National Register Testing At 41TT896 And 41TT906 And Archeological Survey Of Three Parcels, FM 1000 Realignment Project (CSJ No. 1226-04-001), Titus County, Texas

• Main Authors: Burden, Damon A, Katauskas, Stephanie L, Fields, Ross C
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: SFA ScholarWorks 2012
• Subjects: Texas; Archaeology; Titus County; American Material Culture; American Studies; Anthropology; Archaeological Anthropology; Environmental Studies; History; History of Art; Architecture; and Archaeology; Other American Studies; Other Arts and Humanities; Other History of Art; United States History; Austin; Titus; Archeological Survey
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2012/iss1/40; https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4652&context=ita

Prewitt and Associates, Inc., was contracted by PTP Transportation, LLC, to perform archeological investigations for Titus County in the proposed final alignment of FM 1000. The work, performed under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 5998, consisted of archeological test excavations at sites 41TT896 and 41TT906 to assess their eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and designation as State Archeological Landmarks and archeological survey of three parcels. Fieldwork was done in July–August 2011, January–February 2012, and July 2012 and required about 99 person-days of effort. Test excavations at 41TT896 consisted of 23 backhoe trenches, eight 1x1-m test units, and 13 shovel tests. This effort revealed low-density scatters of prehistoric chipped stone artifacts and twentieth-century historic artifacts, along with a single historic feature. No prehistoric cultural features were identified. Recovered projectile points and the absence of prehistoric ceramics suggest that the prehistoric component dates to the Late Archaic period. The historic component relates to a farm complex outside the project area. Neither component at 41TT896 has the capacity to contribute important information, and thus the site is ineligible for National Register listing or State Archeological Landmark designation. Test excavations at 41TT906 consisted of 15 backhoe trenches and four 1x1-m test units; the final task consisted of mechanically scraping 1,864 m2 of the site to ensure that no Native American burials were present. These efforts revealed a lowdensity scatter of prehistoric chipped stone artifacts and ceramics and a single disturbed burned rock feature representing sparse Late Caddo, Archaic, and perhaps late Paleoindian components. The investigated part of 41TT906 has no capacity to contribute important information and thus is ineligible for National Register listing or State Archeological Landmark designation. Investigation of Survey Areas 1–3 included the excavation of 50 shovel tests across 13 acres. No archeological sites were identified in Survey Areas 1 or 2. A historic-age residential structure in Survey Area 2 was moved onto the property in the 1960s–1970s; it does not possess integrity of place or materials and is not eligible for listing in the National Register. Historic site 41TT918 was identified in Survey Area 3. It consists of a historic scatter that represents outbuildings associated with a twentieth-century farmstead located outside the project area to the southeast. It has no capacity to contribute important information and thus is ineligible for National Register listing or State Archeological Landmark designation. All artifacts and records generated by this project are curated at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin.