Exploring Everyday Life through Artifacts

Citation:

Thiel, J. Homer, Allison Cohen Diehl, Jenny L. Adams, R. Jane Sliva, and Arthur W. Vokes 2005 Exploring Everyday Life through Artifacts. In Down by the River: Archaeological and His-

torical Studies of the León Family Farmstead, by J. Homer Thiel, pp. 85-124. Anthropo-logical Papers No. 38. Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson.

Anthropological Papers No. 38:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Archaeology Along the Santa Cruz River, J. HomerThiel

2. Prehistoric Archaeological Investigations, AllisonCohen Diehl,David A. Gregory, James M. Heidke, Jenny L.Adams, and R. Jane Sliva

3. The León Family Legacy, J. Homer Thiel4. Excavations at the León Family Farmstead:

Feature Descriptions, and Analysis, J. Homer Thiel5. Exploring Everyday Life Through Artifacts, J. Homer

Thiel, Allison Cohen Diehl, Jenny L. Adams, R.Jane Sliva, and Arthur W. Vokes

6. Petrographic Analysis of Ceramics from the LeónFarmstead, with a Synthesis of Historic PotteryProvenance Studies in the Tucson Area, Eliza-beth J. Miksa

7. Native American Ceramics, James M. Heidke8. Food, Social Standing, and Ethnic Identity,

Michael W. Diehl, Jenny L. Adams, J. HomerThiel, Linda Scott Cummings, and Arthur W.Vokes

9. Life Along the Santa Cruz River, J. Homer Thiel

Down by the River:Archaeological and HistoricalStudies of theLeón Family Farmstead

Anthropological Papers No. 38

Center for Desert Archaeology

J. Homer Thiel

Contributions by

Jenny L. AdamsLinda Scott CummingsAllison Cohen DiehlMichael W. DiehlDavid A. GregoryJames M. HeidkeElizabeth J. MiksaFred L. NialsManuel R. Palacios-FestR. Jane SlivaJ. Homer ThielArthur W. Vokes

http://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/store/anthropological-papers/down-by-the-river-archaeological-and-historical-studies-of-the-leon-family-farmstead.html

It is difficult for people living in the twenty-firstcentury to understand what life was like for peoplewho lived in Tucson 150, 100, or even 75 years ago.Stereotypes of the Old West—often Hollywooddriven—overshadow the sometimes mundane na-ture of the daily activities of Tucsonans of the nine-teenth and early twentieth centuries. Documentaryresources—such as newspaper articles, censusrecords, and oral histories—provide some of the de-tails about everyday life. However, these sourcesusually fail to tell many things that would fill in thegaps in our understanding. What items were foundin a Mexican kitchen of the 1880s? What pottery styleswere used in the 1860s? How did the availability ofgoods change after freight wagons and after the rail-road began to bring new products into the commu-nity? Were all types of goods purchased by Mexicanhouseholds?

Archaeology can help fill in many of the blanks.The León family and other residents of the site dis-carded and lost thousands of artifacts while livingthere. A large collection of these items was recov-ered during excavations at the León farmstead. Mostartifacts came from several features—a borrow pit, awell, a trash-filled depression, and an outhouse. Thefeatures and, in one case, the soil layers within thefeatures, can be dated by artifacts with maker's marksor patent dates, or through technological character-istics. Consequently, how the artifacts were used atthe site can be examined, as well as how their usechanged through time.

The material culture found at the León site is ex-amined in this chapter; the assemblage is both largeand diverse. A description of the artifacts is presentedin the first portion of the chapter. More detailed ex-amination of the artifacts is presented later, reveal-ing information hidden in the broken dishes,smashed bottles, and rusty nails. Information aboutmaker’s marks can be found in Appendix B.

ARTIFACTS FROM THE LEÓN FARMSTEAD

The León farmstead yielded 24,630 artifacts, rang-ing from pieces of window glass to a carved shellcameo (Table 5.1). Native American ceramics recov-

ered from the site are discussed in Chapter 7 (thisvolume), and are only briefly noted in this chapter.

The types of artifacts, based on the material theywere manufactured from, are summarized in Table5.2. Metal artifacts were most common, althoughpoorly preserved and often heavily fragmented. Ironand tinned metal artifacts were usually very rusted,which made identification difficult and sometimesimpossible. Brass and lead artifacts were less com-mon, but were generally better preserved. Severalfeatures (Features 2, 17, and 48) contained very largenumbers of metal artifacts and only a sample wascollected; redundant artifacts such as nails and tincan fragments were typically not saved.

