Baker Cave facts for kids

Baker Cave is an amazing ancient place, a rock shelter located near the Devils River in Southwest Texas. It's like a giant time capsule, showing us how people lived thousands of years ago!

This cave is about 120 feet long and 56 feet deep (that's about 37 meters by 17 meters). Its ceiling changes from 18 feet (5.5 meters) high at the front to just a few inches at the back. Baker Cave is part of many similar rock shelters found in the Lower Pecos Canyons region.

Archaeologists believe people lived here around 7,000 to 7,800 BCE. That's a very long time ago! The cave was high above any floods, which helped keep ancient items safe. Inside, scientists found a large cooking area, called a hearth, from about 9,000 years ago. This hearth contained bones from small animals like snakes, rats, fish, and rabbits. They also found many seeds and nuts. This tells us that the people living there ate a wide variety of foods.

The discovery of a special spear point, called a Golondrina point, showed that Paleo-Indian people lived in Baker Cave. They were likely there between 7080 BCE and 6960 BCE. These early people lived by hunting small animals and gathering plants. They used the front of the cave for cooking, the middle for daily life, and the back for preparing food.

Exploring Baker Cave's Past

The site was named after the Baker family, who owned the land and allowed archaeologists to study the shelter. The Baker family kept the site safe from people who might have damaged it. Its hidden location also helped protect it.

The first archaeological work began in April 1962. Teams from the University of Texas at Austin's Archaeology Research Lab started digging. They gave the shelter a special code: 41 VV 213.

Many experts helped with the digging. James H. Word led most of the work, along with other archaeologists from the University of Texas. People from the Texas Memorial Museum and Texas Technological College also joined the team. Even Mrs. Anne Fox from the Witte Memorial Museum was part of the project. Many volunteers also gave their time to help uncover the cave's secrets.

Why Baker Cave is Special

Baker Cave is very important because it was completely untouched when archaeologists started digging. This meant they could learn a lot without anything being disturbed.

The top layers of the cave showed tools from the Early and Late Archaic periods. The very oldest layers had spear points from the late Paleo-Indian times. Scientists used radiocarbon dating on charcoal from these old layers. This showed the charcoal was about 8,910 to 9,030 years old.

A large cooking hearth was a major discovery. The bones found in it included snakes, rats, fish, rabbits, and other small animals. This shows that the ancient people used every possible food source they could find. Scientists used a special method called "flotation" to find these tiny food remains. This was one of the first times this technique was used!

About 10,000 bones were found during the digging at Baker Cave. About one-third were fish bones, and the rest were from mammals and reptiles. Many bones were very small and hard to identify. Some bones were charred (burned), which happened during cooking or when people were getting rid of waste. Interestingly, rabbit bones were almost always charred, but rat bones never were. This might mean they cooked them differently.

The cave's roof is not blackened by smoke. This could be because pieces of the roof fell off over time, or because winds helped carry the smoke out of the cave like a natural vent.

How Archaeologists Dug the Cave

To study the cave carefully, archaeologists set up a special starting point, called a "datum point," in the northern part of the shelter. From this point, they divided the cave floor into a grid of 5-foot (1.5-meter) wide squares.

They dug the first square as a test. This helped them understand how deep the soil was, what kind of things were buried, and how the layers of dirt were stacked. This information helped them dig the other squares more effectively. All the dirt from this first square was sifted through a screen to find artifacts. Everything they found, like flint, bone, shell, and wood, was kept. They only took samples of plant material because there was too much to keep it all.

They then dug other squares, moving from the front to the back of the cave. This helped them see how different parts of the cave were used. For example, they dug a square far in the back to compare it with the front.

At first, they dug in 6-inch (15-cm) layers. But as they understood the cave better, they started following the natural layers of soil, called "strata." These layers were numbered. Sometimes, a single layer would split into two in a different part of the cave. Because of this, they grouped some layers into larger "zones." These zones were major sections of soil that looked different based on their color, what they contained, and how they felt. In total, they found five main zones, plus the very top surface layer.

Layers of Time: The Zones

Each zone in Baker Cave represents a different period of time, showing how the cave was used and what life was like back then.

• Zone One (7500–6500 BCE): This is the oldest zone, found at the bottom. It had two layers near the front of the cave, made of limestone. Towards the back, it had a third layer. In this zone, archaeologists found fire-cracked stones from hearths, large pieces of flint, rodent bones, and some cracked deer bones. They also found late Paleo-Indian spear points in the middle of the cave. This zone had a lot of charcoal, showing many fires were made.

• Zone Two (6500–4000 BCE): This zone had more variety in its layers than Zone One. Some parts showed signs of moisture and decay, but not much fire. They found plant remains like mescal bean hulls, pecans, walnuts, and acorns. There were also flint chips and charcoal, but smaller than in Zone One. Rodent bones decreased, but bones from larger animals like deer increased. More stone tools were found here too.

• Zone Three (4000–2500 BCE): This zone was drier than Zone Two. Hearth rocks and small pieces of fallen roof were common. They found small flint pieces, chewed plant fibers, prickly pear leaves, mescal beans, pecans, walnuts, and acorns. Stone tools and plant fibers were present, and there was an increase in rodent and bird bones, but fewer deer bones. A layer of white ash in some areas suggests a large fire happened here.

• Zone Four (2500–1000 BCE): This zone had many different layers. Some layers showed intense fire-cracked rocks and ash, while others had high charcoal levels. Stone tools in this zone were often broken by fire. Deer, rodent, and fish bones were also found. The soil here showed that many small, local fires occurred. Overall, more stone tools, bones, and plant fiber items were found in this zone.

• Zone Five (1000 BCE–1000 CE): This zone had three layers throughout the cave and contained a lot of plant fibers. Fiber artifacts were more common than other items. They found fire-cracked rocks, mesquite beans, mescal beans, leaves, pecans, walnuts, persimmon seeds, and parts of plants like sotol, sacahuista, and lechuguilla. Knotted and woven fibers were often found. Charcoal was also present in some areas, and a large layer of fiber was noted in one section.

The very top surface layer of the cave was dated to about 1000–1600 CE.

Cool Discoveries: Features in the Cave

During the digging, archaeologists found many interesting "features," which are specific areas or objects that show human activity.

• Hearths: Most of the cooking areas (hearths) were round and bowl-shaped. They were about 12.5 to 26 inches (32 to 66 cm) long and 15 to 25 inches (38 to 64 cm) wide.

• Feature One: This was a mass of grass tied with twigs. It was found in Zone Five.

• Feature Two: Under a large rock, archaeologists found an antler from a whitetail deer. It looked like someone had placed it there on purpose.

• Feature Three: This was an unused pit with 12 pear plant sections tied together with plant fibers. The pear sections were stacked in layers near the pit.

• Feature Four: This large feature contained 53 flower stalks from sotol or lechuguilla plants. These stalks were spread across several digging squares. Scientists think they might have been the base for a screen, perhaps used as a backrest for people sitting in the cave.

• Feature Five: This was a small pit, about 4.5 by 3.5 inches (11 by 8.9 cm) wide and 2.9 inches (7.4 cm) deep. It was filled with flint and broken stone tools.

• Features Six and Seven: These were two bowl-shaped pits found close together. Both were filled with plant fiber and seemed to have been intended as hearths.

• Feature Eight: This was a very important discovery – the burial of an infant. It was found about 2 feet (0.6 meters) behind one of the digging squares, and the bones were about 2.4 feet (0.7 meters) below the surface.