Texas Beyond HistoryTexas Beyond History (TBH) is a public education service of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, and in partnership with the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University and 15 other organizations. Begun in 2001, its purpose is to interpret and share the results of archeological and historical research on the cultural heritage of Texas with the citizens of Texas and the world.
In this virtual museum you will find information on and images of many different aspects of the cultural legacy of Texas, a legacy spanning at least 13,500 years. Yes, people have been living within the borders of the modern political state of Texas for at least 13,500 years. In more concrete terms, that is over 540 human generations! For most of that immense time span, there is no recorded history, no books, and no eyewitness accounts. Instead all we have to tell the stories of much of the cultural heritage of Texas are mute stones, ancient campfires, broken bones, and delicate traces of once-flourishing societies. This is the "material evidence" upon which archeologists base most of our interpretations. The arrival of the first Spanish explorers in the region in 1528 ushered in the historic era in Texas and the creation of the written documents and drawings upon which historians depend.
Our collective cultural heritage is complex and fascinating, if sometimes painful to recount. The sixteenth-century arrival of the Spanish, for instance, also marks the beginning of over 300 years of often-brutal cultural conflict between Texas' native peoples—Indians or Native Americans—and the mainly European-derived immigrants who made the land their own. In a few short centuries the native population of Texas was decimated. Texas Beyond History covers not only the prehistory and history of Texas' true native peoples, but also much of the early history of the Spanish, French, Mexican, and Anglo explorers, missionaries, soldiers, miners, traders, and settlers who lived and often died in Texas. And later history, too—that of German farmers, Black freedmen, and Mexican-American laborers among many others.
What sets Texas Beyond History apart is that by focusing on the broad subject of Texas' cultural heritage, we overcome the traditional boundaries between the disciplines of archeology and history as well as the bureaucratic and political fences between institutions of higher education, state and federal agencies, museums, and private organizations. By working in partnership and collaboration with dozens and dozens of individuals, institutions, and organizations, our aim is to help tell the stories of the peoples who have settled the land we call Texas. To do that we reply on diverse experts as well as the documents and images that help put the stories of the past into meaningful context.
The other sections under About TBH and the Credits & Sources sections throughout the website acknowledge the many individuals and organizations that make this website possible.