Environmental Studies Commons^™

Archeological Investigations Of The Proposed Leon Creek Emergency Bank Stabilization Project San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, Melanie Nichols

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On April 8, 2013, Atkins North America, Inc. (Atkins) conducted an emergency archaeological survey for the proposed City of San Antonio (COSA)-sponsored Leon Creek Emergency Bank Stabilization project in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The project will include the removal of concrete that has been dumped along the north side of the Leon Creek channel as well as approximately 500 feet of immediate stabilization improvements along Leon Creek’s south channel wall. The project area is defined as the footprint of the proposed stabilization improvements along the north and south channel walls of Leon Creek. The proposed project is located on …

A Cultural Resources Survey Of The Proposed Herff Road Re-Alignment Project, Kendall County, Texa, David L. Nickels, Tierras Antiguas

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Klotz Associates of Houston, Texas contracted with Tierras Antiguas Archaeological Investigations to conduct a cultural resources survey of 700 linear meters of road right-of-way on the outskirts of the city of Boerne, in Kendall County, Texas. The total Area of Potential Effect is 700 meters long x 45 meters wide, for a total of 7.78 acres. Texas Antiquities Permit #6708 was issued in order to proceed with the archaeological investigations.

Tierras Antiguas conducted a thorough pedestrian survey and dug 17 shovel tests on May 23 and 25, 2014, resulting in the discovery of no evidence of either prehistoric or historic …

Intensive Archaeological Survey Of The East Crystal Falls Parkway (Cr 272) Improvements Project, From Us 183 To Us 183a, Williamson County, Texas, Christian T. Hartnett, Abigail Peyton

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

PROJECT TITLE: Intensive Archaeological Survey of the East Crystal Falls Parkway (CR 272) Improvements Project, From US 183 to US 183A, Williamson County, Texas

LOCATION: The project is located in southwestern Williamson County roughly 1.5 miles east of the City of Leander, Texas. The project begins at US 183 and runs northeastward terminating at US 183A. The project area is located on the Leander, Texas USGS 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle map.

PURPOSE OF WORK: The project sponsor is fulfilling regulatory requirements in compliance with the Texas Antiquities Code and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

PROJECT SPONSOR: Texas Department …

Final Report On The Archeological Investigations Of The Jacob's Well Natural Area Hays County, Texas, Samantha Walden Champion, Josh Haefner, Shannon Smith

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In January 2014, Hicks & Company completed an intensive areal survey of the Jacob’s Well Natural Area in Wimberley, Hays County, Texas. The survey was completed for Hays County under Texas Antiquities Permit #6732 in preparation for redevelopment of the 81.5-acre area as detailed in the Jacob’s Well Development Master Plan finalized in July 2012. The improvements will be constructed on land that is owned and controlled by Hays County, a political subdivision of the State of Texas, and is therefore subject to the requirements of the Antiquities Code of Texas. Furthermore, since the proposed project is funded through an …

State Loop 195 Between Farm To Market 755 And Us 83, Starr County, Texas, Kristen Atwood, Steve Carpenter, Christopher Shelton, Jessica Uimer, Ken Lawrence, Christopher Ringstaff

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Over the course of two field sessions in May 2016 and in May 2018, SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted an intensive cultural resources survey along the proposed State Loop (SL) 195 from Farm-to-Market (FM) 755 to 1.4 miles west of the intersection of U.S. Highway (US) 83 and Loma Blanca Road in Starr County, Texas. This work augmented previous investigations by Cox-McClain and Hicks and Company. This management summary addresses the cumulative work completed, resources identified, eligibility recommendations, and what remains to be completed.

