74 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1947 



5 others has been recommended. A preliminary report on the Buggs 

 Island Reservoir was completed but had not been processed for dis- 

 tribution at the end of the fiscal year. 



Texas. — River Basin Surveys were started in Texas in March 1947 

 when, through the kindness and cooperation of the authorities, a field 

 base and headquarters were established at the Department of Anthro- 

 pology of the University of Texas at Austin. A survey of the Addicks 

 Reservoir on South Mayde Creek, a tributary of Buffalo Bayou, 

 near Houston, got under way March 27 and was still in progress at the 

 close of the fiscal year. The Addicks project is not a reservoir in the 

 true sense of the word, but a flood-prevention dam which will not 

 retain water in its basin for more than 2 or 3 weeks at a time. As 

 a consequence, most of the sites located in the basin will be available 

 for study or excavation during most of the year. A series of nine 

 sites were found, however, which w^ere being destroyed by stream ac- 

 tion, by construction work on the dam, or by indiscriminate and unau- 

 thorized digging. As a consequence, it was necessary to shift from a 

 reconnaissance type of survey to an intensive testing procedure to 

 salvage as much information as possible. Six of them were examined 

 by digging a number of test pits in various portions of the areas which 

 they covered, and subsequently two of the six were extensively excava- 

 ted. The cooperation of the district engineer. Col. D. W. Griffiths, in 

 supplying a crew of 10 men and a foreman for a period of several 

 weeks made these excavations possible. One of the excavated sites 

 consisted of a stratified midden containing a sequence of several cul- 

 tural horizons. Work on the site was started on May 29 and completed 

 on June 13. The second was started on June 16 and was still being 

 dug at the end of the fiscal year. The information and material from 

 these two sites will provide a fairly complete sequence showing the 

 development of aboriginal culture in this area over a comparatively 

 long period of time. During this period, the Indians progressed from 

 a simple hunting group to a sedentary agricultural and pottery- 

 making people. The data obtained are a significant contribution to the 

 hitherto little-known pre-Columbian history of this part of Texas. 



The Hords Creek Reservoir on Hords Creek, near Coleman, was sur- 

 veyed during the period May 6 to May 17, 1947. Only eight sites 

 were found in the reservoir basin. Six of them were burned rock 

 middens and two were open camp sites. None gave indication of 

 being of sufficient importance to warrant further investigation. Com- 

 parable material is available elsewhere in locations which will not be 

 inundated. Unless construction work should reveal subsurface de- 

 posits of archeological material, no additional work will be required 

 in this reservoir. 



The Whitney Dam area on the Brazos River north of Waco was 

 started on May 20 and was still in progress at the end of the fiscal 



