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Ancient peoples lived here 10,000 years ago but left little evidence until the Archaic of Desert Culture 8,000 years ago. They used hundreds of desert plants as food and for medicine and ate hearts of the sotol and lechuguilla plants, fruit and blossoms of yucca, fruit and young pads of prickly pear, and mesquite and acacia beans. They wove baskets and sandals of lechuguilla fiber and yucca leaves and hunted deer, rabbits and other animals with atlatl throwing sticks and stone-tipped darts. Desert springs gave them drinking water. Home sites often still have remnants of rock shelters and hearths or fire rings.