Underwater Archaeology at 41HY147, the Terrace Locality at Spring Lake

Abstract

Underwater investigations conducted at Spring Lake in the 1970s and 1980s by the late Dr. Joel Shiner contributed to our overall understanding of the archaeological record in Central Texas and its relationship to prehistory in North America. His work not only produced abundant evidence for early Paleoindian occupations associated with freshwater spring sites but also helped to demonstrate a nearly continuous sequence of occupation spanning more than 13,000 years, from Clovis times through the Spanish Colonial era and into the historic period. Using field notes and correspondences held in the records and collections repository at the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University-San Marcos, we reconstruct a history of Shiner’s work at the lake and present new analytic data about the temporally diagnostic artifacts comprising the 41HY147 collection. Results are discussed in the context of regional findings elsewhere. In addition to detailed descriptions of this collection, we have given special attention to preparing high quality illustrations of many of these artifacts, most of which are presented to the public for the first time in this report. Publication of the findings from this early research at Spring Lake illustrates the significance of this site in the cultural landscape, and provides a sound basis for the ongoing and future scientific investigations here. The report was undertaken as an alternative mitigation measure to help offset potentially unavoidable impacts to important cultural resources at Spring Lake that may have occurred as part of the recently completed Section 206 aquatic ecosystem restoration project at the headwaters of the San Marcos River conducted jointly by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Texas State University.