Ancient burial site possibly discovered
Worker at Round Rock subdivision project finds remains; KB Home vows to work with authorities.
ROUND ROCK — Construction workers have found what appears to be an ancient American Indian burial ground while building roads for a new subdivision on the east edge of Round Rock.
A construction worker found human bones earlier this week southwest of U.S. 79 and Red Bud Lane in an undeveloped subdivision owned by KB Home developers. Round Rock police were notified Friday.
They sent photos of the bones to an FBI anthropologist who is “quite certain that they are ancient remains,” said Cmdr. Alain Babin of the Round Rock Police Department. He said the bones were found in a place where people often go arrowhead hunting.
Anthropologists from Texas State University were on their way to the wooded area late Friday afternoon, police said.
John Zinsmeyer, the vice president of planning and development for KB Home, said he didn’t want to speculate about what the company would do if the bones turn out to be ancient American Indian remains.
“We are going to work with authorities to do the right thing, and that is to be determined,” he said.
KB Home is developing a 225-home subdivision called Forest Grove in the area, he
said. Construction crews just started the grading work for roads in the subdivision a few weeks ago, Zinsmeyer said.
Determining the origin of the bones is a delicate process, said University of Texas anthropology professor Mariah Wade.
“It’s tricky business,” she said. “There shouldn’t be any digging until the right people have been contacted.”
An anthropologist should be the first contact, she said. Judging by the appearance of the bones, an anthropologist can determine roughly how long they’ve been in the ground.
Next, the anthropologist will try to identify any artifacts that might be found with the bones and determine whether those artifacts are associated with Native Americans, and if they can be narrowed down to a particular tribe. If so, Wade explained, any present-day members of the tribe should be contacted so the remains can be appropriately handled based on that group’s customs.
Wade said it would be very difficult to determine if the remains are Native American, but immediate clues could be the shape of the cranium and of the teeth.
“In terms of which group, you almost can take your pick,” she said. “But the time period is crucial.”
Central Texas has been home to a gamut of Native American groups, including Tonkawa, Apache and Comanche tribes.
Wade said this particular area outside of Round Rock was used for gatherings by many Native American groups in the early 1700s. A trade fair was held there in May 1716 during the Domingo Ramón expedition — an entourage of soldiers, priests and civilians crossing the territory to re-establish a Spanish presence in East Texas — and the gathering included the Mescale and Ervipiame Indians, she said.
If ancient American Indian remains are found on private land, the landowner must either pre- serve the site or have a professional, such as a licensed funeral director, a coroner or a professional archaeologist, remove them, state law requires.
Remains that have been moved must be reburied in a perpetual care cemetery unless a judge, medical examiner or other official orders otherwise.
Discoveries of such remains can delay construction projects, sometimes considerably. When crews found an ancient Native American burial site in 2012 while building a northern Houston toll road, a district judge ruled that the Texas Department of Transportation could exhume the remains. But after protests from American Indian groups, the agency reached an agreement with six tribal governments and the Harris County Historical Commission to keep the remains in the ground and continue the road construction without changing the route.