Preliminary Cultural Resources Investigations for the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, Hidalgo County, Texas

Archeological, archival, and geomorphologic investigations were conducted for the proposed Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge Project in Hidalgo County, Texas, by Prewitt and Associates, Inc. from October 12-27, 1992. The purposes of these investigations were to locate and record any cultural resources within the project area, determine their eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and designation as State Archeological Landmarks, and to provide an overview of the Holocene geomorphic history of the project area. The geomorphic history of the project area suggests that the Rio Grande has experienced continuous channel aggradation from the end of the Pleistocene to ca. 1000 B.P. Climatic changes and diminishing sediment loads led to channel incision around 1000 B.P., forming a low late Holocene terrace and resulting in increased sinuosity and a decreased channel width-to-depth ratio. The investigations included a stratified sample survey of approximately 162 hectares (400 acres) and the excavation of 16 backhoe trenches and 14 shovel tests. A total of 10 sites, consisting of 10 historic and 2 prehistoric components, were documented. Six standing architectural properties, each consisting of a structure or groups of structures, also were documented. Four of the sites (41HG153, 41HG155, 41HG156, and 41HG158) are considered to be potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and for designation as State Archeological Landmarks. Two of the architectural properties - the Carmichael and Sorenson farmsteads - also may be eligible for listing on the National Register. The four potentially eligible sites consist of four historic and two prehistoric components. The historic components date from the Texas Republic period to the early twentieth century, representing the establishment and development of the EI Capote Ranch community. The two prehistoric components (41HG153 and 41HG158), of which only 41HG153 is potentially eligible, represent Late Prehistoric and unknown prehistoric components, respectively

Cultural Resource Inventory and Testing in the Salt Creek Pocket and Devils Lane Areas, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

This document is the final technical report on the first phase of a multiyear archeological program conducted in Canyonlands National Park. Some of the purposes of this project are to gather information for upgrading the park\u27s interpretive program, increase the scientific understanding of Canyonlands\u27 prehistory, and prepare a research design to guide future investigations. Archeological inventory of 4500 acres in the Needles District revealed a previously undocumented Archaic occupation and showed that Formative peoples using the area were primarily the Mesa Verde Anasazi, not the Fremont and Anasazi as previously thought. The data also indicate that prehistoric peoples used the survey area on an intermittent basis, primarily to hunt, harvest wild plants, and procure local lithic resources. There is little evidence of horticultural activities. Finally, an uncorrected radiocarbon date of 3340 +- 100 years: 1390 B.C. was obtained from a site with Barrier Canyon Style rock art; the association is suggestive but more research is needed before the date is unquestioningly applied to the Barrier Canyon rock art

An innovative method to select a suitable fraction for mortar 14C dating: the Cryo2SoniC protocol.

To date, mortar radiocarbon (14C) dating represents one of the main “open issues” involving the whole radiocarbon community because, after about 50 years of experimentation, the possibility to evaluate absolute chronologies for these artifact by radiocarbon remains still uncertain. This work describes i) the development of a new methodology, called Cryo2SoniC, aimed to select a fraction of mortars recording the time of setting, ii) the evaluation of Cryo2SoniC main drawbacks and successes, when it is applied on archaeological mortar. The proposed method is based upon a physical procedure (ultrasonication) isolating only the binder calcite formed by means of the absorption of atmospheric CO2 during the mortar setting. Proposed procedure was tested, at first, on a series of synthetic mortars produced in the laboratory and lime lumps, using a first version of the separation method (i.e. CryoSoniC) and then applying the ungraded version, Cryo2SoniC, on a series of archeological samples from different important historic monuments and excavations. All measured radiocarbon ages were compared with their chronological reference allowing accuracy evaluation. Radiocarbon dating was performed on the selected fractions using high-precision (i.e. 0.3% prescision) Accelerator Mass Spectroscometry (AMS). Mineralogical investigations for mortar charcterization were performed on original mortars by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) of powders, observations of thin section with Optical Microscopy (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). An inter-comparison exercise has been performed between CIRCE and the Poznan Radiocarbon Laboratory to verify the efficiency of different separation methods (Cryo2SoniC vs stepped digestion) performed on the same samples. InfraRed Fourier Transformed Spectroscopy (FTIR), SEM and ChatodoLuminescence (CL) analyses were performed to verify eventual dead carbon contamination affecting Cyo2SoniC produced fractions and consequentially develop a diagnostic tool i) to gather information about observed pitfalls of the methodology ii) to preliminarly predict the quality of CryoSoniC isolated fractions. Final balance of this research is the reliability and efficiency of the Cryo2SoniC method on a widespread spectra of mortar typologies, highlighting its weak points and suggesting alternative solutions such as the purification of lime lumps incased in mortars

