El Camino Real de los Tejas NHT Association

At 12:30, Antonio Padilla from EComm will give a lecture about the archaeological investigations along the San Antonio River improvement project’s Mission Reach.  During the months of September through December 2008, archaeologists from Ecological Communications Corporation (EComm) conducted investigations of two sites along the San Antonio River, 41BX254 and 41BX256. These sites span over 8000 years of history - representing the oldest cultural materials identified along the river.  An overview of work conducted and what was found pertaining to cultural components will be given.

http://ecommcorporation.com/index.php

At 2:30pm, Cisi Jary from Restoration Associates will speak. The subject will be “Artwork in the Missions," and she will discuss the methodology used for painting the frescoes in the missions, the interior plaster finishes, the drawings and the transfer method, the pigments and how and where experts think these liturgical symbols were taught to the mission inhabitants.

For some wonderful photos of the work, visit http://www.restorationassociates.com/concepcion.htm.  

Lectures will be held in the Visitor Center. We will also be showing the San Antonio vignette of the upcoming Ken Burns documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” which highlights the archaeology being done at Rancho de las Cabras, as well as scenes from the missions and community. 

We are still accepting submissions for our poster session. If you have research you would like to share, we would love to see it! Contact me for details.  

Family oriented hands-on activities are offered throughout the day. Make and take crafts, decorate a  rock art wall, learn to build an arch,  sift through a mock dig to find artifacts, and witness the ancient skills of flint-knapping and throwing an atlatl. You can also learn why it is important to protect these and other historic and pre-historic sites from looting, vandalism, and destruction.  The hours are 10:00am-3:00pm and the mission is located at 6701 San Jose Drive, San Antonio, TX. Patches will be given to the first 300 kids who complete the Jr Ranger activity for the day. And don’t forget the best part- it is FREE!!

Contact: 

Lynn Yakubik

UTSA CAR Legacy Program

http://car.utsa.edu

(210) 458-4462

Our Annual meeting will take place on October 16, 2009 in Castroville, Texas.  The Board meeting will take place from 8:30 - noon and the General meeting will run from 1:15 - 4:30.  This is an open meeting, so members are encouraged to attend any portion of the meeting that they wish. 

Also, there will be a breakfast available at the meeting from 8:00 - 8:30.  There is a $2.00 registration fee payable at the event if you would like to have breakfast.  If you would like to attend the breakfast, please contact stevenegonzales@msn.com in order to register.

Hope to see you all there.