Ron asked me to forward this field report to the list...
 
Anita Cohen-Williams; Reference Services; Hayden Library
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ  85287-1006
PHONE: (602) 965-4579              FAX: (602) 965-9169
[log in to unmask]  Owner: HISTARCH, SPANBORD, SUB-ARCH
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From: Dale May <[log in to unmask]>
Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: New Books
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 95 12:56:26 PDT
Cc: [log in to unmask] (Dale May)
In-Reply-To:  <[log in to unmask]>; from "Anita Cohen-Williams" at Aug
              15, 95 12:46 pm
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Anita,
 
Dale and I want to share the 1995 field progress with
the Histo Arch folks, so I am sending this note on to
you:
 
The Fort Guijarros Museum Foundation entered the sixth
field season at "Field VIII" adjacent to the 20-year old
Fire Station on the United States Naval Submarine Base,
San Diego.  The Fire Station is located directly on top
of about 40% of a 1796 Spanish cannon battery.
 
Building on discoveries of the exterior wall structure
in 1981, the Foundation designed the Field VIII dig to
test a second location of wall face to re-examine ques-
tions regarding the merlons.  The past five years have
been invested in careful forensic excavation of minute
strata associated with the 1898-1924 United States Army
Fort Rosecrans occupation of the land.
 
The top of the 1796 ruins appeared in May of 1995.  Excava-
tion has bogged down in 1858-1886 whaling station strata
that covered the fort ruins and lay below the U.S. Army
fill layers. The whaler's midden has yielded marine shell,
saw-cut and splintered mammal, fish, and bird bone, small
quantities of bottle glass, and even smaller quantities of
ceramics.  This contrasts significantly with discoveries
of large quantities of ceramics and glass, as well as metal
artifacts in the 1981 investigations.  One dig crew member
commenting on the surprising lack of clay pipe fragments
suggested this to have been the "designated non-smoking
area."
 
As the field season runs into September, excavation has
assumed a more frantic pace.  The Naval Civil Engineer has
determined the 1.75 meter depth to be unsafe and the Base
Commander has odered the dig to shut down in October, in
spite of heavy wooden shoring.  The wall rubble is just
being exposed on top of the cobble buttresses.
 
The plan is to seek datable artifacts within the adobe melt
that covers the broken fired tiles.  This will lend evidence
as to when the fort decomposed.  Coding of each broken tile
will enable analysis of the process of decomposition, which
in reverse might yield evidence of the shape of the fort.
 
The excavation will be on exhibit at the annual Fort Guijarros
Fiesta to be held on 16 September 1995 from 5:00 to 9:00 PM.
Guests will be driven by shuttle from the dining hall to the dig
site to exhibit areas and back.  The evening will involve
authentic Spanish paella dinner to be accompanied by sangria
and dancing by the CAsa de Espana.  Anyone interested in
attending should contact the Fort Guijarros Museum Foundation
at (619) 229-9743 (it is also a FAX).
 
?Ron May  c/o
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