Acequias, Battlefields, And Missions, Oh My!: The Complexity Of Doing Urban Archaeology In San Antonio, Texas

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From the Famed to the Forgotten: Exploring San Antonio’s Storied History Through Urban Archeology" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Under the San Antonio skyline lies buried a complex history of struggle. From military installations to missions and homesteading to subjugation, San Antonio offers urban archaeologists a variety of resources to discover, investigate, and share with the public. Projects in San Antonio can fall under multiple lines of regulatory compliance, which can sometimes result in unique and complex investigations for new development. The vast amount of background information can be a great help to archaeologists but can also create complications as urban archaeologists balance archival research (and curiosity) with project schedules and client demands. Conflicting data, layers of mapped resources, and undocumented histories of underrepresented populations in San Antonio only add to the complications of truly knowing what lies below the current city footprint. This presentation will touch upon the complexities and discuss recent project examples to demonstrate the diversity of urban archeology in San Antonio.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From the Famed to the Forgotten: Exploring San Antonio’s Storied History Through Urban Archeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology