We have found an odd feature in a room of the North Wing of the San Diego
Presidio. It is a pit 3 meters long and aprox. 75 cm wide with fired tile
along two sides (rectangular in shape). We have not yet reached the bottom of
it (so far it is over four feet deep). It is chock full of colonial artifacts,
including large pieces of maiolica.
 
The feature is inside of a room that would have been inside the defense wall.
We have been referring to this room as a storeroom, and feel that the eight
room complex we are working in could well have been the commander's house from
1781-1793 (his name was Jose de Zuniga and we know quite a bit about him!).
 
So far, the working hypotheses are that this pit is 1) a root cellar; 2) a
wine cellar (we know that Zuniga ordered a case of 100 bottles of wine); and
3) a privy. I am less certain about the privy idea since it would have smelled
up the entire inside room complex. Has anyone else ever found an eighteenth
century root or wine cellar on a Spanish Colonial site?
 
Anita Cohen-Williams; Reference Services; Hayden Library
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ  85287-1006
PHONE: (602) 965-4579              FAX: (602) 965-9169
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