Article Title

The Perez Ranch Project Reassessment of Four Archaeological Sites in South-central Bexar County, Texas

Authors

Jason D. Weston

Agency

Center for Archaeological Research

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21112/ita.2004.1.8

Abstract

In anticipation of planned land developments, NICDAR, Inc. of San Antonio Texas contracted the Center for Archaeological Research at The University of Texas at San Antonio to conduct a reassessment and boundary definition of four archaeological sites, 41BX274, 41BX277, 41BX682, and 41BX988, located on or in the vicinity of the historic Perez Ranch. The archaeological investigations were carried out under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 3278 with Dr. Steve A. Tomka serving as Principal Investigator.

The investigations consisted of a surface survey of all sites, shovel testing and backhoe trenching at 41BX274, the Perez Ranch, shovel testing at 41BX988, the Laborer’s Shack, and limited shovel testing outside the cemetery bounds at 41BX277, the Perez Family Cemetery and Chapel. The Dolores Crossing, 41BX682, a Spanish Colonial period ford of the Medina River was subject to surface survey only. Based on the surface and subsurface distributions of artifacts at 41BX274 41BX277, and 41BX988, new boundaries were defined, staked and recorded at these sites using Global Positioning System units. The size of site 41BX274 has been reduced by splitting it into two sites 41BX274 and 41BX274a. 41BX274a was split from the original site since it is a concentration of cultural materials located some 350 meters southeast of the nearest concentration of cultural materials at 41BX274. This isolated concentration of cultural materials has now been identified as 41BX274a. Based on surface survey and shovel testing, it also was recommended that the boundaries of site 41BX277 be slightly increased to include a light scatter of prehistoric cultural materials found around the cemetery. Furthermore, it was recommended that the site be identified as multicomponent, given the presence of both prehistoric and historic materials within its boundaries. Based on the distribution of cultural materials at 41BX682, the boundaries of the site have been reduced. Finally, no cultural materials have been identified at 41BX988, although the location of the historic crossing coincides with the crossing of the Medina River by Applewhite Road.

No cultural material was recovered from sites 41BX277 or 41BX682. Temporally diagnostic artifacts were recovered from the surface of sites 41BX274 and 41BX988. All cultural materials recovered in shovel tests at these two sites have also been retained. All artifacts are curated at the Center for Archaeological Research.

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