Society Activities

Texas Archeology Academy

Curriculum Outline
Texas Archeology Academies

Curriculum for Historical Archeology Academy

(reproduced from Historical Archeology Manual Table of Contents
authored by Joan Few)

1.  Introduction to Historical Archeology

1) What is Historical Archeology?
2) What is material culture?
3) What assumptions should be made in Historical Archeology?
4) What research questions should be included?
    Figure 1 - Stylistic Sequence from a Cemetery in Stoneham
5) What questions do archeologists want to answer?
6) What is the history of American archeology?
7) Readings in Historical Archeology

2.  Recognizing Patterns in Historical Archeology

1) What do archeologists assume about patterns?
2) What is an artifact pattern?
3) What is context?
4) Using Patterns to Interpret the Past
    Figure 1 - Site Artifact Pattern for Lake Jackson
    Figure 2 - Structures at the Lake Jackson site
    Figure 3 - Artifact Patterns by Structures
    Figure 4 - Clothing, Personal, and Ceramic Groups
    Figure 5 - Arms and Furniture Artifact Groups
    Figure 6 - Structure D
    Figure 7 - Artifacts within Structure D
5) What is a site pattern?

3.  Historic Archeology in Texas

1) European Colonization
    Figure 1 - Routes of the early European explorers in and around North America
    Figure 2 - Spanish Musketeer of the 16th Century
2) Spanish and French Exploration of the Texas Gulf Coast
    Figure 3 - 1776 Map of a Spanish Settlement on Lake Miller
    Figure 4 - French Fort Pattern, Champ d' Asile
    Figure 5 - Map of Rancho De Las Cabras
3) The American Colonial Period
4) Antebellum Texas Agriculture
5) Glorianna Plantation: A Small Uplands Texas Plantation
    Figure 6 - Slave Holders in Texas 1850
    Figure 7 - Glorianna Blueprint - Site Pattern
    Figure 8 - Artifact Pattern 41JP94
    Figure 9 - Artifact Pattern Comparison between Glorianna and Lake Jackson Plantations
6) Slave and Freedman History

4.  Urban Archeology

1) Darragh House, Galveston (41GV98)
    Figure 1 - Darragh House
2) Early Galveston History
    Figure 2 - 1816 Map of Galveston
3) Galveston Between 1840 and 1960
    Figure 3 - Division of Blocks into Lots in Warehouse District
    Figure 4 - Division of Blocks into Lots in Residential and Business Galveston
    Figure 5 - Map Showing Changes Made by 1900 Storm
    Figure 6 - The Raising of Galveston
4) Darragh House Excavations: Lots 8 and 9 on Block 435, Galveston
    Figure 7 - Map Showing Galveston and the Darragh House Location
5) History of the Darragh Family
    Figure 8 - Darragh House Fence Design
6) Excavation Method
    Figure 9 - Chain of Title
    Figure 10 - Darragh House Excavation Plan
7) 1888 to the Present
    Figure 11 - North Wall Profile of Unit 7W/11N
    Figure 12 - West Wall Profile of Unit 15W/4N
    Figure 13 - 1889 Sanborn Insurance Map
    Figure 14 - Changes in Site Plan
    Figure 15 - 15W/38N South Wall Profile
8) 20th Century Artifact Pattern
    Figure 16 - 20th Century Artifact Pattern for Levels 1-7
    Figure 17 - Artifact Distribution by Levels
    Figure 18 - Yellow Brick Foundation under Oymer Drive
    Figure 19 - 1871 Sanborn Map of Darragh House
9) Middle Nineteenth Century Galveston Pattern
    Figure 20 - Middle Nineteenth Century Galveston Pattern, Levels 18-20
    Figure 21 - Artifact Distribution for Levels 18-20
    Figure 22 - Artifact Distribution for Levels 21-28
    Figure 23 - Artifact Patterns for Three Levels of 41GV98
    Figure 24 - Mystery artifact
    Figure 25 - Mystery artifact
10) Bibliography for Chapter 4

