Intensive Archeological Survey of the 8.2-acre Wooten Parcel: Proposed Highway Improvements Along Interstate 10, Colorado County, Yoakum

On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), AmaTerra Environmental, Inc. (AmaTerra) conducted an intensive archeological survey of the 8.2-acre Wooten Parcel as part of the proposed Interstate 10 highway expansion near Columbus, Colorado County, Texas. Work consisted of visual inspection of the entire project area, including 100 percent pedestrian survey, excavation of 37 shovel tests, and excavation of 8 backhoe trenches. Fieldwork was conducted from September 3-5, 2019, and from September 10-13, 2019 by a team of two archeologists. The Harbert Plantation, site 41CD136, is a previously recorded historic planation site located within the proposed right of way situated on the Wooten Parcel. The site also served as a hub for sharecropping endeavors of the early twentieth century. The existing complex of historic structures, while not part of the original plantation, sit on top of the center of the plantation complex. Personal communication with Mr. James Wooten, the landowner, suggested that graves might be present in a small area of the eastern parcel. While scraping of this area had been planned, field conditions dictated otherwise, and a pair of long, shallow, wide trenches revealed no indication of any potential grave shafts. Mr. Wooten also indicated that his barn currently sits atop the location where the original plantation house stood and is partially constructed of reclaimed wood from the razed original structure. Two water features associated with the original plantation are present; a hand dug well and a below-ground cistern, the latter of which is in good condition and provides a local example of early water storage devices during the Antebellum period in this area of Texas. One architectural feature was also discovered during trenching: a single brick pier footing possibly associated with a slave dwelling. Field investigations demonstrated that much of the original plantation is gone or heavily disturbed with a near ubiquitous distribution of historic artifacts across the site. The shallow upland soils containing the cultural material are so churned that it is nearly impossible to accurately discern the plantation occupation from the sharecropping occupation and/or any other activities that may have occurred historically at this site. While the majority of site 41CD136 within the proposed new right of way is considered not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL), the preserved below-ground cistern related to the original plantation is a feature that could provide new or unique information pertaining to the Harbert Plantation, contributing to the site’s eligibility. It is recommended that if construction impacts will destroy this feature, it should be investigated further for archeological potential and so that it can be fully documented and to assess the potential of this feature as a SAL. Additionally, because the location of the main house has been potentially shielded by the construction of the barn, subsurface features related to the original house could exist. Therefore, it is recommended that if construction cannot avoid this barn, archeological scraping should occur in the area of the main house location/existing barn in case preserved subsurface features related to the main plantation house are discovered. No artifacts were collected as part of this project. All notes and field records generated for this project will be curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies – Texas State University in San Marcos under Antiquities Permit 9033

The Great White Dawn of the Pueblo: Revolt and Puebloan Worldview in Seventeenth-Century New Mexico

Previous historical scholarship on the origins of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt argues that the rebellion resulted from either poor environmental conditions, harsh Spanish treatment of the Pueblo Indians, or a combination of the two. Using Puebloan myths, Spanish documents from colonial New Mexico, and anthropological studies of various Puebloan groups and religions, this paper contends that the Pueblo identified the disease, worsening environmental conditions, and harsh Spanish treatment as an indicator that they had failed to meet their ceremonial obligations to their ancestors. Therefore, Spanish occupation and prohibition of customary Pueblo religion acted as a barrier to their restoration of harmony. Thus given a tangible cause for their suffering, the Pueblo people rebelled to rid themselves of the Spanish in order to practice rituals and secure their prosperity

Intensive Archeological Survey of the 8.2-acre Wooten Parcel: Proposed Highway Improvements Along Interstate 10, Colorado County, Yoakum District

On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), AmaTerra Environmental, Inc. (AmaTerra) conducted an intensive archeological survey of the 8.2-acre Wooten Parcel as part of the proposed Interstate 10 highway expansion near Columbus, Colorado County, Texas. Work consisted of visual inspection of the entire project area, including 100 percent pedestrian survey, excavation of 37 shovel tests, and excavation of 8 backhoe trenches. Fieldwork was conducted from September 3-5, 2019, and from September 10-13, 2019 by a team of two archeologists. The Harbert Plantation, site 41CD136, is a previously recorded historic planation site located within the proposed right of way situated on the Wooten Parcel. The site also served as a hub for sharecropping endeavors of the early twentieth century. The existing complex of historic structures, while not part of the original plantation, sit on top of the center of the plantation complex. Personal communication with Mr. James Wooten, the landowner, suggested that graves might be present in a small area of the eastern parcel. While scraping of this area had been planned, field conditions dictated otherwise, and a pair of long, shallow, wide trenches revealed no indication of any potential grave shafts. Mr. Wooten also indicated that his barn currently sits atop the location where the original plantation house stood and is partially constructed of reclaimed wood from the razed original structure. Two water features associated with the original plantation are present; a hand dug well and a below-ground cistern, the latter of which is in good condition and provides a local example of early water storage devices during the Antebellum period in this area of Texas. One architectural feature was also discovered during trenching: a single brick pier footing possibly associated with a slave dwelling. Field investigations demonstrated that much of the original plantation is gone or heavily disturbed with a near ubiquitous distribution of historic artifacts across the site. The shallow upland soils containing the cultural material are so churned that it is nearly impossible to accurately discern the plantation occupation from the sharecropping occupation and/or any other activities that may have occurred historically at this site. While the majority of site 41CD136 within the proposed new right of way is considered not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL), the preserved below-ground cistern related to the original plantation is a feature that could provide new or unique information pertaining to the Harbert Plantation, contributing to the site’s eligibility. It is recommended that if construction impacts will destroy this feature, it should be investigated further for archeological potential and so that it can be fully documented and to assess the potential of this feature as a SAL. Additionally, because the location of the main house has been potentially shielded by the construction of the barn, subsurface features related to the original house could exist. Therefore, it is recommended that if construction cannot avoid this barn, archeological scraping should occur in the area of the main house location/existing barn in case preserved subsurface features related to the main plantation house are discovered. No artifacts were collected as part of this project. All notes and field records generated for this project will be curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies – Texas State University in San Marcos under Antiquities Permit 9033