SWCA’s work was conducted in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (54 …

Women Working On A Fair Flower Farm In Ecuador: An Ethnographic Study, Corrie Grosse

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Despite a history of worker exploitation and environmental degradation, today, the cut-flower industry is striving for ethical production practices. Ecuador is leading the way in this regard, and one farm, Fairtrade-certified Nevado Roses, appears to be a shining example. In 2012, I set out to conduct ethnographic research centering workers' perspectives about labor conditions and life as Fairtrade rose cultivators at Nevado Roses. I wanted to understand how women, who comprise the majority of flower workers, fare on a farm with socially and environmentally sustainable policies. The research confirmed the benefits of ethical production practices, but also revealed that Fairtrade …

The Trees, My Lungs: Self Psychology And The Natural World At An American Buddhist Center, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

This study employs ethnographic field data to trace a dialogue between the self psychological concept of the selfobject and experiences regarding the concept of “interbeing” at a Vietnamese Buddhist monastery in the United States. The dialogue develops an understanding of human experiences with the nonhuman natural world which are tensive, liminal, and nondual. From the dialogue I find that the selfobject concept, when applied to this form of Buddhism, must be inclusive enough to embrace relationships with animals, stones, and other natural forms. The dialogue further delineates a self psychological methodology for examining religions in their interactions with natural forms.

Gelang: A Photography Of Belonging, Chase Clow

Collected Faculty Scholarship

Gelang: A Photography of Belonging proposes a new category of landscape photography, one that moves away from emphasis upon imagery of particular kinds of landscape (such as wilderness, topographical, or wastelandscape) and also away from genres of photography (art, documentary, or scientific) and instead investigates the shared values and ethics among landscape and nature photographers and the kinds of awareness and knowledge that arise through outdoor, field-based photographic practice. An analysis of the writings of photographers and their published interviews, as well as the author's own photographic experiences in the field, reveals a common core of life-affirming values predicated on …

Science-Fictional North Korea: A Defective History, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

Kafkaesque, Orwellian, eerie, surreal, bizarre, grotesque, alien, wacky, fascinating, dystopian, illusive, theatrical, antic, haunting, apocalyptic: these are just a few of the vaguely science-fictional adjectives that are now associated with North Korea. At the same time, North Korea has become an oddly convenient trope for a certain aesthetic – an uncanny opacity; an ominous mystique – that many writers and artists have exploited to generate striking science-fictional effects in texts with little or no connection to North Korean reality. (The 2002 Bond film Die another Day, for example, draws from North Korea’s science-fictional aura to animate North Korean super-villains who …

Still More Studies In Rio Grande Valley History, Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, Antonio Zavaleta

Studies in Rio Grande Valley Regional History Series

Resaca, a poem / Josie Mixon -- Matamoros before the Texas Revolution : becoming Mexico’s pivitol port city on the northern frontier / Craig H. Roell -- The Great Sequoyah Mystery : a cover-up that stretched from the Cumberland Mountains to the Rio Grande Delta (and into Mexico) / Don Clifford -- Immigration to South Texas, 1850-1900 / Thomas Daniel Knight -- Cattle barons and the creation of an empire : a case study of the expansion of the Kennedy Ranch of South Texas / Elmer Sierra, William Yaworsky, and Amy Frazier -- A history of the Brownsville Police Department …

Le Nature Degli American Studies, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

Al “Futures of American Studies Institute” di Dartmouth del 2003 lanciai una provocazione sulle “geografie immaginate” dell’americanistica. Volevo mettere in discussione sia le celebrazioni romantiche del “luogo” in quanto elemento in qualche modo autentico e particolare, minacciato da un mondo sempre più globalizzato e controllato dalle multinazionali, sia l’esaltazione della “delocalizzazione” nelle società in rete, negli “spazi di flusso”, nella mobilità senza attrito. Suggerivo che queste, come altre geografie poco studiate, si sposano troppo facilmente con molte correnti dell’eccezionalismo americano.

