2001 TAS Field School at Gault

TAS members were assigned to one of four groups: Gault excavations, survey, site testing, or the field lab. Each group had specific goals to try to reach by week's end. The survey group had permission to do a preliminary site survey on more than 5000 acres of privately-held land in the Lampasas River valley. The area had few previously recorded sites, but was thought to be rich in archeological sites. In addition, the survey crew served as roving ambassadors for archeology as local landowners have been badly burned by looting and are suspicious of anyone who expresses an interest in the sites. The surveyors not only recorded 31 sites, but also got rave reviews from the local landowners, several of whom have expressed interest in learning more about the cultural histories of their land.

The site testing crews worked at the nearby Bowmer (41BL116) site, a prehistoric open campsite as well as 3 additional nearby sites with unknown components. Bowmer, like Gault, is an ongoing excavation project with a small group of staff and volunteers. The influx of labor enabled them to get a tremendous amount of new work done on Archaic and Late Prehistoric components of the site.

The bulk of the TAS volunteers worked side-by-side with the professional staff at the Gault site. More than 45 additional one-meter square units were opened and more than 180 bags of artifacts recovered. Quantities of megafaunal bone, projectile points, and bifaces were among the notable artifacts as well as two more of the signature Gault incised stones, which may prove to be among the earliest portable art in the Americas.

A small dedicated crew set up and maintained a field laboratory at the base camp that processed (washed and sorted) materials coming in from the field. Even with the large quantities of artifacts being brought in each day, the lab crew managed to process three-quarters of the incoming materials by week's end.

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The week's accomplishments were dampened by the early morning assault on our base camp and the archeological sites by the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison. Apparently, the Gault site was near the center of a highly localized storm cell that dumped more than 5" of rain within a few short hours. Most field school participants were spared the sight of the muddy pools of water that just the day before had been neat excavation pits. While Field School Principal Investigator Mike Collins was distraught over the damage done to the site, he realized that the muddy morass before him represented exactly the same kind of process that had created the Clovis-age deposits in the first place. Thwarted by the rain, field school particpants could do litle more than finish up paperwork and process more material in the lab. Afterward, the Texas Archeological Society members broke camp and headed for home.

The 2001 TAS field school was awarded an Explorer's Club Flag (#99) for the week. The Explorer's Club is an international multidisciplinary society dedicated to the advancement of field research and scientific exploration. TAS members were thrilled to find that flag #99 had gone to the South Pole with Admiral Byrd!

2001 TAS Field School Photo Gallery

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