The other night I stayed up late reading a book about a southwestern archaeological excavation which took place in the 1920s. The book is fascinating to me and brings up some questions, the main one being, what if we don't question?
The professor in charge of the excavation studied the Indians of the southwest in the four corners states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Based on his studies and field work in those four states, he made conclusions which he said could prove wrong with more study.
That's an important point that I believe is valuable to remember. Conclusions about things could be proved wrong with more study.
One of his conclusions about the extent of pre-pueblo life in the southwest was that there was little evidence to show that habitations were abundant below the southern border of New Mexico. However, within the last two decades, important discoveries of pre-pueblo habitations were made in and around the El Paso, Texas area.
For example, Firecracker Pueblo was excavated before a highway could be built over it in the northeast part of the city, and a habitation given the name of Keystone was discovered in the west part of the city during excavations for building. Both areas are pre-pueblo. http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/firecracker/index.html
http://www.keystoneheritagepark.org/clubportal/ClubStatic.cfm?clubID=409&pubmenuoptID=4030
Evidence for pre-pueblo habitations includes corrugated pottery ware. I've seen an area beside an arroyo north of Fabens, Texas, east of El Paso, where shards of corrugated pottery ware had been left in a large, weather-worn pile. I've read about the discovery of other small habitations found along the Rio Grande River near El Paso. Because the area around El Paso is a dry desert, sand blows in the springtime during wind storms, and over time the sand builds up high enough to cover ancient dwellings. Flash floods may also cover evidence during the heavy summer rains in the El Paso area.
A recent program on TV talked about fossil finds of crocodiles never before found that were unearthed in the desert of Africa. This is all new information about animals that lived millions of years ago.
Did you know that there were Dire Wolves in Texas thousands of years ago? A web site about Kincaid Cave in the hill country near San Antonio tells of the ancient people who lived there and the animals they sought protection from. They found shelter and a place to live in the cave. Dire Wolves, present at that time, had larger bodies and shorter legs, in proportion, than today's Timber Wolves. They also had larger heads and teeth, and were obviously very different looking than today's wolves. http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/kincaid/
In my contemporary Wolves of West Texas series I write about two different shapes of werewolves. One family is made up of werewolves much like the description of the werewolf in France that was described over a hundred years ago. The other family in this series who live in central Texas in cattle country are werewolves who are shaped like present day wolves. I love to let my imagination think up fanciful animals and beings for the fiction I write. Why not?
Guardian
of His Love is about Derek Wolfson and Kelly Wolford. It's out now at Siren BookStrand. This is the third story in the Wolves of West Texas series. It's pure fictional romance for readers over 18 years of age. You can find it listed beside my Claire Adele author name.Jeanmarie Hamilton
Join my newsletter through the link at http://www.JeanmarieHamilton.com
Guardian of His Love, out now at Siren BookStrand
Very interesting archeological information. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteJeanmarie,
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I did not know dire wolves lived in Texas in the past. Wow. Thanks for the enjoyable post. :) Wishing you continued success! *Hugs*
Hi Jeanmarie, your comments about local archeological finds are interesting. Obviously, your fascination with that study intertwines with your stories which makes them richer.
ReplyDeleteJane
Where do you come up with these great ideas, Jeanmarie? Your story sounds so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree that studying the past, especially when they uncover pieces of it need to be studied.I've always thought we need to know where we came from to be able to deal with the future successfully.
As always, best of luck with lots of sales. :)
Hi everyone! Thanks you all for your comments and congrats and good wishes. :-)
ReplyDeleteSorry this is a blanket thanks, Vicki, Diana, Jane and Paisley, but I'm having problems reading the words that blogger has decided are necessary in order to comment. I hope you all didn't have as much trouble with it as I'm having. LOL Why blogger thinks we need to deal with an unreadable word in order to post is the question I have.
Jeanmarie
Great information. I'm an ardent wolf fan and have "adopted" one in the wild. Such a terrific creature. I love the info about Dire and timber wolves. And your series sounds so absolutely amazing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I get done judging Ritas and two contests, plus finish two proposals, I hope to get back to reading.
Oh, and I've had a lot of trouble all over blogosphere today reading the Blogger captchas. Grrrrr.
Tanya,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your comments. :-) And thank you for persevering over Bloggers captchas. That's wonderful that you "adopted" a wolf in the wild!
Hang in there with the contests and proposals. Hope you get back to reading soon. :-)
Jeanmarie--you have touched on an inmportant fascinating topic for me. I am a biology major, and oh, how I loved evolution and geology, too. We humans today are so very ignorant of our biological past, that it astounds me. When I hear or read of information such as you tell us, I have goose-bumps, thinking this was real at one time in our distant past.
ReplyDeleteYes, we should question, and question some more. Thank you so much for such an enlighteing topic. Well done.
Celia,
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed my topic today. I made my best grades in college in zoology and English Lit. ;-) I should have studied more in zoology but I decided to get married instead and follow my dh to Germany. When I later went back to college I had to stop to have my only child, and she finished college and has the degrees. I've never stopped studying though, and find the biological and anthropological sciences fascinating. Every time something new and wonderful is discovered, I celebrate. :-)The Gault site in Texas is another wonderful discovery.
A great romance story is also cause for celebration. :-) Wishing everyone many exciting romance stories.
*Hugs*
Jeanmarie
Great info and the kind of stuff I've been digging into for my action adventure I'm writing. It's amazing the things that need to be researched to write a book.
ReplyDeleteJeanmarie, you know how interesting my husband and I fing archelogical pueblo excavations, so this post especially interested me. My eldest daughter recently learned that some of the wolves who were thought to have disappeared have actually bred with coyotes and their DNA is still there.
ReplyDeletePaty,
ReplyDeleteYes, the research we do for our stories is always fascinating to me. It's easy to become caught up in the research and not start writing the book. :-)
Good luck with your adventure story!
Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting about the wolves cross breeding with the coyotes in the past. Coyotes do look a little like wolves. :-)
I'm always amazed that people in the past were able to survive the way they did. I imagine they were very aware of the animals around them in the wild and how they acted in response to the weather, the time of year, and other animals. No wonder archaeologists have found ancient calendars.
Very interesting post, Jeanmarie! I love the idea of What if we Don't Question? about everything. You know, I remember in high school being so utterly bored with history (always taught by a coach who couldn't have cared less, and sat at his desk working on play diagrams for the big game next week) and when I got into college it was literally like a door opened for me. I had so many good history professors that it became my minor, and ALMOST made me switch my major to it rather than English. There are so many things to be learned yet! And one way to do this is to enoourage young people to want to question and find out about things, and not kill their interest in subjects. Great post.
ReplyDeleteCheryl
Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteYes, the professors at universities always encourage questioning things. I think it's so important to keep asking questions. It's so important to get to the root of things. Thanks so much for your comment. :-)
Jeanmarie