Archeological Investigations For The Levi Jordan Plantation House Stabilization, Brazoria County, Texas, Jennifer K. Mcwilliams, Douglas K. Boyd, Aaron Norment

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Levi Jordan plantation house is one of the few antebellum plantation structures to have survived in Brazoria County. It is the only standing structure associated with the plantation, which began operating in 1848 and was occupied continually up through the 1990s. The original house, built in the early 1850s using slave labor, was a 20x60-ft two-story wooden frame structure. It was altered many times during its long occupation, often due to hurricane damage. A portion of the Levi Jordan Plantation was acquired by the State of Texas in 2002 and managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department until …

Global Futures And Government Towns: Phosphates And The Production Of Western Sahara As A Space Of Contention, Mark Drury

Publications and Research

The study of natural resources lends itself to theorizing the politics of nature and the politics of time. The space of Western Sahara, where both remain highly contested, provides an opportunity to consider the ramifications of resources in political conflict at different historical moments. Drawing from environmental histories of North Africa and the Sahara, as well as the anthropology of time, the author focuses on two historical moments. The first, from 1945 to 1972, concerns the discovery of phosphate deposits during the Spanish colonial period and the implications of this discovery for political authority in the Sahara more broadly. The …

Remaining Two Parcels 39 And 41 Principal Investigator Waldo Troell, Waldo Troell

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The project field survey took place on September 23-24, 2013. The project’s area of potential effect (APE) encompasses a maximum of 122 acres including current right of way (ROW) [1.29 acres] and proposed ROW [120.71 acres]. A previous TxDOT pedestrian survey in September/October 2010 [permit # 5665] had covered approximately 117.52 acres where right of entry had been granted to TxDOT. At the time of the first survey no right of entry was granted for parcels 39 and 41. TxDOT has since purchased the entire APE and current survey covers the remaining two parcels 39 and 41 [4.48 acres]. No …

Archaeological Survey Of The Nolan Creek Improvements For The City Of Belton, Bell County, Texas, Michael R. Bradle, Herbert G. Uecker

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In September 2013, American Archaeology Group LLC conducted an archaeological survey of three tracts of land along Nolan Creek totaling 8.68 acres for the City of Belton’s planned low water dam removal and replacement dam installed, development of a parking lot and trail for kayakers, and removal of a low water bridge crossing. These improvements are being funded by a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department grant. The investigation consisted of a pedestrian survey supported with mechanical trenching. No archaeological sites were identified during the survey. American Archaeology Group LLC recommends that construction within the project area should be allowed to …

Two Archeological Surveys In The Texas Department Of Transportations Atlanta District: Fm 450 At Little Cypress Bayou, Harrison County (Csj 0843-02-012), And County Road 4114 At Brutons Creek, Morris County (Csj 0919-20-030), Damon A. Burden, Ross C. Fields

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Prewitt and Associates, Inc., was contracted by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to perform two intensive archeological surveys in TxDOT’s Atlanta District under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 6385. This work was completed prior to replacement of a bridge and realignment of approaches on Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 450 at Little Cypress Bayou in Harrison County (CSJ 0843-02-012) and replacement of a bridge and improvement of approaches on County Road 4114 at Brutons Creek in Morris County (CSJ 0919-20-030). The Area of Potential Effects (APE) for the FM 450 project is 50 acres and includes existing and new TxDOT right of …

Archeological Survey For Bridge Replacements On County Road 39 In Victoria County, Fm 532 In Lavaca County, Fm 951 In Dewitt County, And Fm 108 In Gonzales County, Texas, Aaron R. Norment

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On November 12–13 and December 17–18, 2012, personnel from Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted archeological surveys for the Texas Department of Transportation for the proposed replacement of four bridges in the Yoakum District under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 6374. The bridge replacements are as follows: (1) on County Road 39 at an unnamed stream in Victoria County (CSJ 0913-27-051); (2) at the edge of Moulton, Texas, on FM 532 at the West Prong of the Lavaca River in Lavaca County (CSJ 1007-03-017); (3) on FM 951 at the North Fork of Queens Creek in DeWitt County (CSJ 0839-04-010); and (4) …

Archeological Survey Of The Jefferson Street Lift Station Force And Gravity Main Corridors And Louise Hays And Lehmann-Monroe Parks, City Of Kerrville Kerr County, Texas, John E. Dockall, Karl W. Kibler

