An Inventory and Analysis of Spanish Colonial Construction-related Artifacts from Texas and Louisiana with French Colonial Comparative Material

The purpose of this collaborative project between Dr. Roff, an architectural historian at The University of Texas at San Antonio, and the Center for Archeological Research, was to identify, assess, and publish information on construction-related artifacts gathered from archaeological investigations of presidio, villa, and mission sites that were established in colonial Spanish Texas. Funded by a UTSA GREAT Grant 2016 -2017, one of the objectives of this project was to create new research tools for the field of Spanish Colonial studies. The documentation project resulted in the development of the Spanish Colonial Construction Tools, Hardware and Materials research database and an ArcGIS Online web-based application with maps and links to photos of artifacts. The research database catalogs the artifacts of 31 colonial sites housed at ten curatorial facilities in Texas and Louisiana; whereas, the ArcGIS site connects the artifacts to the places where they were found with photographs and contextual information. This inventory of archaeological artifacts was developed as the first step in a long-term project to document construction tools and materials housed in archaeological collections in the United States and Mexico. This report serves as a record of the documentation process and as a guide to the research tools.