For Immediate Release -
10/13/2010
Surprising Discoveries Shed New Light on Presidio's Past
Finds at El Polin Spring Offer Clues About Presidio Early Life
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Presidio of San Francisco
(October 13, 2010) -- Presidio Trust archaeologists working on the
revitalization project at El Polin Spring have made two startling
discoveries that shed new light on San Francisco’s earliest settlements.
Working with teams from Sonoma State University, crews recently
unearthed what they’re calling a “dairy box,” a sort of primitive
refrigerator, and a kiln.
“These discoveries suggest a bigger
settlement,” says Kari Jones, an archaeologist with the Trust. “It was
more than just a residential settlement, there was a work area, an
industrial production area as well.”
The two were discovered on
opposite sides of MacArthur Avenue, in an area known for its abundance
of archaeological artifacts; and where, in 2003, Stanford University
researchers unearthed the foundations of an adobe residence believed to
have been occupied nearly 200 years ago by the family of Juana Briones,
who would become one of the area’s most prominent women of the time and a
founding resident of the pueblo of Yerba Buena—the settlement that
would become San Francisco. Still the latest discoveries came as a
complete surprise to archaeologists.
“We knew the house was out
here,” says Jones, pointing to a slightly discolored patch of grass
beneath which the foundation is buried. “But this (the dairy box) was a
total shock.”
Neither the dairy box nor the kiln had shown up on
any of several geophysical surveys of the area. Crews were searching for
a place to daylight an underground stream on the east side of the
street, about a half-block north of where the house was discovered, when
they made their unexpected find.
“We were basically clearing a
path to confirm what the surveys told us, which was that there wouldn’t
be anything there,” says Jones. “We had no idea, absolutely no idea, it
was here.”
Dating to the early 1800s, the dairy box was buried
less than 16 inches below the surface. Measuring eight and a half feet
long by almost eight feet wide, it’s believed the box was used as a kind
of refrigerator—a way to store perishables with no ice or refrigeration
available. Set in the middle of the stream, the box would fill with
water, keeping the milk, meat, eggs and other items inside cooler.
Plans
are to ultimately reuse the dairy box in some way, incorporating it
into the effort to revitalize El Polin Spring, and using it to engage
the public.
“We think this is a good place to interpret cultural
and natural history together,” says Jones. “We want to use the area as a
sort of outdoor classroom where we can talk about family life in the
Spanish colonial period. And I think it’s important to have this feature
exposed as part of whatever we do out here. So often as archaeologists
what we do is find something, document it, take pictures and then we
bury it. Nobody actually sees it and understands exactly what we’re
talking about. There’s a big difference between me telling someone about
this and showing them pictures and them actually seeing it.”
The
box itself was constructed of repurposed or broken ladrillos
(floor tiles) and tejas (roof tiles). Conventional wisdom has
held that the clay tiles were all made at Mission Dolores. But the
mission was located several miles away and archaeologists have
questioned whether settlers actually carted tiles, which could be quite
heavy, such a great distance.
The discovery of the kiln across
the street from the dairy box may lay that mystery to rest. Made of
adobe bricks, the kiln would have been used to fire clay tiles, like
those used in the dairy box, and perhaps pottery.
While not a
complete shock, like the discovery of the dairy box, archaeologists were
surprised by the find. Researchers had been digging at the site of a
previous excavation when they found the kiln roughly two feet below the
surface. The earlier excavation, in 2004, had found a soil type
indicative of the Spanish colonial presence. Following that trail of
soil led archaeologists to what is believed to be the first
archaeological evidence of a Spanish colonial kiln in California.
The
Presidio Trust was established by the United States Congress in
1996 to administer the Presidio of San Francisco, an urban national park
that is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is located
at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. The areas overseen by the Trust
include expansive open space and spectacular views, a 300-acre historic
forest, and rare and endangered plants and wildlife. The National Park
Service oversees the coastal areas of the Presidio. The park comprises
nearly 6 million square feet of buildings, including 469 historic
structures that contribute to the Presidio's status as a National
Historic Landmark District.