westward down the trench for seven blocks. At each position, a rectangular bed of yellow mortar was found in the north face of the 1926 wall trench. The last block trace was ca. 30 ft from the east end of the Honore Grenet store north wall. The 1926 wall foundation gradually deepened toward the west, and was probably deep enough beyond the seventh block to destroy traces of any blocks located further west. The postholes apparently associated with this wall line are also at about 10-ft intervals, but are offset to the west of the stone blocks by about eight inches. No examples of these postholes were seen west of Unit EII, but the bottom of the 1926 wall trench was covered with hard-packed rubble and dirt and could have concealed any number of postholes. Because time did not permit more than a very brief examination of the entire trench, a number of features were undoubtedly overlooked.

The postholes associated with the northernmost footing trench were found regularly at about eight-foot intervals, center to center, slightly outside the 1926 wall trench. They were located by shovel tests into the north face of the 1926 trench at measured intervals. The post molds measured five inches in diameter, the postholes (not all of which were discernible) 12 inches. Five postholes were located, including two in Unit EII. An additional post was found four feet west of the last of these northern wall trench posts. This post was three inches in diameter, and had been cut in half vertically by the 1926 wall trench. It extended only 26 inches into the ground, while the 1926 trench in this area was 34 inches deep. If a similar post had been placed every four feet between the larger, deeper-set posts, most of them would have been destroyed by the later trench.

The wall foundation at right angles to the 1926 wall apparently ended at the footing trench line containing the stone blocks, but not at a stone block. It is uncertain whether the east-west trench simply cuts off the end of the north-south wall or whether the two join at that point.

The Artifacts

Numerous artifacts typical of the Spanish occupation in the eighteenth century, the early to middle nineteenth-century military occupations, and the late nineteenth-century commercial establishments on the site were recovered in the archaeological excavations. Detailed descriptions of pottery types and other artifacts found during previous excavations on the Alamo grounds are available in Fox et al. (1976), Greer (1967), and Tunnell (1966). Therefore, a less intensive approach to artifact descriptions is used in this report, concentrating upon unique objects and those important for dating and/or interpretation of the various deposits and features encountered in the excavations.

In the previous description of the excavation units, reference was often made to ceramics or other artifacts as being typical of the eighteenth-century Spanish or nineteenth-century Anglo-American occupations. The following discussion differentiates between artifacts typical of each time period and shows how these have been used to determine dates of the archaeological deposits.

The Spanish Colonial Period

Diagnostic artifacts of the Spanish colonial period are generally dominated by ceramic sherds. Many ceramic vessels were imported by supply train from Mexico. Also imported during the Mission period were copper vessels, religious medals, crucifixes, jewelry, metal knives, scissors, spoons, buttons, and buckles. Some of these articles were brought for use by the Spanish, others for distribution to the Indians.

Indian-made pottery, chert tools, projectile points, and lithic-manufacturing debris are generally plentiful on sites of this period. Fragments of handmade bricks occur throughout the deposits, probably representing a local

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