Characterization of the Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Family in the Fusarium oxysporum Species Complex

Fusarium oxysporum is a filamentous fungus that is known to invade over a hundred different hosts and poses a major threat to the economy and food supply world-wide. Poly (Adenosine diphosphate-Ribose) Polymerase (PARP) is a family of regulatory proteins that affect change in the cell through transfer of ADP-Ribose moieties onto target molecules. The most well-studied PARP protein is the human PARP1, a PARylating nuclear protein that serves as our model PARP protein. F. oxysporum was found to contain a large expansion of PARP catalytic-domain-containing proteins compared to other filamentous fungi. We utilized in silico multiple sequence alignments and domain predictions to identify a human PARP1 homolog termed foPARP1 that was conserved within the core chromosomes in all three strains within our comparative system. Our in silico predictions also stated that only one strain, an Arabidopsis pathogen, Fo5176, contained several other predicted catalytically active PARP homologs within the accessory chromosome. To test the effect that foPARP1 knockout would have on DNA damage tolerance, we created a foParp1 knockout and found that only strains Fol4287 and Fo5176 had a significant reduction in tolerance upon being plated with methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), a DNA alkylating agent. To test how global PARylation trends would be affected by foParp1 knockout, we utilized immunodot-blotting with PAR antibodies to assess PARylation in total protein extracts. We found that all strains of the comparative system had the capacity to catalyze the synthesis of long PAR chains, while only Fo47 and Fo5176 had a significant PARylation increase when exposed to MMS, and no samples had a significant increase in PARylation within the foParp1 knockouts. Finally, we utilized RNA-Sequencing to determine the transcriptional impacts that foParp1 knockout would have and found aberrant DNA repair pathways and disruptions in stress responses. Taken together, we conclude that foPARP1 is in fact a functional PARP1 homolog and exhibits similar post-transcriptional modification and transcriptional impacts as its human counterpart. However, we were not able to correlate PARP copy number with DNA stress tolerance, and further research would be needed to assess the full function of the PARP expansion

CSJ 2093-01-010, FM 2218, Fort Bend County, Houston District

On March 9 and 10, 2020, archeologist Aaron Norment from AmaTerra Environmental, Inc. (AmaTerra) conducted an intensive archeological survey with shovel testing on three parcels of land for part of the FM 2218 roadway project in Fort Bend County, Texas. This survey is for detention ponds and a segment of outfall line where right of entry was not granted during a prior survey along FM 2218. Total acreage surveyed for the three parcels measures approximately 37 acres. A total of 28 shovel tests were excavated across all three parcels resulting in recording one mid-twentieth century historic house site, 41FB363. Based on the age of the structure, poor integrity, and lack of attendant artifact assemblage, the site is recommended as not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or designation as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL). No further archeological work is necessary. This survey was a no collection survey. As such, no artifacts were collected, and all records and photographs generated during this project will be housed at AmaTerra’s offices

C.H.D. Clarke (1909-1981)

Clarke was born on 14 June 1909 in Kerwood, Ontario, the son of a Methodist minister. As he described it, an early interest in natural history led him to become "a bird watcher, and in time a hunter, and then also a collector, and the lines of least resistance made me a wildlife biologist." [Clarke is best known for his work on the Thelon Game Sanctuary] ... presented in A Biological Investigation of the Thelon Game Sanctuary. Although the report had value as the first systematic and complete list of barren-ground vertebrates, it also provided important information on wildlife use by Inuit and northern Indians, the population cycles of fur-bearing mammals, and caribou and muskoxen. In the section on caribou, Clarke examined the contemporary lack of scientific knowledge about northern wildlife. ... In many ways, Clarke's ideas were ahead of his time. He argued for increased study and protection of caribou, abandoning preconceived ideas about predators, favoring native interests over those of whites in decisions regarding wildlife and discarding ineffectual and misguided wolf control programs. ... In the conclusion he wrote, "We should always be careful that in our search for new resources we do not destroy what we already have.... If we can keep it [the North] a true wilderness, its spiritual value will remain, but if the wild herds are lost it will not be a wilderness, but a desert." ... A pioneer in biological research in the North, C.H.D. Clarke lived to see the region transformed by social, political, economic and technological forces. He recognized his good fortune at having been active "When things were still fresh" and was reluctant to return to places he once knew, for fear that they would have been destroyed. Near the end of his life he wrote, "To me the Sanctuary will always be what it was in my time." ..