Excavations Continue at the Alamo

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS—San Antonio Express-News reports that several types of ceramics and earthenware, an intact glass bottle, gunflints, two musket balls, and a section of stone perimeter wall were unearthed in the Long Barracks area of the Alamo during recent excavations. The ceramics included imported Spanish colonial pieces and Goliad Ware, which local people made from readily available materials during the Spanish colonial period. Debris from making stone tools was also recovered. Although the fortress had been built in the eighteenth century by Roman Catholic missionaries, it later became a military site embroiled in the Texas Revolution. On March 6, 1836, the Mexican Army under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna defeated Texan forces occupying the fort, in what became known as the Battle of the Alamo. To read about Texas' Indigenous history, go to "Letter From Texas: On the Range."