Baylor University 2007, 2008 & 2009 Archaeological Field Schools
What are the research goals of the field school at the Upper Sprague site?
1) Contribute data for comparative and analytical studies of Late Prehistoric sites in the northern portion of central Texas.
2) Contribute to the understanding of the occupational sequences of the transitional period between Late Prehistoric I (Austin Interval) and Late Prehistoric II (Toyah Interval) Periods.
3) Contribute to the understanding of the spatial layout of a campsite as well as the activities preformed by its inhabitants during the Late Prehistoric Period in the northern portion of central Texas.
To accomplish these goals, our excavation activities will continue to expand the excavation block to learn more about the activities and spatial patterns within the site. To date, we have opened 42 one by one meter units and with the completion of the 2009 field season, thirteen discrete features have been exposed and a number of diagnostic artifacts have been recovered. We have submitted seven samples of organic materials from well-defined contexts for AMS radiocarbon dating and all have been dated to the late Austin and early Toyah Intervals.
During the 2010 field season, we plan on expanding the excavation block in Area D, with the purpose of gaining additional information to better define and interpret the activities which took place at this Late Prehistoric campsite.
What have Baylor students found at the Upper Sprague site?
>p>The Upper Sprague site (41HM54) is a multi-component site located on the western side of a small tributary which runs south into the Leon River. Testing of the upper deposits of this site has confirmed an occupation sequence dating from the Middle Archaic Period to the Late Prehistoric Period. The Baylor University Archaeological Field School has been conducting excavations in Area D, an excavation block located to the west of Areas A, B and C. These blocks are currently being tested by the Tarrant County Archeological Society under the direction of Bryan Jameson, an Archeological Steward with the Texas Historical Commission.
The Baylor Archaeological Field School has opened a broad horizontal exposure in order to reconstruct the nature of activities of a Late Prehistoric hunter/gatherer camp in Area D. During our first field season in 2007, we came down upon a living surface of a Late Prehistoric encampment. Six features were found: a freshwater mussel shell midden with over 1,000 mussel shell values, a basin-shaped hearth, a cluster of large, flat stones, a tight Rabdotus snail cluster, an arc-shaped burned daub concentration and a lithic reduction station, complete with five cobbles which have all been refitted. All of these features, except the lithic reduction area, appear to be part of an intact living surface. The burned daub feature has caused great excitement in the fact that many of the burned clay nodules recovered show branch and twig impressions, suggesting a burned structure of some sort. We are hoping to find more of this feature in 2010.
We have recovered primarily Scallorn and Perdiz projectile points in and around a trash midden in the northern portion of the excavation block. Other point types recovered include Cliffton, Harrell, Alba and Fresno types. From the faunal assemblage, we have identified bone from large (bison), medium and small mammals, turtles and fish.
During the 2008 field season, we expanded the excavation block in Area D. We opened units to the south, to expose any additional activity areas south of the hearth. We also opened units to the east, to follow the mussel shell midden; and units were opened to the north, to better define the burned daub feature. What we did uncover were three very unique features. One has been designated a curated cluster of bison bone which included a complete scapula and a rib bone, placed under a large limestone boulder. The other two features date to a later occupation, since both were intrusive into the major living surface of Area D. One of these was a burned clay concentration, possibly a surface hearth, and the other was a shallow pit, one meter long by one-half meter wide, extending 17cm into the organic rich living surface below and filled completely with a clayey matrix and void of artifacts.
Only Scallorn projectile points were recovered in 2008, along with two sections of a Fresno arrow point or an arrow point preform which was later refitted in the lab. After point-plotting the artifacts into the ArcGIS project, an inner circle around the southern and western sides of the hearth revealed a clean area with very little cultural debris.
From our analysis of over a thousand fragments of bone recovered during the first two field seasons, 75% are small fragments less than 2cm in length. This data suggests that the prehistoric occupants of the site were smashing bones and boiling them to extract both marrow and bone grease (fat).
During the 2009 field season, we expanded the excavation block toward the north and northwest. We uncovered four additional features. Two of the features -- a pit hearth, complete with charcoal, and a long, shallow pit, similar in size and construction to that found in 2008, appear to represent the Toyah occupation. A large midden, complete with fired-cracked rock, mussel, bone, debitage and expended tools was also found in the northwestern corner of the excavation block. On the last day of field school, another pit was exposed, possibly a storage pit, but it was only partially documented. We hope to open units to the south to fully expose this feature during the 2010 field season.
