The Museum of the Coastal Bend (MCB) at Victoria College and the Coastal Bend Archeological Logistics Team (CoBALT), are official hosts for 95th TAS Annual Meeting, October 25–27, 2024, to be held at Victoria College Emerging Technology Complex, 7403 Lone Tree Road, Victoria, TX 77905.

Professional and avocational archeologists, historians, conservationists, preservationists, and the general public are invited to attend this meeting and learn more about the important archeological work being conducted locally, around the state, and nationally. Paper presentations, poster sessions, and local tours are just some of the many activities that will be offered during this exciting occasion. See you in Victoria!

Call For Papers

Abstracts and creative ideas are sought for papers, symposia, and posters to be presented at the 95th Annual Meeting of the Texas Archeological Society, October 25-27, 2024, at the Emerging Technology Conference Center, Victoria, Texas.

More Information can be found here:

Call for Papers

Banquet Speaker

Dr. Leland C. Bement

Lee Bement currently works as a senior researcher for the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Archeological Survey.  Dr. Bement is primarily interested in the development of New World hunting technologies. He specializes in animal bone archaeology, particularly as represented in Plains bison kill sites of all ages. His first bison kill site excavation was at Bonfire Shelter under the guidance of Drs. David Dibble, Solveig Turpin, and Ernie Lundelius. It was under their tutelage that he learned to look beyond artifacts and to place material culture, including animal bones, within constructs of social organization. Reconstructing herd demographics is as important as reconstructing the butchering programs employed after a successful kill. The interplay between people, prey animals, landscape features, and the environment reveals social as well as technological developments in hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies.

 Public Forum Speaker

Brad Jones

Brad Jones is director of the THC’s Archeology Division and the State Archeologist, with over 25 years of experience in archeology and ethnohistory of Texas and the Americas. His research has focused on all periods of Texas, but Jones specializes in the articulation of Native American communities with European colonial empires and their material cultural expression. He has been involved in the exhibit of the French ship La Belle and publication about it, and he is currently working on a report on the THC excavations of Fort St. Louis and Presidio La Bahía.

Local Information

Victoria is a historic city nestled against the banks of the Guadalupe River. The city was founded in 1824 by impresario Martin de Leon and is one of the oldest in Texas - celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2024. Early inhabitants first visited the region about 12,000 years ago and regularly occupied the area for thousands of years. In more recent times Victoria has seen Spanish expeditions, French explorers, Spanish missions, Comanche raids, Mexican armies, and Texas defenders. Texas ranching began in the Victoria area and, like many places in Texas, when oil was discovered nearby, Victoria began a long and steady pattern of growth that has not stopped.

Today’s Victoria offers a blend of the past and present. The Museum of the Coastal Bend is an archeology museum where almost every artifact on display was discovered by local archeologists. Seven Clovis points found in the area are on display as are six of the seven cannons from LaSalle’s ill-fated vessel, the La Belle. 

Museum of the Coastal Bend https://www.museumofthecoastalbend.org/

Victoria Texas attractions  https://www.explorevictoriatexas.com