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In April 2013, personnel with Prewitt and Associates, Inc., performed an archeological survey for proposed sewer and water main improvements and park improvements in the City of Kerrville, Texas. The work was done for Freese and Nichols, Inc., and the City of Kerrville, under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 6508. Three contiguous project areas totaling 96 acres were surveyed: the Jefferson Street lift station force main corridor, the Jefferson Street gravity main and water line corridor, and Louise Hays and Lehmann-Monroe Parks. In total, 62 shovel tests and 4 backhoe trenches were excavated. No new archeological sites were found. Two previously …

Two Middle Caddo Period Habitation Sites And Cemeteries In The Sabine River Basin, Gregg County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

This publications concerns the reporting of 1963-1964 archaeological investigations conducted by Buddy Calvin Jones at 41GG5 and the Joe Smith site (41GG50) in the Sabine River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods (Figure 1). Both of the sites are Middle Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1200-1450) settlements and small cemeteries situated on southern-flowing tributaries of the Sabine River, namely Grace Creek (41GG5) and Hawkins Creek (41GG50).

Analysis Of A Small Sample Of Caddo Ceramic Sherds From The T. M. Sanders Site (41lr2), Lamar County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

This article documents several small collections of Caddo ceramic vessel sherds from the T. M. Sanders site (41LR2) in northwestern Lamar County, in East Texas. These vessel sherds were collected from the surface in 2011 and 2012, and provided to the author for analysis.

The Chasteen Site (41ur18) On Big Cypress Creek, Upshur County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Chasteen site (41UR18), also known as the W. S. Chastain site appears to be an early Titus phase (ca. A.D. 1450-1550) mound center and village (with an associated cemetery) on an upland landform overlooking Big Cypress Creek. The small mound (18m in diameter and 1.5 m in height) at the Chasteen site, apparently constructed over an important building, is part of a larger complex of Titus phase mound centers at this locale, including the Harroun (41UR10), Camp Joy (41UR144), and the Dalton (41UR11) sites.

The village deposits at the Chasteen site are estimated to cover 3-4 acres around the …

New Radiocarbon Dates From East Texas Caddo Sites, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In this article, we report on new radiocarbon dates obtained from five Caddo sites in East Texas. The radiocarbon samples are charred organic remains scraped off of one surface of whole vessels or sherds. These samples are from the Johns (41CP12), Shelby Mound (41CP7l), Gilbert (41RA13), Henry Spencer (41UR315), and Henry Williams (41UR318) sites. All of the dates are calibrated using Ox Cal v4.1.7, with atmospheric data from Reimer.

Analysis Of A Surface Collection From The L. A. Hale (41tt12) Mound Site, Titus County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

This article, and the three that follow in this volume, are summaries of artifact surface collections obtained by Robert L. Turner, Jr. at four sites in the Big Cypress Creek basin in the Post Oak Savanna and Pineywoods of Northeast Texas. The first surface collection is from the L.A. Hale Mound site (41TTI2) on Blundell Creek, a southward-draining tributary to Big Cypress Creek.

According to Thurmond, the principal component at the L.A. Hale Mound site is an Early Caddo (ca. A.D. 900-1200) mound center with extensive midden deposits. There are six mounds at the site, two large platform mounds (Mounds …

Archaeological Investigations At The Pine Snake Site, An Allen Phase Settlement On Flat Creek In Northwestern Cherokee County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula, Bo Nelson, Mark Walters, James Feathers

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Pine Snake site is a recently discovered late 17th to early 18th century Caddo Indian archaeological site located on private land in the northwestern part of Cherokee County, Texas, in the valley of a westward flowing tributary to the Neches River. This is an area of the Pineywoods of East Texas that contains extensive numbers of Caddo archaeological sites along all major and minor streams. Post-A.D. 1400 Frankston phase and post-A.D. 1650 Historic Caddo Allen phase sites, especially cemeteries dating to either phase, are particularly abundant in this part of East Texas. This article summarizes the findings from archaeological …

