An Historical and Archaeological Assessment of the Proposed San Antonio Botanical Center

During late July and early August, 1976, the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio conducted an archaeological and historical assessment of the proposed San Antonio Botanical Center. The project was authorized by the City of San Antonio Department of Parks and Recreation, Ronald Darner, Director. The archaeological and historical investigations at the proposed Botanical Center were carried out under the terms of Permit for Archaeological Investigation, No. 122, issued by the Texas Antiquities Committee

An Archaeological Survey of a Proposed Dredge Spoil Site in Nueces County, Texas

During December 1983, the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, conducted an archaeological survey of a proposed dredge spoil site in Nueces County for the Port of Corpus Christi Authority. One site (41 NU 211) was located. Artifacts included one Early Archaic dart point fragment which suggests that 41 NU 211 may date as earl y as 4000 B.C. Limited testing is recommended to evaluate the site unless project plans are altered

Archaeological Survey and Testing at The City of Live Oak Park, Bexar County, Texas

On June 15, 1977, an archaeological survey was made of a 70-acre park at Live Oak, Texas. During the survey, a prehistoric site (41 BX 435) was found and recorded. Recommendations were made for testin9 the site to evaluate its importance and possible eligibility for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. On June 17 and 18, limited testing of the site was conducted. The results of the survey and subsequent test excavations are presented here. The archaeological work at the park was done under a contract between the City of Live Oak (Mr. Ronald Dunlap, City Manager) and the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio. The original survey was conducted by Stephen L. Black, and the subsequent testing was done by Erwin Roemer, Jr., Augustine Frkuska and Elizabeth Frkuska. Field work was done under the supervision of Dr. Thomas R. Hester, Director of the Center, and Jack D. Eaton, Assistant Director

The Clemente and Herminia Hinojosa Site, 41JW8: A Toyah Horizon Campsite in Southern Texas

Site 41JW8 is a major prehistoric occupation site located along Chiltipin Creek in Jim Wells County, in southern Texas. Excavations at the site in 1981 recovered a single component that can be linked with the Toyah horizon. Radiocarbon dating of three fire features places the occupation to around A.D. 1350-1400. The excavation of 82 m2 clustered in blocks produced an abundance of well-preserved data. Special studies of faunal and botanical remains and analyses of artifacts and cultural refuse distributions provide the basis for addressing various research problems. The site is shown to be a base camp where hunting and animal processing were major activities. Contrary to earlier interpretations, deer were more important than bison, although the remains of over forty other species suggest a diverse subsistence base. The site is thought to have been occupied while Chiltipin Creek was a spring-fed reliable water source surrounded by a mosaic of grassland, riparian, and thorny brush vegetation. A review of regional Late Prehistoric sites suggests that the site represents an occupational pattern--the Toyah horizon--that spread from Central Texas in the 14th and 15th centuries during a period of increased rainfall

The Prehistoric Sites at Choke Canyon Reservoir, Southern Texas: Results of Phase II Archaeological Investigations

