National Register Eligibility Testing of Eight Sites on Camp Swift, Bastrop County, Texas

Date

2018

Authors

Mauldin, Raymond P.
Munoz, Cynthia M.
Kemp, Leonard

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Abstract

The Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) conducted fieldwork associated with National Register eligibility testing on eight prehistoric sites located on Camp Swift, a facility owned by the Texas Military Department (TMD) in Bastrop County, Texas. CAR carried out the work in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966. The archaeological testing was conducted at two different times. The initial testing occurred in October and lasted through December of 2012 with seven sites (41BP776, 41BP778, 41BP780, 41BP782, 41BP792, 41BP801, and 41BP802) tested. In September of 2016, an additional site (41BP487) was investigated. The testing of the first seven sites was performed under Interagency Cooperation Agreement (ICA) Nos. TX11-ENV-09 and TX12-ENV-07 with Dr. Raymond Mauldin serving as Project Manager and Cynthia Moore Munoz serving as Project Archaeologist. The subsequent testing of 41BP487 was conducted under ICA No. TX16-ENV-08 with Dr. Paul Shawn Marceaux serving as Project Manager and Leonard Kemp serving as the Project Archaeologist. The primary goal was to assess Camp Swift archaeological sites 41BP487, 41BP776, 41BP778, 41BP780, 41BP782, 41BP792, 41BP801, and 41BP802 for potential eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). CAR focused on three interrelated research domains. These domains are site chronology, the integrity of deposits, and their characteristics and content. In all, CAR excavated 41 1-x-1 m test units and screened roughly 26.65 m3 of deposits. CAR archaeologists identified 1,576 pieces of chipped stone debitage, nine cores, 44 tools, and 18.7 kg of burned rock. CAR identified three features, one at 41BP802 and two features at 41BP487. Ultimately, CAR recommends that sites 41BP487, 41BP801, and 41BP802 are eligible for NRHP listing under criterion d in that the sites have yielded, and are likely to yield, information important to prehistory. The remaining five sites (41BP776, 41BP778, 41BP780, 41BP782, and 41BP792) are recommended as ineligible for NRHP listing. The Texas Historical Commission concurred with these recommendations on November 27, 2017. In addition, the TMD provided copies of the draft report to consulting Federally Recognized Tribal Nations for comment. It did not receive any formal comments back from the consulted tribes. If future review by Tribal Historic Preservation staff of this final report results in any need to edit or revise this report, TMD will work with Tribes and SHPO to prepare an updated publication. Following laboratory processing and analysis and in consultation with the TMD, selected items that had no remaining scientific value were discarded. This discard conformed to Texas Historical Commission (THC) guidelines. All remaining archaeological samples, along with all associated artifacts, documents, notes, and photographs, were prepared for curation according to THC guidelines and are permanently curated at the CAR at The University of Texas at San Antonio.

Description

Keywords

archaeological investigation, archaeology, Texas archaeology, archaeological surveying, excavations, Bastrop County

Citation

Department