I find this interesting also as my work deals with border issues and missions along the Rio Grande and to San Diego. Thanks. 


Mark L Howe
Cultural Resources Specialist
International Boundary and Water Commission, IBWC.gov
4171 North Mesa, Suite C-100
El Paso, Texas  79902-1441
(915) 832-4767
[log in to unmask]



> Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:04:38 -0700
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Spanish Colonial wells/privies
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> I'm with Bob on this.  I've worked on bits and pieces of seven California Missions and never found a privy, well, or any other similar facility that could be dated to the mission period.  We just finished work at Missions Soledad and Ventura, and did not find evidence of either.  We also used GPR at both.  This lack of evidence could be a function of sampling as well but I doubt it.  There had to be (check your assumptions) some type of institutional method of waste management.  There is tangential evidence in Laird, Carobeth. 1975, Encounter with an Angry God: Recollections of My Life with John Peabody Harrington ( Malki Museum Press, Banning, California) in which she references dogs providing such services on a reservation.  I find it difficult to believe that dogs were the primary or even secondary means of waste disposal in a mission setting.  
> 
> In terms of wells, there is a photograph at Ventura that shows shafdufs behind the mission but none has been found to my knowledge nor have the ones in the photograph been excavated or reliably dated to the mission period.  I think this needs more discussion.  
>  
> John M. Foster, RPA 
> Greenwood-Associates.com 
> 310.454.3091 tel/fax 
> 310.717.5048 cell
> 
> 
> ________________________________
>  From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] 
> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 5:41 PM
> Subject: Re: Spanish Colonial wells/privies
>  
> I have not yet encountered any definite Spanish privies in my work in 
> Hispanic California, though there are plenty from Anglo and Asian-American ones 
> in later phases of occupation at the Presidio of Santa Barbara. We did find a 
> well of still yet undetermined date at the same site.   I suspect that the 
> privies are more likely in military sites which are early and in the 
> Southeast, at a point less remote from the center of civilization, such as St. 
> Augustine or other sites in Florida.
> 
> The major question for me is what did the Spanish do about waste disposal 
> at mission sites such as San Antonio de Padua where there were up to 1300 
> Indians.   Chamber pots worked well for the 2 padres, five soldiers, and 
> possible one or two others of European or mestizo origins, but were impractical 
> for the large numbers of neophytes.   With the health ramifications of this 
> issue, I cannot believe that this was just left to informal chance.   In the 
> 1790s, the Spanish were learning much more about the nature of disease and 
> the role of public health.   However, so far we have found no traces of trench 
> latrines anywhere.   I believe chemical analysis of the soil is the best 
> bet for revealing this, as it leaves little visible trace behind.
> 
> Bob Hoover