An Archival and Archaeological Review of Reported Human Remains at Alamo Plaza and Mission San Antonio de Valero, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

In June of 2021, the University of Texas at San Antonio Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) was retained by the City of San Antonio to produce a comprehensive archival and historical research report addressing issues related to burials and cemeteries at the Alamo and surrounding Alamo Plaza area. This effort was directed by the City Manager’s Office (CMO) in support of the Alamo Citizen’s Advisory Committee (ACAC). CAR, with the direction, coordination, and support of the CMO and the City Archaeologists with the Office of Historic Preservation, met with three members of the ACAC representing history and archaeology to respond to questions and provide regular updates. The first of these meetings was held on June 29, 2021, and they continued through the end of September 2021. In addition to coordination with the three ACAC members, CAR was also tasked with making three presentations to the entire ACAC. These occurred on September 14 and November 4 of 2021, and on April 11, 2022. The report provides a comprehensive archival and historical synthesis relative to specific research topics. The results include a discussion of the several communities that occupied the site, in particular the Franciscan Mission from 1724-1793; the Pueblo de Valero from 1793-1810 and the Compañia Volante de San Carlos de Parras from 1802-1835. The report examines Spanish Colonial and Mexican burial practices together with archaeological analogs from other local and regional sites as a predictive indicator for potentially new encounters with human remains and as an explanation for remains reported in the archival records. Included with the particular examination of the mission period, this report recapitulates the entirety of the listed burials from Mission San Antonio de Valero along with several analyses of those records. In addition to the recapitulation and analyses, all of these records have also been made available online for anyone interested in using them. Period archival records were exhaustively examined to attempt to collect every known written account of human remains reported in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries either from the Alamo buildings or within or adjacent to Alamo Plaza. This same comprehensive treatment was also applied to the archival documents and narratives related to the dead from the Battle of the Alamo. This work product was not conducted under a Texas Antiquities Permit, and no recommendations regarding National Register status or eligibility or landmark designation are provided. All supporting research conducted for this report, report drafts, internal and external correspondence, and figures are retained at the CAR curatorial repository on the UTSA Main Campus found under accession #2589.