchaeology, artifact and faunal analysis
Presentation: Seven Kills in 3,000 years at the Nighthawk Bison Jump (Caprock Canyons State Park)

06/02/2026

Pleasant temps yesterday at CWR, not too buggy.

Excavations continued around the hearth feature in Unit 25, a well-organized cooking feature in the shallow levels of Unit 25.

Numerous in situ lithic artifacts were recovered, including 3 broken biface fragments, probably pieces of long, thin, well-made knives.

Prospectively identified a small, well-made biface from a chert source that we have not previously recognized.

06/01/2026

Please join us for the next book club selection: Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past by Sarah Parcak on June 10 at 1:30pm.

This meeting and the one in July will be held at the Kerr Regional History Center at 425 Water St, Kerrville, TX 78028, just west of the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library.

July's selection is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

The book club will take a break in August.

05/30/2026

Our podcast on HCAA on Boerne Radio 103.9 is available now:

The Boerne Brew – Hill Country Archaeological Association 103.9 FM Boerne Radio | Host: Jeff Flynn, Managing Editor, Boerne Star Guests: Kelly Skovberg (President, HCAA) & Richard Tomlinson (Board Member, HCAA) Summary: Jeff Flynn sits down with Kelly Skovberg and Richard Tomlinson from the Hill C...

05/28/2026

The Gault site and Michael Collins are getting some incredible coverage.

Authentic Texas, Issue 35, Winter, has two articles by D. Clark Wernecke, who was a previous executive director of the Gault School of Archaeological Research.

The Stones Spoke and Mike Collins Listened: https://authentictexas.com/the-stones-spoke-and-mike-collins-listened/

Tracking Technology of Ancient Americans: https://authentictexas.com/tracking-technology-of-ancient-americans/

The May issue of Texas Co-op Power has an article titled He Kept Digging: https://texascooppower.com/he-kept-digging/

05/27/2026

May 25 was Memorial Day, a day when we honor all living and past service members. Both Shawn and Craig are veterans and they spent part of the day at CWR. We thank them for their service and sacrifice, and also acknowledge their successes in field work.

Diggers on Monday found a possible metatarsal phalange and the hearth feature contains 4 fire-cracked rocks fractured-in-situ.

05/27/2026

This looks like an amazing conference! Please attend if you are able.

Our very own Mike McBride is part of a session on Day 4, October 17.

9:00-9:30 Peopling Central America: Stone Tool Technologies, Site Distributions, and New Understandings of the Earliest Occupants of the New World Neotropics-Jon C. Lohse, Mike McBride, Sébastien Perrot-Minnot and Victoria C. Pagano

05/24/2026

Spark! Places of Innovation is a traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibition currently hosted at the Kerr Arts & Cultural Center (KACC) in downtown Kerrville. The exhibit, which explores stories of invention and creativity in rural America, runs through June 2026.

The photos don't give it justice so visit the KACC before the exhibit is gone!

HCAA assisted with some of the exhibits. Bunny Boyd of the Kerr County Historical Commission composed the wall board.

Thanks to Francoise Wilson for the photos.

05/23/2026

Two awesome field days at CWR! May 11 and 18

As we go deeper in Unit 25--approaching bottom of Level 3--the placement of larger limestone rocks in the southeast corner (photo) increasingly appears deliberate, i.e., hearth feature. Some tools & broken bifaces were also recovered. There is fire cracked rock in much of the unit.

The St. Mary's Hall base (photo)was retrieved by Don on the surface right by the pressure tank. There is grinding along the lateral edges and thermal damage to both faces.

Photos courtesy of Don Priour and Francoise Wilson.