Excavations at the Alamo Shrine [page 19]

Excavations in the area of the gate by Fox and Bass have sampled the old trash dump, providing a collection of artifacts dating from both the mission period and from subsequent Mexican and Anglo-Texan periods of occupation. In addition, remnants of what appear to have been a fortification ditch were found outside of the wall gate, just to the south; they probably date to the battle of 1836. A number of musket balls of this period were found in the bottom of the ditch, which tends to support this conclusion.

In January 1977, Anne A. Fox monitored backhoe trenching in front of the Long Barracks (the old convento); the work as sponsored by the City as part of the Alamo Plaza repaving project. The trench was dug parallel with and just out from the front wall of the building, and extended nearly the length of the structures. In addition, a trench was dug perpendicular to the building wall to observe the foundation (Fig. 7,f). The results of this inspection indicate that the present restored wall of the Long Barracks sits upon the original convento wall. The ground level at the time of the restoration lies about 50 cm below the present street level. The original wall footing, which is constructed of large, roughly formed limestone blocks, is typical of Spanish construction. Upon the footing are the remains of a wall of cut limestone blocks rising approximately 65 cm high. Apparently this is all that remains of the original convento wall, and upon this the modern wall was constructed.

More recently (1979-80), excavations were conducted on Alamo grounds by Anne Fox where remnants of the original north patio wall were located. In addition, excavations by James Ivey on the west side of Alamo Plaza uncovered a section of the old mission quadrangle west wall and rooms. Reports on these excavations are currently in preparation.