DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. On December 29, 1982 — the kind of quiet winter day nobody expects to change much — Texas Highway Department archeologists were working the Wilson-Leonard Brushy Creek Site, about six miles southeast of where you're standing right now. And then, carefully, from the earth, they uncovered her.
A skeleton. A human female. Pre-historic, as in a chapter of human history so deep it barely has a name.
Because the grave site sat in such close proximity to the town of Leander, she picked up a nickname that has stuck ever since — the Leanderthal Lady. Now that name might sound a little playful, and maybe it is, but what it points to is anything but small. Carbon testing indicates this woman lived ten to thirteen thousand years ago.
Ten to thirteen thousand years. She was about thirty years old at the time of her death, and she stood five feet three inches tall. She was a real person.
A life, a death, a burial — someone took the time to lay her to rest, and the earth kept that secret for an almost incomprehensible stretch of time. What makes her matter beyond the wonder of it is this: as one of the earliest intact burials ever uncovered in the United States, the site is considered a valuable source of information on the nation's prehistoric past. She waited ten to thirteen thousand years in the soil near Brushy Creek, and when she finally came back to light, she had something to teach us.
The Leanderthal Lady. Still here. Still talking.
What the marker says
On Dec. 29, 1982, Texas Highway Department archeologists uncovered the skeleton of a pre-historic human female at the Wilson-Leonard Brushy Creek Site (approx. 6 mi. SE). Because of the proximity of the grave site to the town of Leander, the skeleton became known as the Leanderthal Lady. Carbon testing indicates the woman lived 10-13,000 years ago. She was about 30 years old at the time of death and measured 5' 3" in height. As one of the earliest intact burials uncovered in the United States, the site is a valuable source of information on the nation's prehistoric past.