Arrow points found in 2009 are predominately representative of the Austin Interval and these include Scallorn and Moran arrow points. One Fresno arrow point and two drills were also recovered in association with the Scallorn points.
From this data, we propose the following activities may have occurred at the Upper Sprague site during the Late Prehistoric Period:
The inhabitants constructed a rock-lined basin-shaped hearth for food preparation. From the vast numbers of mussels found in the midden debris, they may have been steaming mussels. The immediate area around the hearth was virtually void of cultural remains, suggesting ongoing activities around the hearth would require a clean work space.
The prehistoric inhabitants collected mussels from the river below the site. They either cooked them by hot-stone boiling or by steaming (95% of the mussel shell show no sign of burning). After eating them, they discarded the shells into a pile located about a meter and a half northeast of the hearth.
The inhabitants also collected, cooked and discarded Rabdotus snails. The tight Rabdotus snail clusters which were scattered throughout the site also suggest that they were boiled to extract the snails and then the empty shells were dumped into discrete piles along the periphery of the hearth area.
Other food preparation activities included the breaking and crushing of bones on a grouping of tabular stones located near the hearth. Since these stones are large and were found near the hearth, we believe these stones may have served as a food preparation platform. The high density of fractured bone and utilized flakes found in association with this feature support this notion.
The inhabitants stayed long enough to create a secondary refuse midden, which contained fire-cracked rock, broken tools, mussel shell and fragments of bone. When bone densities were plotted in the GIS project, a number of discrete concentrations became visible, suggesting multiple processing and discarding episodes.
Excavations have uncovered a burned daub feature which may represent a small structure or wind-break made of branches and twigs and covered with daub. Ethnographic accounts of hunters and gatherers around the world have revealed such structures that were built to provide protection from the elements.
The inhabitants of the site may have curated a bison scapula to be used as a tool in association with hearth-related activities. Near the scapula, a bison rib bone was found placed under a large limestone boulder (the largest rock in the excavation block to date). This may suggest that the rib and boulder may have served some work-related activity or possibly the user did not want the rib carried away by a carnivore.
After the site had been abandoned for some time, another group re-inhabited this portion of the site. They dug three pits into black midden soil, one being a small pit hearth, possibly to heat rocks on a bed of charcoal. Within a meter of this feature, they dug two rectilinear shallow basins, side-by side, possibly to serve in some food preparation activity. Directly to the south of these shallow basins, at least five chert cobbles were broken for tool manufacture and within a few meters to the east, a small fire was built on the surface, which created an oxidized area about a half a meter in diameter.
Paper and poster presentations given by Baylor University Archaeological Field School participants at the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Texas Archeological Society Annual Meetings:
2007 TAS Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas:
A Toyah Campsite on the Leon River: Excavations at the Upper Sprague Site (41HM54), Hamilton County by Jesi Mann and Kassie Kemp
Descriptive, Nutritional and Contextual Analysis of Freshwater Mussels from Area D, Upper Sprague Site (41HM54), Hamilton County by Jenny Everett and Larry Kocian
How to Manage, Visualize and Analyze Intra-site Archaeological Data Using GIS by Luis Aran and Lindsey Estep
2008 TAS Annual Meeting in Lubbock, Texas:
The Case of the Lone Bison Scapula and Rib Bone, Area D, Upper Sprague Site, Hamilton County by Lyndsay DiPietro
Exposing Refuse Creation and Disposal Activities at a Late-Prehistoric Campsite on the Leon River using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst by Sarah Adcock and Matt Hanks
A Look at Food Resource Exploitation at a Late-Prehistoric Campsite in Central Texas: Subsistence Activities at the Upper Sprague Site, Hamilton County, Texas (41HM54)
Part 1: Freshwater Mussel by Alex Millard and Carol Macaulay
Part 2: Faunal Bone by Shamara Sneed and Carol Macaulay
Part 3: Pecans by Morgan Haley and Carol Macaulay
2009 TAS Annual Meeting in Del Rio, Texas:
Creating a Visual Database of Wood Charcoal Samples of Six Common Trees from Central Texas by Amanda Leigh Arrington, Kali James and Jennifer Lauren Moon
An Analysis of Fractured Limb bones Recovered at the Upper Sprague Site (41HM54), Hamilton County, Texas by Sarah Saenz and Becki Shallenberger
From the Upper Sprague Site and Beyond: A Look at the Uniformity and Variability of Archaeological Thermal Features at Late Prehistoric Sites in Central Texas by Arizona Reed and Kris Beach