Want to dig deeper into TxDOT archeology?
Find the latest on TxDOT archeology projects here and subscribe to this page.
TxDOT archeology turns 50!
We are officially over the hill! 2020 marks the fiftieth year that TxDOT archeologists have been working in the field to preserve archeological sites that are significant to Texas’ history.
In 1970, TxDOT was the first agency to conduct permitted excavations in Texas. Before that, most archeology was done privately by researchers. We’ve dug up tens of thousands of cubic feet of dirt in this time.
Subscribe and learn more about our program and get involved in historic preservation today! Stay tuned for our quarterly webinars. Find out how to get involved.
In the field
- 19th and 20th century farmsteads and African American sites (Anderson County)
- Ancient sites along Mill Creek (Austin County) and Cummins Creek (Colorado County)
- Bolivar: The Once Wild West
- 3,000 year old sites in South Texas (Starr County). Watch the video.
- Pueblo room blocks and pit houses along Borderland Expressway (El Paso County) Watch the video.
Request to become a consulting party for an archeology project and include the Project ID (CSJ).
Read more about the historic preservation process at TxDOT.
TxDOT Roadside Chat webinars
Learn more about research and projects through these quarterly webinars.
Archeology presentations are available below. See the full list of topics from the series here.
- A Dog’s Nose Knows: Using Cadaver Dogs to Search for Ancient Burials on TxDOT sites
- Discovering Traces of the Caddo in North East Texas
- Dig into a Historic Blacksmith Shop in Denton County
- Ongoing Analyses at the Casa Frio Site
Ongoing research
Learn more about the innovative research from TxDOT’s archeology team through our webinars and more.
- Discovering Traces of the Caddo in North East Texas
- Index of Texas Archeology
- 2019 Report for the Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting
- TxDOT Excavations at the Hardeman Midden Site
- Mesquite Wood and Ancient Rainfall: The TxDOT EDXA Project
- Can We Predict Prehistoric Caddo Villages and Hamlet Sites Locations Based on Landform Characteristics?
- Public Attitudes toward Archeology in Texas
- A Web Map of Texas Points
- 2018 Report for the Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting
- Lab Results on the Age of Mammoth Bones
- TxDOT Uncovers Ice Age Bones in North Texas
- 2017 Report for the Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting
- 2016 Report for the Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting
More about TxDOT archeology
- How TxDOT archeology digs in the field
- What does TxDOT do next with all of the artifacts it finds?
- Ancient Artifacts: Where are they now?