A Prehistory of Houston and Southeast Texas: Landscape and Culture

Concertina Press, 2021, 504 pages with 326 full color illustrations, maps, and charts.

Houston and Southeast Texas have an ancient, storied past. This region’s earliest people were living here as Texas emerged from the cooler climate of the last ice age. Rising seas were an ever-present threat along the coast; sea level eventually rose over 400 feet and swallowed huge parts of their coastal habitat. They lived on shellfish from the bays as well as on alligator, turtles, and catfish from the rivers. They migrated inland during the cool months, hunting bison on the Katy and San Bernard prairies millennia before Spanish horses arrived. They shaped the prairies with fire, using it to move animals to kill sites. They traded goods, technology and ideas with people from as far away as the Ouachita Mountains, Mississippi and Ohio river valleys, and Great Lakes. They lived sustainably on this land for well over 13,000 years, before being felled by European disease and colonization. They were known to the Spanish and French as the Akokisa, Bidais, and Coco. With data from hundreds of archeological site reports, a coastal landscape modeled through time in 3D, and digital GIS mapping to weave it all together, this is their story.

Worrall “recreates the dramatically evolving landscape and the culture that emerged from the cooler climate over millenia….Our forebears on this land were prey to unpredictability. Worrall’s fascinating book is a reminder that we are too.” – – Joe Holley, Houston Chronicle, March 15, 2021.

How to order: Brick and mortar stores in the Houston area include Becker’s Books (2415 Westview), Brazos Bookstore (2421 Bissonet), and the museum shop of the San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site, in San Felipe ($60 plus tax). Online sales were on Amazon, but their packaging was damaging the books. There is still an Amazon listing, but only for shipping by texasbooks (an online arm of Becker’s Books). Although the listing says ‘used,’ this book as mailed by texasbooks is new and will be suitably packaged.

Finally, you can order the book directly from the publisher. Send a personal check for $64.95 ($60 plus $4.95 tax; free shipping) to:

Concertina Press Books, 4911 Bowser Road, Fulshear, TX 77441