期刊名称：Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State
印刷版ISSN：2475-9333
出版年度：2008
卷号：2008
期号：1
页码：19
出版社：Stephen F. Austin State University
摘要：Data recovery excavations at the Varga Site were conducted in two phases during 2002 by archeologists from the Cultural Resources Department of TRC Environmental Corporation’s (TRC’s) Austin office under contract to Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Scientific Service Contract No. 572XXSA004. This mitigation program was necessitated by the proposed reconstruction of the crossing of a Ranch to Market Road over Hackberry Creek, immediately south of the site in northeastern Edwards County. These archeological investigations were conducted as part of the responsibilities of TxDOT under existing federal and state legislation for the protection of cultural resources. Geoarcheological trenching and hand-excavations within the existing 31 m wide road right-of-way of 7- m-wide paved Ranch to Market Road focused on the alluvial fines in the first terrace overlooking Hackberry Creek immediately adjacent to a spring. The southern edge of the terrace contains relatively fine-grained sediments ranging from 15 to 150 centimeter (cm) thick that overlie coarse stream gravels that extend to an unknown depth. The modern ground surface had been impacted by road construction and maintenance activities, as well as by light erosion. Block Excavations were conducted on both sides of the pavement and resulted in the hand-excavations of a total of 207.75 square meters (m2), including 83 m2 (66.2 m3) in Block A on the western side and a 124.75 m2 (38.26 m3) area in Block B on the eastern side. Archeological deposits in the investigated part of the site extend to the southern lip of the first terrace and extend about 50 m to the north. The excavations yielded evidence of a multiple component campsite with three distinct and a fourth less distinct prehistoric components. In Block A, the 100 to 150 cm thick fine-grained sediments yielded four intact cultural components. Block B only targeted the youngest, Toyah component. The fine-grained alluvial sediments that comprise the first terrace contain discrete occupations radiocarbon dated to the Late Prehistoric period Toyah phase (ca. 290 to 660 B.P.), the Late Archaic period (ca. 1,700 to 2,300 B.P.), and the Early Archaic period (ca. 5,200 to 6,300 B.P.). A Middle Archaic period (ca. 3,900 to 4,800 B.P.) component was also recognized, but was not as clearly defined as were the other three components. Krotovina disturbance was relatively extensive in parts of the investigated site area. Nevertheless, the archeological deposits exhibited a high degree of contextual integrity. The Toyah phase component contains a rich assemblage of
