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The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map : Index >>
Stones Forum >> Artifact Finds Spanning 11000 years on Texas Riverside
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Artifact Finds Spanning 11000 years on Texas Riverside |
bat400
Joined:
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from South Central Indiana, US
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|  Posted 02-09-2008 at 04:35
Coldrum submitted the following story from a small newspaper from the locality of Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas.
It's a little confusing to me because the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Archeological Stewardship Network Stewardship Network appears to be a devoted group of avocational archaeologist volunteers. The profiles of the stewards seem to point toward attempting to get private owners to cooperate with the trained stewards or professionals to preserve or carefully record finds.
It may only be a confused news story that implies a enthusiastic, but haphazard excavation - not that anything reported here is even slightly illegal - its all very above board and in accordance with the rules that cover collecting. Texas has a rich pre-history and very few state professionals to monitor a vast area. I've not been able to find much more on these discoveries aside from some blogs from collectors who gleefully predict a bonanza of "pay-to-dig" opportunities at private sites on the Guadalupe River.
If any of our readers from Texas can provide additional information, happy to have it.
Local archeologist Robert “Bob” Everett paid a visit Thursday morning to an excavation site where hundreds of arrowheads, spear points and other Native American artifacts were recently uncovered along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
“This is the richest archeological site I’ve seen on the Guadalupe River in 35 years,” said Everett, a steward with the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Archeological Stewardship Network.
Everett and his wife, Carol, examined numerous artifacts when he visited Jody and Floyd McKee, owners of the Saffold House on Stockdale Highway along the south bank of the Guadalupe River.
“There could have been a series of villages of different tribes over the past 11,000 years. It appears to have been heavily occupied for an expansive period of time. This could have been a major village with satellite villages strewn along the river,” Everett said.
He said many of the artifacts are from the Archaic to Early Late Prehistoric periods in geological time. He also advised the McKees to carefully control their excavation sites and to measure them as well as they can.
Finds at the site include more than 30 Guadalupe Biface pieces, which were chert or flint tools whose use was uncertain. There are knives, adzes, drills and awls and one atlatl in addition to the spear points and arrowheads that range in size, shape and color, some with corner and side notches. The McKee collection includes a very rare Andice spear point in addition to Wilson, Georgetown and even a Hell Gap artifact that Everett said does not originate in this area.
The McKees had put the 1865 house on the market after they restored it, and they had an offer from a venture capital firm that wanted to build condominiums, a restaurant and parking lots to serve them on the property.
“If they had paid what we were asking and we had sold it, we wouldn’t even know what we have here,” Floyd said.
Jody said her husband dug out some soil from the property behind their house and spread it in the yard around the house to fill it in.
Then one day it rained, and the McKees found artifacts that had washed to the surface of their yard.
“All of these arrowheads were everywhere. ... I took a rake and found stuff while raking the surface of the yard. I found five axe heads,” Jody said.
“We have stuff in boxes and buckets and on shelves, including more than 30 Guadalupe Bifaces. To find 30 of them in one hole is unheard of,” she said.
“We are not going to sell our house now, this is too much fun,” Jody said.
Since their significant find of Native American artifacts in their back yard, the McKees and their dogs have been working full time digging and sifting dirt in their big back yard. The dogs dig into the piles of dirt, unknowingly kicking up spear points and arrowheads in their attempts to cool down on a hot summer day.
Floyd said he wants the residents of Seguin, especially those who live alongside the river, to know what they have found in their yard.
The McKees plan to excavate much of the rear of their property to determine the extent of the site of prehistoric occupation, but will stop stop if they encounter a burial site.
“We haven’t run across any bones yet, if we do that we will have to stop and find out what it is,” Floyd McKee said.
“This is an important site,” Everett reiterated.
For more, see
Seguin Gazette. Seguin is located here north east on San Antonio.
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2008-09-02 04:39 ]
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bat400
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from South Central Indiana, US
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| Posted 05-09-2008 at 03:03
Additional information on the Guadalupe River Valley and its prehistoric occupation can be found here at
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st-plains/
Click on the "Ancient Places" map layer.
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