Presidio San Agustin del Tucson Museum

 

RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN THE TUCSON PRESIDIO

Pima County has recently completed the renovation of the 1929 Pima County Courthouse, now the home of the Southern Arizona Heritage and Visitor Center and the University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum. In addition, the January 8^th Memorial has been completed on the west side of the Courthouse. Prior to and during construction work, Desert Archaeology conducted excavations and monitoring, discovering and documenting a variety of cultural resources.

Click on any picture to enlarge them.

Aerial photograph of the area on the west side of the 1929 Pima County Courthouse, now the location of the January 8th Memorial. On the left is the first Tucson City Hall and Jail foundations. In the center are railroad rails covering a cesspool. On the right the upside-down L-shaped foundation is the 1868 Pima County Courthouse (Photograph by Randy Metcalf, Pima County Communications Office).

A Hohokam Village

The heart of downtown Tucson is located on the terrace east of the Santa Cruz River floodplain. The terrace sloped downward toward the river, the waters of which were used to irrigate agricultural fields. People have been utilizing this area for over 4,000 years. About 2,000 years ago Early Agricultural period families were constructing small, circular pit structures on the terrace, one of which is on display within the Presidio Museum. During the Hohokam era, a large, sprawling village was present between AD 750 and 1150. We found three Hohokam pit structures during our construction monitoring, adding to the many documented during other archaeological work. It is likely that many other Hohokam houses are present in as-yet unexplored areas. The ancestral Native Americans of this time period often constructed ball courts, where games were played and people interacted, and it is also likely that one of these elaborate structures was present somewhere downtown.

Locations of prehistoric features in downtown Tucson (drafted by Catherine Gilman, Desert Archaeology).

A Spanish Fortress

Beneath the January 8^th Memorial area, we excavated a series of trenches into a Presidio-era trash midden. Construction of the fortress began in 1776. A large amount of dirt was dug up, mixed with water and plant materials, and molded into sun-dried adobe bricks. The areas where soil mining took place were then used for trash disposal. We found large quantities of animal bones, plant remains, and artifacts west of the courthouse in a probable soil mining pit.

Location of Presidio-era features in downtown Tucson (drafted by Catherine Gilman, Desert Archaeology).

Beef bones were most common during previous excavations. However, the current work had the opposite, with larger amounts of sheep bones. One reason for this was the discovery of a thick layer of trash that appears to represent materials discarded during a feasting event since many sheep skulls and foot elements were present, the inedible portions of carcasses. Also found were many peach pits. Peaches typically ripen in late July and August. The other plant remains found included common bean, maize, and Arizona walnuts, other crops that become available in late summer.

During the Presidio-era and extending into the Territorial period, residents of Tucson celebrated the Feast of Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine of Hippo was the patron saint of the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. Saint Augustine died on August 28, 430. The Feast in Tucson began on August 28^th with a procession to the chapel, where a priest gave a sermon. A festival ground with a tamped earth dance floor was nearby, surrounded by booths where food and drinks were served and where gambling games could be played. At night instruments were played and dancing took place. The festival lasted for two weeks.

Artifacts found in the midden included pieces of Mexican majolica pottery, expensive Chinese porcelains, and local O'odham cooking and storage vessels. 

A blue-on-white majolica plate with a bird design (Photograph by Robert Ciaccio, Desert Archaeology).

Also found were 26 sherds of Hopi pottery, carried south from the pueblos in northern Arizona. We know that in 1793 the commander of the Presidio led a group of soldiers to visit Zuni, and the soldiers likely brought many small bowls back as souvenirs. At other times, Hopi tribal members traveled south to visit Tucson, one of their ancestral homelands.

Hopi ceramics (Photography by James Heidke, Desert Archaeology).

We also found soldier uniform buttons and a British belt buckle. After Mexico became independent from Spain, Mexico entered into trading agreements with Great Britain, with that country selling arms and uniforms to the Mexican government. A rare find was a butt plate and a portion of a trigger guard for an escopeta, a Spanish musket. Most firearm parts were likely taken to the Presidio blacksmith to be repaired or recycled. Previous work had only found a few other firearm parts. Gun flints are more common, these were sourced from France and eventually were locally made. As they wore out, they were reused as strike-a-lights, with a piece of iron knocked against them to make a spark to start a fire.

Presidio-era military uniform buttons (Photography by Robert Ciaccio, Desert Archaeology).

A British military uniform belt buckle (Photography by Robert Ciaccio, Desert Archaeology).

The Presidio chapel and cemetery were located in what is now W. Alameda Street and surrounding areas. A water line trench at the west end of the project area resulted in the discovery of human remains from two individuals, disturbed sometime in the past. In July 2021, while trenching for a new sidewalk on the north side of the courthouse took place, an intact grave from the cemetery was found. The individual was lying on their left side, in a fetal position, almost certainly representing someone who died in their sleep and was buried after rigor mortis had set in. Osteologist Dr. James Watson identified the person as a Hispanic male, aged between 35 and 50 at death, and between 5'2" and 5'5" tall. He had arthritis on his right elbow and on the mid-back vertebrae. He also had lost one of his lower molars. The man was probably a Presidio soldier. The man was not buried wearing any clothes, during the Presidio-era clothing was very valuable and most people were buried wrapped in a cloth shroud. Remains from three other individuals were found in nearby historically-disturbed soils. All of these remains will eventually be repatriated to Los Descendientes Del Presidio De Tucson for re-interment in their plot in Holy Hope Cemetery. It is likely that hundreds of other Presidio-era individuals still lie beneath W. Alameda Street.

Drawing of the burial of the Presidio soldier (drafted by Erina Gruner and Katie Bubnekovich, Desert Archaeology).

Territorial Government Buildings

The Presidio walls were rapidly dismantled after the arrival of United States residents in 1856. Stables and homes were constructed. In 1868, the first Pima County courthouse was built. This adobe building had a thick rock foundation. We found a small portion of that foundation. Nearby we found the foundations of the first Tucson City Hall, completed in 1883. The back of the building housed a jail and we found a portion of its collapsed wood plank floor. Beneath the wood planks were rows of upright iron bars, put in place to prevent prisoners from tunneling out of the jail.

The blackened floorboards of the City Jaiol with upright iron rods barely visible (Photography by Homer Thiel, Desert Archaeology).

The 1868 courthouse was torn down when a new courthouse was constructed in 1881. This brick, Victorian style building had a dome on top. Inside the building was a large water tank, filled daily, for probably the first flush toilets in Tucson. To the west of the courthouse a large cesspool was dug, covered by a wooden roof. In 1889 the wood decayed and collapsed. The new replacement roof consisted of long railroad rails, covered with wood and then soil for a lawn. In 1911 a hole opened in the lawn and the deep cesspool was rediscovered. It was then filled with many loads of dirt.

Lastly a small sinkhole opened up in the northwest portion of the Astroturf-covered courthouse courtyard. The hole turned out to be a rock-lined square, one foot to a side, where a well had been drilled for the 1883 Pioneer Hose No. 1 firehouse. This was the first fire station for Tucson and was in use until 1907. At first the hose cart and water tank were pulled by lines of men. Later horses were purchased to pull the vehicles.

A postcard of the 1881 Pima County Courthouse, looking north from Pennington Street. The yellow area in the lawn on the left side was the location of the cesspool.

The well shaft was filled with dirt and wood and after documentation, was refilled with sand. Similarly, the remains of the government buildings and Presidio era trash middens were covered with a protective fabric and the area refilled, preserving the archaeology in place. The January 8^th Memorial was recently completed over the area.