You just don't rifle through another man's trash, except maybe if it's for science.

A two-month excavation of a block of North Presa Street by CPS Energy, a project intended to provide more power to downtown, has yielded artifacts of what archeologists are saying is the rubbish of the family of one of Bexar County's early surveyors.

“To us trash is interesting, because we get to see what kind of lifestyle they lived,” said Kristi M. Ulrich, project archaeologist and research scientist associate at UTSA's Center for Archaeological Research.

The artifacts found below North Presa Street, between Commerce and Crockett, are believed to have belonged to John James, who held the titles of assistant surveyor and then chief surveyor of Bexar County in the mid-1800s.

UTSA archeologists collected about 500 items from the site, including ceramics fragments, a perfume bottle, a beer bottle, an apothecary bottle, meat bones and oyster shells. At first glance, Ulrich said, she knew the items must have belonged to prominent family. Oysters, for example, were hard to come by here.

According to “The Handbook of Texas,” James, who was British, arrived in San Antonio in 1837, a year after the Texas Revolution ended, and soon started working for the county. James reestablished the city's boundaries after Mexican forces controlled San Antonio for about a week and a half in 1842. He also surveyed and platted Castroville, Boerne and Bandera. Through deed records and dating of artifacts, archeologists determined the items must have come from James' homestead, which had an address on Commerce.

The excavation, which has kept the block of North Presa Street closed since June, is part of a project by CPS Energy for the installation of transformer vaults, which will help meet a higher demand for power downtown. For example, the Home2Suites hotel, in the old South Texas Building at 603 Navarro St., is scheduled to open Sept. 15.

“CPS is basically making sure there is plenty of energy for the demand,” said Albert Cantu, communications analyst with CPS Energy.

CPS Energy has scheduled the street to reopen to traffic by Aug. 26, although the street may be closed weeks after for work inside the vaults.