Susan-
What an interesting find! This is very far outside my area of expertise,
but they seem sized and shaped much like the Go game markers I remember as a
child. Can you get some photos posted on a web sites so we can all see
them?
I'm intrigued for another reason. The disks sound very much like they could
be of local manufacture. If that is true, then who made them? Off the top
of my head, I cannot ever remember a single reference to a Chinese pottery
shop in Nineteenth century North America. Perhaps they were made for your
boarding residents by a local Anglo- or Hispanic-American potter. Of
course, perhaps someone brought them to San Diego in their pocket from Asia.
Also, the time period you describe falls after the spread of small electric
kilns for art potteries and china decorators in North America, both
businesses and early University art programs. If made locally, could these
little gems be from such a potter's kiln?
I'd encourage you to take advantage of some type of materials science
examination- of course a non-destructive technique. I think LA-ICP-MS
(laser ablated, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) would suit the
question very well. The laser will leave a tiny mark on the disks, nearly
invisible to the naked eye, but record isotope counts to compare with other
local pottery. A juicy research topic!
Keep us all posted!
Cheers,
Tim Scarlett
>> From a site in San Diego associated with Chinese boarders, period of
>> significance ca 1880-1910, were found about half a dozen small clay disks.
>> They are lenticular in cross section, hand made of red clay, with remains
>> of a white paint or covering. In size they measure about 3/4 inch
>> diameter, 1/4 inch thickness. (Size varies as the items are hand made.)
>> One glass go gaming piece was from the same deposit.
>> I showed them to Priscilla Wegars, who had never seen anything like them,
>> but agreed they were probably gaming pieces.
>>
>> Has anyone found similar items from Chinese sites?
>>
>> Susan Walter
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Timothy James Scarlett
Incipient Assistant Professor of Archaeology
Program in Industrial History and Archaeology
Department of Social Sciences
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, Michigan 49931-1295 USA
Tel (906) 487-2113 Fax (906) 487-2468 Internet [log in to unmask]
MTU Website: http://www.industrialarchaeology.net
SHA Website: http://www.sha.org SIA Website: http://www.sia-web.org
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"A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the
vexation of thinking."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Journals, 1831
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