5.  Excavations in Historic Archeology

1) Planning an Excavation
2) Research Questions at 41B0172: Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark
3) Is excavation different in historic archeology?
    Figure 1 - Making a perfect square yard excavation unit
    Figure 2 - Reading a Civil Engineers Stadia Rod
    Figure 3 - Reading the Stadia Rod through the Transit
4) How To Fill Out Level Forms
    Figure 4 - Level Form
    Figure 5 - Piece Plotting
5) Oral History in Your Research Plan

6.  Lab and Curation

1) Introduction
2) Recommendations
    (1) Artifact cleaning
    (2) Artifact labeling
    (3) Storage
    (4) Documentation
    (5) Conservation
    (6) Curation Facility
    (7) Deaccessioning
    (8) Human Remains
3) Conservation Treatments

7.  Artifacts

1) Kitchen Artifacts Group
    Ceramic Identification
    Figure 1 - Blue Willow Pattern
    Figure 2 - A flow blue transfer pattern
    Figure 3 - Page 254, 1861, Texas Almanac
    Figure 4 - Cup, cup plate, and saucer forms
    Figure 5 - Other hollow teaware and toiletware forms
    Figure 6 - Plate, soup plate, platter, and dish forms
    Figure 7 - Parts of a plate or platter and parts of a cup or bowl
    Bottle Identification
2) Bone Artifact Group
3) Architectural Group
    Log Cabins
    Figure 8 - Log Cabin Identification
    Figure 9 - Ruins of a log cabin
    Figure 10 - Saddle Notches
    Figure 11 - Dove Tail Notches
    Figure 12 - Square Notching
    Figure 13 - Log Building Floor Plans
    Window Glass
    Figure 14 - Window glass dates from Glenwood Quarters
    Figure 15 - Measuring Window Glass with a Vernier Caliper
    Figure 16 - Window Glass Thickness
    Nails
    Figure 17 - Nails by Size and Head Type
4) Furniture Group III
    Patent Date Information
5) Clothing Artifact Group
    Buttons
    Figure 18 - Button Manufacture/Use Dates
6) Personal Artifacts
7) Activity Artifacts
    Barbed Wire
    Figure 19 - Examples of Barbed Wire Types
    Figure 20 - Barbed Wire in Sears Catalogue
    Tools
    Figure 21 - Tools on Log Cabin Wall
    Figure 22 - Tools on a Dog Trot Wall
8) Miscellaneous Artifact Group

8.  Appendices

A) Table of Contents, The Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Vol. 63, 1992
B) The Adventures of a French Captain, At Present a Planter in Texas,
    Formerly a Refugee of Camp Asylum, by Girard Roy Just
C) From Page 61, The Adventures of a French Captain, At Present a Planter in
    Texas, Formerly a Refugee of Camp Asylum, by Girard Roy Just
D) A Comparison of the Ceramic Assemblages of Five Nineteenth Century
    Texas Sites Using Classification by Decoration, Joan Few
E) The 1818 Diary of Sean Casey
F) The China Cabinet at the Jackson Plantation: Ceramic Analysis from the
    Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark Site (41BO172), Sandra D. Pollan
G) Log Cabin Restoration
H) Nail Chronology as an aid to dating old buildings, Lee H. Nelson
I) The Williams Buck Homestead (41WM272)
J) An Overview of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Buttons by Juliann C. Pool
K) Antique Farm Equipment: researching and identifying, by Robert C. Williams
L) Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark (41BO172): Report of
    the 1994 and 1995 Texas Archeological Society Field Schools and
    Additional 1996-1998 Excavations, by Joan Few TAS Bulletin Vol. 70
M) The Vertebrates from Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark,
     by W. L. McClure, TAS Bulletin, Vol. 70
N) "If Buttons Could Talk....." (The Analysis of the Lake Jackson
    Plantation Buttons) by Juliann Pool, From the Final Report of Research
    and Excavation at the Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark,
    Lake Jackson Texas, 41B0172, Between 1991 and 1996, Under Antiquities
    Permit 1072. Chapter 15