Archaeological Testing at San Marcos Springs (41HY160) for the Texas Rivers Center, Hays County, Texas

Abstract

The archaeological investigations were designed to assess the geological context and the nature of the preserved archaeological materials at the Spring Lake Site, 41HY160. An extensive geological coring effort extracted 22 cores from over 9 meters of alluvial sediments in the San Marcos River floodplain. These cores extended from the Hotel to beyond the football stadium. Five depositional units (A-E from older to younger) were identified, which dated from the Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene, and all of these depositional units either contained preserved archaeological materials or were contemporary with know archaeological occupations in the immediate vicinity of Spring Lake. A single flake was recovered from geological Core E in Depostional Unit A channel gravels. Radiocarbon dates confirm sediment accumulation spanning the last ~12,000 radiocarbon years. Archaeological test units recovered a wide range of lithic tools, faunal remains, burned rock features and fl oral remains that have been identified as Middle and Late Archaic, and Late Prehistoric in age. Five intact burned rock features were excavated and documented. The careful excavation and archaeomagnetic analysis of burned rock from the cooking features demonstrates the presence of burned rock cooking pits and scattered burned rock hearths. These features were clearly constructed and used as cooking facilities by prehistoric inhabitants. The prehistoric inhabitants also actively hunted a number of large animals that consisted of bison, antelope and deer, and a variety of small species such as rabbits, turtle, fi sh, rodents, and snakes. The more limited floral remains demonstrate the use of cheno-ams for food, and oak, juniper and bald cypress for firewood. Better preserved plant remains were recovered from Depositional Unit A in the geological Core D and these demonstrate the potential for well preserved archaeological floral remains is great in the deeper portions of the site. A great diversity of chipped stone artifacts (projectile points, preforms and other bifaces, scrapers and other unifaces, groundstone tools) provide the most abundant evidence of technological activities, and production and procurement strategies at the site. The wealth of evidence and the secure geological context of these materials, clearly demonstrates that the potential for the recovery of significant archaeological materials at the Spring Lake Site, 41HY160, is great and it is recommended that any impacts of planned construction iii on archaeological resources be mitigated. All recovered materials are curated at the Archaeological Curation Facility, Texas State University. iv

Data Recovery and Analysis at the Texas State University Ticket Kiosk Project, Located at 41HY160, Spring Lake, Hays County, Texas

“…Chapter 2 presents the environmental and cultural context of Spring Lake. Archaeological understanding of this important site has grown steadily since initial excavations in the 1970s, but has rapidly increased in recent years as a result of compliance-driven investigations (Lohse 2013a;Nickels and Bousman 2010;Oksanen 2011), especially the SLAERP (Leezer et al 2011;Lohse 2013b). The current basis for how we understand prehistoric cultural and environmental processes, including regional chronologies and previous work, is summarized in order to contextualize these investigations.…”

Prehistoric Life along the Banks of Spring Lake: Results and Analysis of the Southwest Texas State Field Schools (1996–1998) at 41HY165, San Marcos, Hays County, Texas

“…Years Investigated Components Citations 41HY147 197941HY147 , 199041HY147 , 1990 Archaic, late and early Paleoindian, Pleistocene fauna Shiner 1983;Takac 1990, 1991a, 1991b41HY160 1982, 1983, 1991, 1998 discrete components from Late Prehistoric through Early Archaic, domestic features Garber et al 1983;Ramsey 1997;Oksanen 2006;Aery 2007;Nickels and Bousman 2010;Leezer et al 201141HY161 1978, 1998, 2000, 2008 mixed historic and Archaic, Late Archaic, late and early Paleoindian, human remains, Pleistocene fauna Shiner 1979Shiner , 1981Shiner , 1984Garber and Glassman 1992;Ford and Lyle 1998;Lyle et al 2000;Jones 2002;Oksanen 2008;Yelacic et al 2008aYelacic et al , 2008bStull 2009;Leezer et al 2010;41HY165 198441HY165 , 198841HY165 , 199641HY165 -199841HY165 , 200041HY165 -2001 prehistoric, Middle Archaic, bison, historic, mixed historic and prehistoric Giesecke 1998;Ringstaff 2000;Soucie and Nickels 2003;Soucie et al 2004;…”

“…The majority of the core samples produced prehistoric artifacts, indicating a dense concentration of artifacts in the area. Cultural materials were recovered up to a depth of 6.5 m. The estimated age for cultural materials at 6.5 mbs is 10,000 BP (Nickels and Bousman 2010).…”

“…In 2001 an archaeological testing project was conducted as part of a master plan and partnership between TPWD and Texas State to develop a public interpretive and educational center on the peninsula (Nickels and Bousman 2010). The purposes of this project were 1) to determine the presence or absence of cultural remains in the areas to be impacted; and 2) to evaluate the integrity of any discovered cultural materials and determine their potential for providing significant archaeological information.…”

“…A number of special samples were collected from the test excavations, including radiocarbon, archaeomagnetic samples of burned rock from features, and macrobotanical samples. During the excavations, over 18,380 pieces of lithic material were collected including: 18 projectile points, 82 bifaces, 19 cores, two groundstones, one hammerstone, 213 unifaces, and 18,046 pieces of lithic debitage (Nickels and Bousman 2010). In addition, 2,650 fire-cracked rocks from 12 thermal features were analyzed in the field, and 4,388 faunal remains and 37,672 snail shells were collected.…”