Analysis Of The Prehistoric Artifact Assemblage Of Ceramic And Lithic Artifacts From 41lr351, Lamar County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Site 41LR351 was first recorded during the 2005 Texas Archeological Society summer field school on the Stallings Ranch in Lamar County, Texas. This prehistoric site is on a natural knoll (420-430 feet amsl) in the headwaters of Pine Creek, a northward-flowing tributary of the Red River, in the Post Oak Savannah. The site has been excavated by the Valley of the Caddo Archeological Society, and a large prehistoric Caddo ceramic assemblage has been recovered, along with a substantial chipped stone tool and debris assemblage. The analysis of the ceramic and lithic artifact assemblages from the site is the subject of …

The Linebarger Site On Dry Creek, Camp County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Linebarger site (41CP493) is an ancestral Caddo site on Dry Creek in Camp County, not far upstream from the Tuck Carpenter site and large Late Caddo Titus phase cemetery. At least four ancestral Caddo burials are known to have been excavated at the Linebarger site in the 1960s, and Perttula documented two vessels and a large chipped biface from burial contexts in the Tommy Johns collection. The Robert L. Turner. Jr. surface collection came from an unspecified habitation area at the site.

The first documented vessel was a small inverted rim carinated bowl with a typologically unidentified engraved motif …

Analysis Of Surface Collections From Areas A And B At The Sam Roberts Site (41cp8) On Prairie Creek, Camp County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Sam Roberts site is a large ancestral Caddo mound center and habitation site on the floodplain of Prairie Creek, an eastward-flowing tributary to Big Cypress Creek, as well as on an upland landform south of the creek. Robert L. Turner, Jr.'s surface collections came from what he labeled Area A (in a plowed field in the floodplain) and Area B (in the uplands), several hundred meters apart. His notes with the collection also indicated that Caddo vessels had been plowed up in another cultivated field well to the east of Area A in the Prairie Creek floodplain.

The two …

Aboriginal Ceramic Sherds From 41ma30 In The Navasota River Basin In Madison County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Aboriginal ceramic sherds from three sites (41MA27, 41MA29, and 41MA30) in the Navasota River basin in the Prairie Savannah of Texas provided the opportunity to investigate their spatial and temporal nature, and to establish with a reasonable certainty their origins, ethnic affiliations, as well as relationships to other ceramic assemblages in the general region. A second collection of nine ceramic sherds is available from 41MA30, and this article describes the analysis of these additional sherds, and then summarizes the character of the larger assemblage (n=30 sherds) as a whole.

Analysis Of A Collection Of Early Caddo Artifacts From The Davis-Mcpeek Mound Site (41ur4/99), Upshur County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Davis-McPeek site (41UR4/99) is an Early Caddo (ca. A.D. 900-1200) mound and associated village on an alluvial terrace along Little Cypress Creek, in western Upshur County in East Texas. The site, with one known mound, has been known since the early 1930s, and in the early 1960s Buddy Jones conducted archaeological investigations in the mound. A small collection of ancestral Caddo artifacts from that work are curated at the Gregg County Historical Museum (GCHM, Longview, Texas), and this article provides an analysis of this collection.

Additional Ancestral Caddo Ceramic And Lithic Artifacts From The Three Mounds Creek Site, Gregg County, Texas, Timothy K. Perttula

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Three Mounds Creek site is an ancestral Caddo multiple mound center along a southern-flowing tributary to the Sabine River in the Longview, Texas area. Buddy Jones recorded the site in 1956, and noted that it had three mounds. His notes fail to describe the mounds in any fashion, nor their relationship to each other or the landform they were built on, and no map is available that shows the location of the three mounds with respect to where he collected artifacts from the site.

In April 1956, Jones excavated a 9.5 x 12 ft. (2.9 x 3.6 m) unit …