Early Human Occupations in South Central and Southwestern Texas: Preliminary Papers on the Baker Cave and St. Mary's Hall Sites

During July, 1976, a field team from The University of Texas at San Antonio conducted limited excavations at Baker Cave in Val Verde County, south-western Texas. The site is located on Phillip's Canyon within the Devil's River drainage. The work was funded by the Center for Field Research (Belmont, Massachusetts), the Texas Archaeological Foundation, and the UTSA Center for Archaeological Research. The cooperation of ranch owner Mary Baker Hughey is deeply appreciated. I served as field director, and Professor Robert F. Heizer as co-director. [...] During June and July 1977, The University of Texas at San Antonio Archaeological Field Course conducted excavations at the St. Mary's Hall site (41 BX 229), within the city limits of San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The site was officially recorded in 1973. However, prior to that time, during 1972, a house was built on the southern portion of the site, an area lying outside the bound­aries of the St. Mary's Hall property (a private girls' school). During the clearing and construction phase, extensive pothunting destroyed the southern portion of the site. Fortunately, the collection (including numerous Golondrina, Angostura and Plainview points) was kept intact and has since been analyzed (Cantu et al., ms). Because of the total destruction of the southern section of the site, the then newly-formed Southern Texas Archaeological Association (STAA) decided to undertake test excavations to learn something about the St. Mary's Hall sector.