Article Title

The Prehistoric Components at the Rubin Hancock Farmstead, 41TV875, Travis County, Texas

Authors

E. Frances Gadus
Marie E. BlakeFollow
Karl W. Kibler, Cross Timbers Geoarcheological ServicesFollow

Agency

TxDOT

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21112/ita.1999.1.16

Abstract

From 1984 to 1987, a series of archeological projects was undertaken by the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation (SDHPT, now the Texas Department of Transportation, TxDOT) at site 41TV875 in Travis County, Texas. The work focused on the historic component, representing the late-nineteenth- to early twentieth-century farmstead of the African American Rubin Hancock family, but many prehistoric artifacts were recovered as well. In 1998, TxDOT contracted with Prewitt and Associates, Inc., to complete the analysis, report production, and curation requirements for the mitigation work on both the prehistoric and historic components.This volume discusses the prehistoric component.

Study of the prehistoric materials had five primary goals. The first was to produce an inventory of the artifacts. The second was to conduct a typological analysis of the projectile points to gain an understanding of the chronology of the site. The third was to couple the chronological information with an examination of the horizontal and vertical distributions of the cultural materials to determine whether components can be isolated. The fourth was to identify those parts of the collection that have the potential to yield important information and hence warrant curation. And the fifth was to analyze the materials from a concentration of lithic debitage to determine if they represent a cache.

Analysis revealed that the site was occupied sporadically beginning at the late end of the Paleoindian period and continuing into the early part of the Late Prehistoric period. Most of the deposits were mixed, but it appears that a reasonably discrete early component may have been present in one part of the site. These early materials have the greatest interpretive potential. Analysis of the materials in the lithic debitage concentration indicates that they are not particularly homogeneous but, instead, they consist of a wide range of flake types and sizes representing various reduction strategies and stages. There is little evidence that the materials were being prepared for further tool manufacture. This concentration can be interpreted best as a discard pile.

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.