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| Vaughn M . Bryant studies the plant remains from the Perry Calk site in the TASP laboratory in 1968. As a graduate student at UT Austin, Bryant was a key participant in the NSF Paleoecology project and went on to became a pollen expert, paleobotanist, and anthropology professor at Texas A&M. During the 1968 labwork, he attempted to identify and sort each plant fragment by species, plant part (stalk, seeds, etc.), and any evidence of human modification (burning, chewing, cutting, etc.). Such information reveals how the site's inhabitants used the local landscape, what they ate, and how they used plants to make tools, clothing, bedding, and meet many other daily needs of hunter-gatherer life. Plant remains also reflect the prevailing ecological and climatic conditions. Photo from ANRA-NPS archives at TARL. |