Gatlin Site

The site's points matter because of how archeologists use types. A type groups objects that share attributes. No one fully knows why ancient groups changed point styles, whether for new hafting, different game or the movement of peoples, but the changes mark time: once a point type is tied to a span and region, it can date deposits elsewhere. Texas typology took shape in the 1940s and 1950s with J. Charles Kelley and Alex D. Krieger, and the 1954 and 1962 studies of Krieger, Dee Ann Suhm Story and Edward B. Jelks still guide it.

What the plaque says

Gatlin Site The construction of the new Spur 98 bridge across the Guadalupe River in Kerrville in 2004 was the catalyst for an archeological investigation yielding an extensive ancient Native American site near this location. The site yielded an unusually large and diverse assemblage of chipped stone projectile points and other stone tools, some older than 7,500 years, adding significantly to the understanding of how they changed form through time. These cultural artifacts, and many others found at the site, are older than the earliest Egyptian dynasty artifacts. Radiocarbon dates indicate that Native Americans returned to the site intermittently between 7500 to 1250 years ago. These ancient Native Americans were likely small groups of hunters and gatherers who moved frequently and harvested fruits, nuts, cactus pads and roots of native plants, along with hunting game such as bison, deer and rabbit. They used the local limestone to construct hearths and ovens to cook a variety of foods, requiring an intimate understanding of the local environment and its resources. Through the thousands of years the site was visited, the ancient climate was variable but overall, cooler and wetter than today. The ancient landscape of the Edwards Plateau contained savannah, grasslands and some woodlands, and springs and streams flowing from the limestone outcrops were more common then. The Gatlin Site contains a record of more than 6,000 years of lifeways and adaptations of the native peoples of Texas who camped here on the banks of the Guadalupe River. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Schreiner Mansion — 2.7 mi
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Treue der Union Monument — 17 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 22 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — 24 mi
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.

More markers nearby

• Kerrville Lodge No. 697, A.F. & A.M. — 0.6 mi
• First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Kerrville — 0.8 mi
• Old Spanish Trail — 1.1 mi
• Nichols Cemetery — 2.1 mi