Archaeological Monitoring Associated with the Installation of Conserved Cannon in the Alamo Complex, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Abstract

Between February and June 2018, in response to a request from the Alamo Trust, Inc., staff of the Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) performed archaeological monitoring of six hand-excavated holes prior to the construction of a series of concrete supports for the installation and display of six historic period cannon at Mission San Antonio de Valero, The Alamo (41BX6), in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The Area of Potential Effect (APE) was limited to the east side of the 1934 Alamo Arcade. The installation of the conserved cannon took place beneath the midpoint of six arches along the east side of the arcade. Six holes were hand-excavated by Alamo staff, while CAR staff monitored the progress and screened the soils. The Project Archaeologist was José Zapata, and Sarah Wigley assisted with the fieldwork and artifact analysis. Paul Shawn Marceaux, CAR Director, served as the Principal Investigator. This project fell under the Antiquities Code of Texas and required review by the Texas Historical Commission (THC) and the Texas General Land Office (GLO). Archaeological monitoring was conducted under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 8335. The cannon installations were completed with a minimal amount of disturbance and no adverse impacts to resources within the APE. All field notes, photos, and artifacts have been prepared for permanent curation at the CAR, in accordance with THC guidelines.