As our local lakes recede, it offers us a look back in time. Archeologists are uncovering artifacts here in Central Texas dating back to A.D. 200.  

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KVUE's Noelle Newton reports

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Somewhere underneath our lakes and creeks lie the answers to the mysteries of the first Texans. As the drought intensifies, hints appear and LCRA Senior Archaeologist Dan Prikryl sets out to find them. His explorations have resulted in boxes and boxes of artifacts like buffalo bones dating back to between the 11^th and 16^th centuries and spear points left behind a thousand years before that.

"Back in the year 2000, when we had a severe drought, we put a lot of effort into finding prehistoric campsites,” said Prikryl.

Every time the lake levels go down, he heads back to the campsites to uncover more items. He focuses on the Highland Lakes like Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan.  Along the way he also discovers items used by early pioneers. He showed us bottles found at Lake Buchanan dating back to sometime between the late 19^th century to 1916.

Prikryl wouldn't reveal his secret spots along the lakes, but just in case you happen upon one he says leave it alone, “People need to be aware they can do serious damage to things that might allow us to learn new and interesting facts about the Indians and early pioneers.”

The answers are out there. It depends on Mother Nature whether he'll find them.

“We'll just see how much longer the drought continues and how much lower the lakes get. It will be a very exciting time for us to explore areas that are typically unavailable,” he said.

If you find artifacts on a public lake or park call the LCRA at (512) 473-3200 or 1-800-776-5272. Prikryl turns in all of his artifacts to the archeological research lab at the University of Texas.