Reported in this volume are the results of archaeological investigations at 72 prehistoric sites located in the basin of Choke Canyon Reservoir on the Frio River in Live Oak and McMullen Counties, southern Texas. The sites investigated in this study will be affected in one way or another by a lake formed after construction of Choke Canyon Dam, a project of the United States Bureau of Reclamation CUSBR). The research was sponsored by the USBR as the second and final phase of a two-stage program of archaeological investigations designed to mitigate damage or destruction of cultural resources resulting from dam construction and subsequent long-term inundation of a large area of the Frio River valley. Methods used to study Choke Canyon\u27s prehistoric sites during the Phase II investigation were various types of subsurface excavations, documentation of surface features and characteristics, and collection of artifacts from site surfaces. The people who inhabited the Choke Canyon region in prehistoric times, representing an approximate span of 10,000 years, existed as mobile hunter/gatherer bands. They subsisted by tapping virtually every conceivable source of edible natural food. A full spectrum of animals, from lowly field mice and lizards up to bison and deer, was exploited by various techniques of hunting, trapping, and catching. Large land snails and mussels were sources of meat food that Choke Canyon\u27s prehistoric people could easily gather. Gar, drum, and turtles were taken from local creeks, sloughs, and the river, perhaps using spears, nets, or weirs. Analysis of vertebrate faunal remains, results of which are presented herein, rather conclusively demonstrates that Late Prehistoric people exploited big game species more commonly than did their Archaic period predecessors. Floral products must also have comprised a substantial portion of the foods consumed by Choke Canyon\u27s prehistoric inhabitants. Direct evidence of plant food utilization is nonexistent on the sites. However, the very common occurrence of sandstone manes and metates implies heavy reliance on seeds, nuts, or beans. Also, the tremendous amount of burned rock that accumulated in Archaic components at many sites, often found as very carefully constructed hearth features, suggests that baking or roasting activities were extremely common. Roots, tubers, stalks, and other edible plant parts may have been what was being prepared in these facilities. Diagnostic artifacts recovered from prehistoric sites at Choke Canyon during the various phases of archaeological investigation clearly indicate that the general vicinity witnessed aboriginal activity from Paleo-Indian times up through the early Historic period. Evidence of Paleo-Indian people is limited to surface finds along the valley margin and on high, ancient terrace formations down in the river valley. No in situ subsurface Paleo-Indian components have yet been isolated at Choke Canyon. Where previously the earliest subsurface component known at Choke Canyon dated to the Middle Archaic period (ca. 3400 B.C. to 2400 B.C.), the Phase II excavations led to discovery of an Early Archaic component dating to the period from 5000 B.C. xi to 4000 B.C. While recognizable Paleo-Indian, Early Archaic, and Middle Archaic components are relatively scarce, the Late Archaic and Late Prehistoric periods are amply represented in the prehistoric sites at Choke Canyon. Phase II investigations also produced the first clear indication of an aboriginal component containing evidence of contact with Anglo-Europeans in early historic times. The bulk of cultural, paleobotanical, and vertebrate faunal data representing the prehistory of Choke Canyon indicates that floral and faunal communities and the general climatic regime remained essentially unchanged from at least 4000 B.C. up to the period in historic times when certain livestock and land management practices led to a drastic expansion of brush communities and severe erosion of formerly stable land surfaces

Overwinter Changes in Dry Aggregate Size Distribution Influencing Wind Erodibility in a Spring Wheat-Summerfallow Cropping System

A long-term study of the wind erodibility properties of a two-year spring wheat-summerfallow cropping systems was started in 1988 in south-central North Dakota as part of an USDA-ARS led effort to construct a process-oriented soil erosion predictive model. Observations were conducted on a conservation tillage experiment established in 1984 on soil classified in the U.S. as Typic-Pachic Haploborolls and in Canada as Brown to Dark Brown Chenozemic. The experiment included four residue-management treatments defined by targeted residue coverages: no-till, \u3e 60% cover; minimal-till, 30% to 60% cover and undercutter dominated; conventional-till, \u3c 30% cover and disk dominated; low-residue, \u3c 5 % cover. Fall and spring measurements of dry aggregate size distribution (ASD) of surface soil (0 to 4 cm depth), and overwinter changes in ASD are reported here. A rotary sieve produced six size fractions ranging from \u3c 0.42 mm to \u3e 19.2 mm diameter. Measurements of ASD are expressed as geometric mean diameter (GMD) or erodible fraction (EF: fraction \u3c 0.84 mm). Two major influences on overwinter changes in ASD were observed: (i) During the drier part of a multiyear weather cycle (1988 to 1990), disaggregative changes were observed, with a lowering of GMDs and an increase in EFs. Wetter years (1991 to 1993) brought mixed to aggregative ASD changes. (ii) The phase of the 21-month fallow period strongly affected overwinter ASD change, with large, aggregative changes (GMD up, EF down) observed over the first winter of the fallow period (stubble phase) and mixed aggregative to disaggregative changes observed in the second winter of fallow (residue phase). Tillage treatments had little apparent effect on overwinter ASD changes. Single and multiple regressions indicate that various factors would associate with significant fractions of variance in overwinter GMD change: (i) weather factors - (a) number of days with snowcover, (b) number of freeze-thaw cycles, and (c) precipitation in the fall; (ii) crop growth in years before the year of fallow; (iii) phase of the fallow period; and (iv) GMD level in the fall

