Field Work
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Members of the Travis County Archeological Society often participate in high-quality excavations under the supervision of TCAS members or affiliates. Currently, members are involved in two excavations in the central Texas area.

Bowmer

Artifacts Bowmer Site The Bowmer Site (41BL116) is a prehistoric Native American campsite located on an alluvial terrace above the Lampasas River and a small creek in Bell County. The site was originally recorded in 1968 by Harry Shafer. Recognizing the importance of the site, Mr. Bowmer contacted the Texas Archeological Research Lab when the site was being damaged by looters. A UT graduate student was sent out to investigate. Fieldwork at the Bowmer site commenced in 1995 and has been going on ever since. In 2001 and 2002, members of the Texas Archeological Society assisted at the site as part of the TAS field school. Currently, excavations are being conducted by volunteers on thirty-three adjoining 1x1 meter units.

Late Prehistoric Perdiz, Alba, and Scallorn arrow points and fragmentary ceramic sherds are found in the upper 25cm of sediment. Below the ceramic sherds, freshwater mussels and land snails appear in great numbers and are often found in clusters suggesting substantial freshwater and terrestrial molluscan consumption during this time. Transitional and Late Archaic dart points such as Darl, Fairland, Ensor, and Marcos and dense burned rock cooking features are also prevalent. At approximately two meters below the surface, there were two Pedernales points directly above a burned rock pavement that has been radiocarbon dated to 3765 years before present. We currently have one 1x1m unit that is over 2.5 meters deep and are still finding mussel shells, snails, bone fragments, lithic debitage, and fragmentary burned rocks at that depth. In addition to trying to determine the depth of the cultural deposits, we are also exposing broad areas of the site in order to attempt to discern possible activity areas.


The Bowmer site continues to provide both field and laboratory volunteer opportunities for those interested in archeology. To learn more about the site or to volunteer, contact Christine Gauger at cmgauger@hotmail.com or visit our website at: http://geocities.com/Bowmer116. As a volunteer at the Bowmer site, you will receive updates from Christine Gauger. Here is the update I promised and attached are a Artifacts Bowmer Site couple of photos of some of the artifacts we found UPDATE We arrived at the site on Sunday, January 29th around 9:30am expecting muddy units due to the rain the previous day. We were pleasantly surprised that most of the water had drained off & we were left with nice moist soil to work in but no mud. Ken noticed a broken dart point protruding from the wall in N1007 E1000 that the rain had uncovered. He then disappeared into the deep hole and would pop up occasionally to let us know that he is still finding snails & mussels shells in N1003 E1004 levels 41&42 as well as one small burned rock & a flake. Bill, Laura and Greg started off the day by finding a large oval biface in N1006 E1004 and followed with a large flake tool & some burned bone. Pat worked on continuing to cross section feature 6. Joanne worked in N1001 E1007 L7 which had a large number of burned rocks next to the mussel shell midden. She found a large amount of charcoal which I have sent off to have carbon dated. At the end of the day, she also found a broken Ensor point. I spent a small part of the afternoon discovering that a metal tape measure rolls really well when there is a 20 foot drop and water at the bottom for it to land in. While I was in the creek retrieving the wayward tape measure, I found a stream rolled cobble of chert to show everyone what the local material looks like and on the way back found a crude biface made of the same type of material We wrapped up around 2:30 and headed home.

 

Arrowheads Site Photo Working at the site Small Knife Biface


More Field Work

Bastrop County Field site

Nick Morgan, a TCAS member and a Texas Archeological Steward, appointed by The Texas Historical Commission has established a archaeological dig in Bastrop County. He is a Teacher for the Bastrop Independent School district by profession. Nick extends an invitation to all TCAS members:

I’d like to extend an invitation to any TCAS members who would like to join me for a little field work to come out to Bastrop County over the next few months and possibly longer. I’m going to be excavating a site on one of the terraces of Cedar Creek, not far from its confluence with the Colorado River. Indications point to an Early Archaic period of occupation, although a Perdiz point is among the artifacts recovered by the landowner. Pedernales, Catan, and Martindale points have also been recovered by her, as well as, a Friday biface and an Ovate biface.

I’m hoping to get started during the week of Spring Break, probably Wed., Thur., Fri., and Sat. contact me at nlmorgan@earthlink.net or by phone. The landowner, Rachel Steen has a wonderful website you could look at to learn more. about her current use of the acres where this site is located www.joyfulhorse.com.

Nick Morgan

Recent update:

On March 19, 2006, a single pottery cherd was discovered in an established unit. This discovery could prove to be significant because pottery is rarely seen in this part of Texas. The pottery used here would have been brought to its resting place by the inhabitants of the site. The pottery style may come from the Texas coast, but further analysis is needed to confirm the cherds origin.

Please contact Nick Morgan for more details.

artifacts found in Bastrop Site Site Photo Nick and Crew Shert Bastrop


Tina's Picture Tina's Picture Tina's Picture

 

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