Visitors to the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park took a deep dive into archaeology Saturday morning with the park’s Archaeology Fair to celebrate Texas Archaeology Month. The fair featured booths with hands-on activities and presentations for attendees from local and state organizations like the Brownsville Historical Association, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) and Texas Parks and Wildlife.
The park’s Chief of Interpretation, Daniel Ibarra, was excited to welcome the archaeologically curious back to the park for their first in-person fair since 2019.
Part celebration and part historical exploration, Ibarra says the goal of the event is to give people a greater understanding of the many aspects and disciplines that make up archaeology in a way that is accessible and engaging.
“People might have a preconceived idea of what archaeology is, whether that’s Indiana Jones or just digging holes. So it’s nice to have here at the event a lot of those disciplines within the field of archaeology on display,” Ibarra said.
Booths covered everything from anthropology (the scientific study of humanity) to zooarchaeology (the scientific study of animals), with various materials and quizzes for attendees to take home.
Hands-on displays like Estero Llano Grande State Park’s booth are popular with event attendees. Park Superintendent Javier de León offered the braver visitors a chance to reach into a ‘box of mystery’ to feel and guess what type of animal—or animal part—they might pull out. The courageous challenger found a variety of animals to discover, from the invasive suckermouth catfish to a small taxidermied screech owl.
It becomes a game for attendees to guess what they might be touching before pulling it out into the light of day for the big reveal.
“Sometimes the adults are more scared than the kids—which is a lot of fun,” de León said.
de León says they function as a conversation starter to get people to spend time at their booth in a fun way.
“Instead of having a stand, we have these mystery boxes which allow people to hang out here so we can talk about the park. It’s not just informative, but adds a little entertainment,” he said.
This tactic proved particularly memorable for Eros Noyola, 9, from Brownsville, who declared that booth his favorite.
“I like the mystery when you put your hand in the box,” he said.
Another strong contender was the number of owls displayed at the booth that he got to investigate.
“I think it’s cool,” he said of the fair.
