Conclusions
Mission San Antonio de Valero
Several of the features found during the excavations may be attributed to the earliest days of the mission on this site. The first such feature is the broad, shallow ditch found in the lowest levels of Units EI and EII. This ditch was filled early in the eighteenth century. It is most easily explained as an acequia, or irrigation ditch, which was apparently lined with a hard, white sandy mortar through some of its length. When this ditch is plotted onto a map of the Valero acequia system, it becomes apparent that this acequia was probably an extension of the Acequia Madre West, and probably ran across the present site of the mission and Alamo Plaza, into the Valero acequia, and on into the San Antonio River at about the crossing of Crockett Street. After an indeterminate period of use, this branch was filled, and a stone and adobe building was built across its trace, at an angle different from both the old acequia line and the general plan of the convento complex.
Because these features were found at the edges of more recent major disturbances, their artifact associations are very poor. We are left to construct a chronology based on nothing more than the very few associated artifacts, their relative stratigraphic positions, and a few historical references. The following interpretation, with the reasoning behind it, is proposed.
In his 1727 visit to Mission San Antonio de Valero, Fray Miguel Sevillano de Paredes indicates the Valero acequia system had been begun in 1723, before the last move of the mission site (de Paredes 1727). He makes it quite clear the acequia was considered the most important single project of the mission, one which took precedence over all other construction jobs. Work on the acequia system had been almost continuous for four years when de Paredes inspected it and found not only the main acequia but also the entire system of laterals and subchannels necessary for it to work effectively.
In 1724, a year after the acequia was begun, a windstorm destroyed or damaged many of the buildings at the second mission site. Instead of rebuilding on this site, the missionaries took the opportunity to move to a more convenient site. Construction began on the new site and, by 1727, a new Indian village, convento, and church had been built of temporary materials, and work had begun on the permanent convento buildings.
We suggest the main channel of the acequia was completed by 1724, and the section of acequia found in Unit E and EII was part of this main channel. We further suggest the original line of the main acequia ran diagonally across the area selected as the third site of the mission and, in 1724, the decision was made to put the Indian village in the area that is now the north end of Alamo Plaza. The acequia was rerouted into a short loop, which ran down through this new village site within the present line of the west wall of the later mission compound. The portion of the original channel which ran through the new mission site was filled, and the temporary missionaries' houses were built in the area north of the present convento complex. These houses were later torn down when the convento was completed and the area north of it was needed for the usual workrooms attached to the convento. This reasoning indicates the stone and adobe structure found in Unit EII was part of the original temporary convento structures built on this third site of the mission. The adobe structure found in the center of the well courtyard in 1966 may have been a shed built in 1724-1727, or it may have been part of the jacal church used after 1724.