| |
| |
|
|
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
|
|
|
WHEREAS, Debra L. Friedkin made a site along Buttermilk Creek |
|
|
in Bell County available to Texas A&M University's Center for the |
|
|
Study of the First Americans in 2006, and research at the site is |
|
|
adding immeasurably to our understanding of the first Americans; |
|
|
and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Since the 1930s, archeologists have believed that |
|
|
early inhabitants of the Americas, named the Clovis people for |
|
|
artifacts found near Clovis, New Mexico, arrived in North America |
|
|
from Asia, by way of the Bering Land Bridge, as the last Ice Age |
|
|
waned about 13,500 years ago; over the past few decades, however, |
|
|
credible evidence has emerged for pre-Clovis human occupation of |
|
|
the Americas, but until now the evidence has been incomplete; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The land in Bell County, now known as the Debra L. |
|
|
Friedkin site, has been under excavation for five years by Michael |
|
|
R. Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First |
|
|
Americans, and his team of scientists and researchers from TAMU, |
|
|
Baylor University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the |
|
|
University of Minnesota, and Texas State University--San Marcos, |
|
|
and the group has found artifacts that support the pre-Clovis |
|
|
theory; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The excavation of the Debra L. Friedkin site has |
|
|
revealed deposits that testify to human occupation spanning the |
|
|
last 15,500 years; layers near the surface show evidence of late |
|
|
Prehistoric and Archaic occupants of the region, while deeper |
|
|
layers reflect Folsom and Clovis occupations dating back 12,000 to |
|
|
13,000 years; below this, researchers have discovered nearly 16,000 |
|
|
artifacts that appear to be pre-Clovis in origin; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Multiple studies suggest that the Debra L. Friedkin |
|
|
site is undisturbed and intact; because the lack of organic |
|
|
material at the site made carbon dating impossible, researchers |
|
|
employed a technique known as optically stimulated luminescence, |
|
|
which detects the last time the sediment surrounding the artifacts |
|
|
received exposure to sunlight, and more than 60 such measures show |
|
|
that people had arrived there by 15,500 years ago; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The discoveries from the excavation at the Debra L. |
|
|
Friedkin site are bringing archaeologists and other members of the |
|
|
scientific community much closer to solving mysteries of early |
|
|
human habitation of the Americas, and their work would not be |
|
|
possible without the generosity of Ms. |
|
|
Friedkin; now, therefore, be |
|
|
it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas |
|
|
hereby honor Debra L. Friedkin for her support of the ongoing |
|
|
research at the Debra L. Friedkin site and extend to her sincere |
|
|
gratitude for the advances in knowledge of human history she is |
|
|
helping to realize; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, Than an official copy of this resolution be |
|
|
prepared for Ms. Friedkin as an expression of high regard by the |
|
|
Texas House of Representatives and Senate. |