Crevice Interments Deconstructed

The discovery of two well preserved human crania in a crevice overlooking a spring fed creek near Austin, Texas, led to medico legal, archeological, and bioanthropological investigations aimed at understanding the context and biological affinity of the crania. Archeological excavations uncovered no evidence that the crania were interred in the crevice during prehistoric times. Skeletal analysis showed they were of Native American ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicated they are contemporary to one another and probably date to the seventh or eighth century A.D. Measured stable isotopic rations of carbon ( 13 C/ 12 C) and nitrogen ( 15 N/ 14 N) derived from human bone collagen samples from the crania are not consistent with other burial populations from the region, having higher nitrogen values than all other comparative samples. The crania also showed polish from repeated handling and several of the molars in one cranium had been glued in place. Taken together, these lines of evidence suggest the crania were removed from an unknown locality outside the Central Texas region, kept in a private collection, and placed in the crevice recently

The Panther Springs Creek Site: Cultural Change and Continuity within the Upper Salado Creek Watershed, South-Central Texas

The excavations and subsequent analysis of the Panther Creek Springs site, 41BX228, a multicomponent prehistoric open occupation site in south-central Texas, are documented in this report. The investigations at 41BX228 partially mitigate the loss of cultural information caused by looters and potentially by a proposed Soil Conservation Service flood control project. The field investigations carried out in 1979 included mapping, testing, backhoe trenching, and the excavation of several block areas. Large quantities of comparatively well-preserved cultural materials were recovered and analyzed including: lithic, ceramic, and bone artifacts as well as faunal and botanical remains. Major aspects of the analysis and of this report include: descriptive, typological, and distributional studies of certain types of artifacts; the special studies of faunal, botanical, and soil samples; a study of the burned rock midden phenomena; an examination of the settlement pattern in the upper Salado Creek drainage, and a synthesis emphasizing cultural change and continuity through time in the local cultural manifestations as reflected by the site deposits. The Panther Springs Creek site represents a favored campsite repeatedly revisited over thousands of years by hunting and gathering peoples attracted by the availability of crucial resources, such as water, plants, animals, and lithic materials. The site served many functions including that of: a campsite, a lithic procurement area, a flintknapping station, a tool refitting station, a hunting station, a tool refitting station, a butchering station, a plant processing station, a hunting camp, a gathering camp, and perhaps a social gathering locality. The major problem in interpreting this site is that all of these activities were repeated countless times in an area that had very slow sediment accumulation. Thus, many details of 41BX228’s long history of prehistoric occupation will never be unraveled

Excavations at 41LK67 a Prehistoric Site in the Choke Canyon Reservior, South Texas

In 1977-1978 excavations were conducted at 41 LK 67 in Live Oak County, south Texas, by the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio. The investigation of this prehistoric archaeological site was part of an extensive program of reconnaissance and excavation necessitated by the construction of the Choke Canyon Reservoir on the Frio River by the Bureau of Reclamation. The site is situated in shallow colluvial deposits capping an old terrace remnant of the Frio River. The excavations involved 193 m2 in three separate areas and revealed Late Prehistoric and Late Archaic components. Recognizably older artifacts (including patinated chert flakes) from the surface and from excavations may represent older disturbed components or artifacts collected prehistorically from nearby sites. Radiocarbon dates, with medians ranging from 1590 to 660 B.C. (MASCA correction) are available only from the Late Archaic component. The principal kinds of debris recovered from the excavations are fire-cracked rock, cores and chipping debris, shells of snails and freshwater mussels, plainware potsherds, and chipped stone tools. Mussel shell was surprisingly abundant; more than 9000 specimens, including 3000 specimens identified taxonomically, were recovered. Fish otoliths were the only animal bones preserved, except for a few recent, intrusive elements. Debris frequencies from the two larger excavation blocks (Areas A and B) were factor analyzed. In most cases the analysis showed the strongest covariation occurring among different classes of chipping debris. For Area C factor analysis indicated that the strongest spatial patterning occurred in the upper part of the deposits. Unfortunately, the analysis was not particularly successful in defining activity sets. The small collection of chipped stone tools was examined microscopically. Two tool classes in particular, distally beveled tools (gouges) and quadrilateral bifaces (beveled knives) seem to represent more functionally specific tool forms, but other hafted bifaces (projectile points) show a wide range of use wear mostly unrelated to projectile use