Dear HISTARCHers,

On Monday June 20 – Friday June 24, Stanford University in partnership with
the Presidio Trust and the National Park Service are holding a week-long
archaeology event at the Presidio of San Francisco. Called “After the Dig,”
the event provides an opportunity for the visiting public to meet and talk
with archaeologists who are doing laboratory analysis on recovered
artifacts and samples. We also welcome visits from archaeologists,
historians, and other scholars who would like to see first-hand the
collections we have excavated from the Spanish-colonial/Mexican site of El
Polín Springs at the Presidio of San Francisco.

The week-long program will be held at the Presidio Archaeology Laboratory
(230 Gorgas Avenue in the Presidio of San Francisco) and is open to the
public.

With this email, I’ve enclosed a short information packet about the “After
the Dig” program (below). I and the rest of the research team would very
much welcome your visits, questions, feedback, and suggestions about this
ongoing research project. You can contact me by phone (650-725-6884) or
email ([log in to unmask]), or post your questions and comments anonymously
on our project website (www.stanford.edu/group/presidio).

Please forward this email to anyone else who might be interested.

Sincerely,
Barbara Voss, Assistant Professor
Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology
Stanford CA 94305-2145
650-725-6884
[log in to unmask]

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AFTER THE DIG
Stanford Archaeological Research at the Presidio of San Francisco
Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project - Summer 2005

This June, Stanford archaeologists return to the Presidio of San Francisco
to continue our research on the history and culture of the people who lived
there in the past. But this summer, we won’t be excavating. Instead, we will
be working at the Presidio Archaeology Laboratory, painstakingly analyzing
the artifacts found in previous excavations to piece together clues to the
Presidio’s history.

Stanford researchers have excavated at El Polín Springs in the Presidio of
San Francisco for the past two summers (2003-2004). We have recovered at
least 200,000 artifacts from the site. Now it’s time to study what we’ve
found and learn as much as we can about the people who lived and work
there.

COME SEE THE ARTIFACTS AND LABORATORY RESEARCH!

Monday, June 20 – Thursday June 23, 1:00 – 4:00 pm:
“After the Dig” Archaeology Laboratory Open House.

The Presidio Archaeology Lab (230 Gorgas – see attached map) will be open to
the visitors from 1-4pm each day. We invite you to come and look at the
artifacts that have been found at El Polín Springs and talk with us about
how we are analyzing these materials.

OTHER EVENTS

Monday, June 20, at 1pm: Gathering at El Polín Springs.

Marie Knetzger, who traces her ancestry to the Briones and Miramontes
families that once lived at El Polín Springs, is organizing a gathering at
El Polín Springs on the first day of the Stanford laboratory project. After
meeting at El Polín Springs and talking about the history of the site and
its archaeology, those who are interested can next go to the Presidio
Archaeology Lab to view artifacts from the site. Everyone is welcome to
join this gathering.


Friday, June 24, 1:00-4:00pm and 7:00-9:00pm: Presidio Pasados,
Commemorating the Presidio’s Past through Music, Dance, and Lore.

Held at the Officers Club (Building 50) in the Main Post area of the
Presidio, this annual event features family activities in the afternoon and
a musical fandango in the evening. Stanford archaeologists will be there to
share the findings of our research. For more information, visit the
Presidio Trust website:
http://www.presidio.gov/Visiting/Events/Pasados05.htm


Monday, June 27, 11 a.m. to Noon: Los Californianos Annual Celebration.
Meet at the Pershing Square flag pole across from the Presidio Officers
Club.

We would like to hear your questions, feedback, and suggestions!
Contact Barbara Voss if you would like to talk with her about the Summer
2005 research program. She can be reached by email at [log in to unmask] or
by phone at 650-725-6884. You can also submit your comments and questions
anonymously on our project website. Go to
http://www.stanford.edu/group/presidio and click on the “Sign our
Guestbook” link.

You are also invited to participate in an Oral History Study that Barbara
Voss is conducting. Through this program, Professor Voss is researching how
the Spanish colonial/Mexican history of the Presidio of San Francisco is
important to different people’s heritage, and what they would like
archaeologists to research. Initial interviews for the study take about 20
minutes and we can do them in person or by phone or by email. If you would
like to participate in this study, contact Barb at [log in to unmask] or by
phone at 650-725-6884.

MORE INFORMATION…
 …about Stanford Archaeological Research at the Presidio of San Francisco
Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project - Summer 2005

The Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project is an ongoing study of
how the Tennessee Hollow Watershed was used during the Spanish-colonial and
the Mexican occupations of the Presidio of San Francisco (ca. 1776-1847).
The project is conducted by Stanford University under the direction of
Professor Barbara Voss in partnership with the Presidio Trust and the
National Park Service.

In Summer 2003 and 2004, we conducted excavations at the site of El Polín
Springs. El Polín Springs is noted in many historic documents as the
location where a colonial family lived. The widower Marcos Briones, his
adult daughters Juana, María de la Luz, and Guadalupe Briones, and their
husbands and children resided at El Polín Springs from the 1810s – 1840s.
Today, Juana Briones is a well-known historical figure who is celebrated as
an astute businesswoman, landowner, and healer who challenged the gender
conventions of her time.

Although historic records provide a lot of information about the Briones
family, these documents are largely silent about Native Californians. Our
investigations at El Polín Springs recovered many pieces of debitage
(flakes of stone produced during stone tool manufacture). The stone flakes
have all been found in deposits that date to the Spanish-colonial/Mexican
period, suggesting that Native Californians may have lived or worked at El
Polín Springs during the same time that the Briones family lived there.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH AT EL POLÍN SPRINGS
Historians have been interested in El Polín Springs since the early 1900s,
and in 1992 NPS archaeologist Leo Barker identified El Polín Springs as a
location where archaeological remains might be found. In 1997, Barbara
Voss, then a graduate student at UC Berkeley, discovered archaeological
deposits at El Polín Springs during a survey of the Tennessee Hollow
Watershed. In Summer 2003 and Summer 2004, Voss and her research team used
hand auger-coring and hand excavation to better understand the deposits at
the site. Our research resulted in several discoveries:

We learned that in the past, El Polín Springs was a very different place
than it is today:

Before it was modified by the U.S. Army in the 1890s, the area was a
patchwork of different ecological zones: streambeds, marshes, and seasonal
wetlands; shifting sand dunes; and clayey hill slopes.

We discovered the stone foundation of an adobe house. This house may have
been one of the Briones family homes. We excavated this house in Summer
2004 and found that it rests on top of an older adobe building that had
been partially destroyed in some kind of fire.

We discovered buried trash deposits that contain fragments of broken dishes,
bottles, animal bone, and stone debitage. These trash deposits date to the
early and mid-1800s.

LABORATORY RESEARCH IN SUMMER 2005

During our “After the Dig” laboratory research program on June 20-24, 2005,
we will be analyzing artifacts from El Polín Springs to answer questions
about the history of El Polín Springs. We will be using geoarchaeological
techniques to analyze building materials (adobe brick fragments and clay
tile fragments) that were recovered from the adobe house that once stood at
El Polín Springs. We will systematically analyze ceramic, glass, and metal
artifacts to determine when and where the objects were made and to learn as
much as we can about the daily lives of the people who lived at El Polín.
Because the Briones family was important to the early development of San
Francisco’s economy, trade networks will be a particular focus. Artifacts
found at the site were manufactured throughout the world – China, England,
Mexico – as well as local goods produced in California.