IKUWA6. Shared Heritage

Celebrating the theme ‘Shared heritage’, IKUWA6 (the 6th International Congress for Underwater Archaeology), was the first such major conference to be held in the Asia-Pacific region, and the first IKUWA meeting hosted outside Europe since the organisation’s inception in Germany in the 1990s. A primary objective of holding IKUWA6 in Australia was to give greater voice to practitioners and emerging researchers across the Asia and Pacific regions who are often not well represented in northern hemisphere scientific gatherings of this scale; and, to focus on the areas of overlap in our mutual heritage, techniques and technology. Drawing together peer-reviewed presentations by delegates from across the world who converged in Fremantle in 2016 to participate, this volume covers a stimulating diversity of themes and niche topics of value to maritime archaeology practitioners, researchers, students, historians and museum professionals across the world

Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa: Introducing the EAMENA Project

This project uses satellite imagery and historic aerial photographs to discover and interpret archaeological sites. It has created an open access database of archaeological records that provides basic information so that the sites can be better under- stood and preserved in the future. The threats to sites in the Middle East and North Africa are increasing and creating a record of previously unrecorded sites using this methodology may be our the last chance before they are destroyed

Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa: Introducing the EAMENA Project

This project uses satellite imagery and historic aerial photographs to discover and interpret archaeological sites. It has created an open access database of archaeological records that provides basic information so that the sites can be better under- stood and preserved in the future. The threats to sites in the Middle East and North Africa are increasing and creating a record of previously unrecorded sites using this methodology may be our the last chance before they are destroyed

Holocene Archeology Near Squaw Butte, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

This document is the final technical report of cultural resources investigations in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah. These investigations were part of the multiyear Canyonlands Archeological Project. Inventory of 878 acres in the Squaw Butte Area revealed 80 sites which were occupied by Archaic people during all phases of the Archaic period, aborigines of unknown cultural affiliation during the Early Formative period, Mesa Verde Anasazi during Pueblo III or late Pueblo II-III, and the Navajo during historic or modern times. Paleoindians may have also been in the general area, if not the actual project area. Limited testing of hearths and cultural deposits at six sites documented occupation during the poorly known Middle Archaic period and during two periods not represented by the inventory data--the Terminal Archaic and Early Formative. Flotation samples from these sites show a hunting and gathering subsistence strategy for the pre-A.D. 1100 period. Continuing research on lithic raw materials allowed refinement of the preliminary classification presented after the first year\u27s work. The final aspect of the project was dating the Barrier Canyon rock art style. Though somewhat preliminary, available information suggests this distinctive style dates sometime between 1900 B.C. and A.D. 300

Millican Bench (41TV163) A Multicomponent Site in Travis County, Texas

Between September of 1970 and February of 1971, the Texas Highway Department, now the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), carried out extensive hand and mechanical excavations at 41TV163, the Millican Bench site. The highway maintenance crew was ably directed by Frank Weir. Millican Bench represented the first archeological site excavated by the then Texas Highway Department (THD) under their archeological program. In 2001, TxDOT contracted with the Center for Archaeological Research at The University of Texas at San Antonio to provide an assessment of the documents and data and develop research topics that may be successfully pursued with the materials from the site. Based on the assessment it was determined that dependent on data types, four broad analytical units could be defined (Late Prehistoric, and Late, Middle and Early Archaic), and two diachronic and one synchronic research topic would be pursued: changes in subsistence strategies and lithic technological organization, and the evaluation of Feature 3, a possible structure noted at the site. The analysis of the faunal material from the site and comparison with other archeological collections indicates that hunter-gatherers may have pursued a broad-spectrum adaptation, even when bison were present in the region. The lithic assemblage, characterized by predominantly expedient and minimally retouched tool forms, supports this contention. The percentages of what we think are nonlocal raw materials increases through time. This increase hints at changes in the level or scope of mobility. Patterns in projectile point discard and replacement strategies suggest some premium on preventive tool replacement. Although the photographic documentation strongly supports the likelihood of Feature 3 representing a structure, we have little surviving direct data in support of this possibility. The artifactual data that we can investigate suggests, however, that the circular area may have at least represented some type of maintained space. All artifacts retained, in consultation with the Texas Historical Commission and TxDOT, and all site documentation are permanently curated at the Center for Archaeological Research. The remains of the single skeleton recovered from the site are also permanently curated at the Center

Iron Age Ritual

The excavation of an area within the grounds of the Prebendal, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, adjacent to the parish church of St Mary's, showed that the town, which lies on a slight spur, is sited within a univallate Iron Age hillfort. Early-Middle Iron Age activity included the creation of a notable ritual area contaning the burials of four children and a young woman, most accompanied by animals; and a 'bone mass' containing animal bone, mostly disarticulated. Within a generation or so of the deposit's creation, within the first half of the 4th century BC, a univallate hillfort was constructed which did not continue into the later Iron Age. Early in the Middle Saxon period a palisade trench was dug into the hillfort's ditch, which was replaced by a ditch in the 8th century. Both palisade and ditch were almost certainly the boundaries of an early minster church and it is very likely that the former existence of the hillfort influenced its siting here. An unusual piece of Merovingian glass with a moulded cross on its base is likely to have been one of the minster's possessions. The extensive minster cemetery and later Saxon development of the town is briefly noted. A significant Saxo-Norman grain deposit which has been radiocarbon dated to the 11th-12th centuries is described