Current Research: USA - Southwest
Reported by Michael Polk
sageb@sagebrushconsultants.com
(Spring 2008 SHA Newsletter 40[4])
Arizona
San Agustín Mission in Tucson (submitted by Homer Thiel, Desert Research):
Archaeological excavations at the San Agustín Mission took place from March through July 2007 under the direction of Michael Brack of Desert Archaeology, Inc. The mission was established at the O’odham village of Shuk-shon (later, Tucson) in 1700, with a chapel completed in 1771 and other buildings completed in the early 1800s. The site was largely abandoned by the 1840s. Work was focused outside the west compound wall where a mission-era O’odham house was located. The subrectangular foundation pit contained mission-era trash, including smashed cattle bone and Native American pottery. A nearby midden area yielded pieces from an Aranama polychrome majolica plate or bowl, animal bone, and an O’odham or Pima effigy vessel of a squatting human female. A protohistoric cemetery area was found to the south of the mission complex, with burials typically interred in flexed positions with no associated artifacts.
Territorial-era features were also present, including two wells associated with Leopoldo Carrillo’s house, built in the late 1860s from materials borrowed from mission buildings. The older well was unlined and had collapsed inwards during use. As part of the filling event, 11 cattle skulls were tossed in, with a large number of rocks capping the skulls. A replacement well was lined with handmade fired bricks and yielded a variety of domestic trash associated with the Carrillo family, who were well-to-do.
Among the items were a coffee grinder, window glass, and tablewares. Work in the nearby mission gardens located two buildings visible in photographs from the 1880s and 1890s, along with smaller sets of artifacts, perhaps the most important being an American-style plowshare.
The city of Tucson is planning to rebuild the mission complex and Carrillo House as part of the Origins Cultural Parks. One aspect of the construction was the need to remove a landfill placed on the mission
site in the 1950s. A representative sample of artifacts was collected during the removal of the material, with some of these items slated for exhibit within the park.
Court Street Cemetery in Tucson was established in 1875 and remained in use until June 1909. During this period at least 4,600 burials were placed in the Catholic portion of the cemetery, which encompassed four city blocks. An unknown number of burials were interred in the other half, which included Protestant, Jewish, veterans, and fraternal order parcels. The cemetery land was developed for residential and commercial use in the 1910s. Efforts to remove the burials were focused on the wealthy and those with families in the community. It is likely that thousands were left in place. Two recent projects recovered burials from the Catholic portion of the cemetery.
In June 2005, a homeowner on Perry Avenue located a burial while replacing a mailbox. An adult male was excavated by John McLelland and Lane Beck of the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, and Homer Thiel of Desert Archaeology, Inc. The individual was aged 22-to-26 years at death, with indications of meningitis or soft tissue inflammation inside his skull, probably representing the cause of his death. He was buried wearing a shirt, suspenders, and pants.
In October 2007, a sinkhole opened in the city of Tucson’s right-of-way on the property across the street. The discovery of coffin wood and bone led to the excavation of the burial shaft by Homer Thiel and Susan Hall of Desert Archaeology and Jennifer Hushour and Michael Margolis of Tierra Right-of-Way Services. Two coffins were present. The top one contained a child aged 3-to-5 years old at death. Buttons indicate the child was wearing a dress and that other clothing was used as a pillow and had been stuffed into the foot area of the coffin, perhaps to prevent the body from shifting as the coffin was moved. Beneath this burial was a second coffin containing a male, aged 25-to-35 years old. Clothing remains indicate he was wearing a cotton shirt, a brown wool jacket, suspenders, and pants. Surprising finds included a rubber comb and three coins (the most recent dated 1886) in his right pocket, and a change purse and jackknife in his left jacket pocket. The two coffins had nearly identical hardware and decorations, and it is believed the burials were made at the same time. The landowner had previously contacted Desert Archaeology after finding a pit filled with embalming fluid, shoe polish, soda, and alcoholic beverage bottles on a neighbor’s property, south of the cemetery. These items were likely discarded by a local funeral home.
