Trash and Treasure

Moore Street Historic Site

Archaeology is often a matter of analyzing other people's trash, especially when the site being excavated is a midden! The bottles from this collection were excavated on the Texas State University campus during a construction project. Whenever construction happens on campus, or on any state or federally owned land, archaeologists are required to investigate prior to the construction and to monitor during the process. In this case, what was found was a trash dump filled with bottles, dating to the mid-Twentieth Century, at a time when the land was part of the San Marcos Baptist Academy. 

In order to determine the age of the trash midden, a sample of 53 glass bottles and jars was collected. The range of dates for manufacture of identifiable maker’s marks on the glass falls between the 1930s and 1960s. Additionally, a stamped aluminum souvenir coin was recovered in backdirt just outside the trench. Upon close inspection, the coin was stamped with the name M C Enfield. A search through San Marcos Baptist Academy attendance records showed a Morris Conrad Enfield to have been enrolled from 1949 to 1956.