Article Title

41BX171: A Late Nineteenth Century City Dump in San Antonio, Texas

Authors

Clive Luke

Agency

TxDOT

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21112/ita.1974.1.5

Abstract

One trench was excavated to a length of thirty-five feet. It was oriented approximately north-south and designated Trench One. To eliminate unnecessary man hours, a backhoe initially removed the disturbed and late fill from the upper levels of the trench. Beneath the levels removed by backhoe, the trench was staked in units of five feet by five feet. Each unit was excavated by hand in arbitrary one foot levels, but the ashy soil was not screened. The elevation of a point on a concrete slab in the middle of the trench was established, using a Texas Highway Department Bench Mark as reference. Having so established a point of known elevation, corresponding levels of every unit could be kept at a constant elevation.

In addition to testing this dump, a test was made of a second area where core samples demonstrated the presence of garbage. A backhoe trench was used to expose that deposit which was determined to be from the 1940’s. No further effort was expended in that area.

A detailed analysis and study of the artifacts at this time seems inadvisable because the sample is so small in terms of the entire dump. Any attempt to utilize the data recovered in September and October 1974 would probably result in biased conclusions. Consequently, further excavation is necessary to provide a larger sample. However, in order to indicate what sort of artifact return was generated, a catalogue of artifacts prepared by Marshall Eiserer, of the Texas Highway Department Archaeology Sections, is appended.

Licensing Statement

This is a work produced for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) by the report producer. TxDOT and the report producer jointly own all rights, title, and interest in and to all intellectual property developed under TxDOT’s contract with the report producer. The report may be cited and brief passages from this publication may be reproduced without permission provided that credit is given to both TxDOT and the report producer. Permission to reprint an entire chapter, section, figures or tables must be obtained in advance from either the Supervisor of the Archeological Studies Branch, Environmental Affairs Division, Texas Department of Transportation, 125 East 11th Street, Austin, Texas, 78701 or from the report producer.