Glass and non-Native American historic ceram-ics were also relatively common and were much bet-ter preserved. Ceramics were tossed into pits orbackyard midden areas when they were broken.Cross-mending was attempted, and a few vesselswere reconstructed; however, most of the vesselsfound at the site were represented by only a fewsherds. Some of the missing sherds were likelypresent in the unexcavated portion of features, or inthe large trench that had been dug through the bor-row pit. Almost all of the glass artifacts—except afew small bottles—were found broken, probablysmashed after being stepped on, or through expo-sure to the elements.

Fewer artifacts manufactured from other mate-rials were found. A handful of ground stone artifactswas present (reported in Appendix C), as were a fewartifacts from worked bone, rubber, or early plastics.Those material classes that decay through burial orexposure—such as wood, textiles, basketry, and pa-per—were mostly absent. Items made from theseperishable materials were likely commonly used byresidents; however, they usually deteriorate and areonly preserved in special circumstances.

KITCHEN ARTIFACTS

Artifacts used to store, prepare, and serve foodand beverages are placed in the kitchen category. Alarge number of kitchen-related artifacts are recov-ered at most archaeological sites, and the León home-

CHAPTER 5

EXPLORING EVERYDAY LIFETHROUGH ARTIFACTS

J. Homer Thiel, Allison Cohen Diehl, Jenny L. Adams,and R. Jane Sliva, Desert Archaeology, Inc.,

and Arthur W. Vokes, Arizona State Museum

86 Chapter 5

Table 5.2. Artifacts from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM), by material type.

Material Count

Historic ceramics 5,000

Native American ceramics 3,624

Glass 6,834

Metal 8,252

Bone, shell, and textile 406

Mineral and stone 197

Synthetics and composite 317

Total 24,630

stead was no exception. A total of 13,624 items, or55.3 percent of the entire artifact assemblage, wasplaced in this category, including all historic NativeAmerican ceramics.

Food and Beverage Storage

Much of the food eaten at the León farmstead wasgrown in nearby fields, or on more distant ranches.Historical accounts, summarized in Chapter 8, indi-cate farmers grew a wide variety of crops. Prior tothe mid-1850s, it is likely that only a few luxury fooditems were imported into Tucson, and that only a hand-ful of people could afford them. After the arrival ofthe Americans, new foods and beverages werebrought into town; artifacts from the León site indi-cate the family purchased some of these products.The remains of metal and glass containers suggestwhat kinds of foods were purchased; however, manyfoodstuffs were probably bought in perishable pack-

aging, such as paper or cardboard, which did notsurvive once it was discarded.

Excavations at the León homestead resulted inthe recovery of 3,829 fragments of tin cans. This doesnot include can fragments discarded in the field fromthe latest features at the site. Most of the cans foundat the León site had been broken into small piecesand had rusted after they were discarded. The sizeand shape of cans can sometimes help in the identifi-cation of their contents. Fragments from lard, tunafish, pineapple, milk, and cocoa cans were present inthe collection. Eight sardine or meat cans, which aretypically rectangular with rounded corners, were rep-resented by 11 fragments. Several of these fragmentswere the distinctive keys used to open the cans. Onemetal screw top appears to have come from a foodcan. Seven fragments from two lard can lids werealso identified. The recovered fragments represent aminimum of 72 different cans, and the actual num-ber is likely much higher. The fragmentation of tincans prevents an accurate estimate of their originalnumber.

Glass artifacts preserve much better, and distinc-tive features—such as the way the bottle top or fin-ish is formed—can allow the bottle contents to bedistinguished. Fourteen food bottles were identified,represented by 54 fragments. These included an ol-ive oil bottle, a club or Worcestershire sauce bottle, a“Horlick’s Malted Milk” bottle, an olive jar, twopickle jars, a fruit jar, a mustard jar, and a condimentbottle. Three milk bottles, broken into eight pieces,were found in Feature 48. One was marked “GreenMeadows Dairy.” City directories indicate this dairysold raw milk, pasteurized milk, table cream, andwhipping cream in 1932 (Thiel 2000). Green Mead-ows Dairy was in business until at least 1940, at NorthCampbell Avenue near Prince Road. When the dairyopened has not been determined. Four glass stop-pers were collected, two of which were probably frompeppersauce bottles. A lead seal, possibly from abottle, was also collected.

Seven jars manufactured in China, which onceheld sauces or possibly Chinese wine, were repre-sented by 56 sherds at the site. Chinese food jar con-tainers are occasionally found at Mexican sites inTucson, reflecting the use of products or containersthat may have been purchased at nearby Chinesegrocery stores (Thiel 1997).

Three crock fragments were found in Features 47and 48. Crocks were used to hold a variety of food-stuffs, including pickles and salted meats. Foods weretypically immersed in brine, vinegar, salt, or veg-etable oil to preserve them. Crocks are uncommonlyfound at Arizona sites—apparently this method ofpreserving and storing food was not widely used here.

Table 5.1. Artifacts from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM), by function.

Function Count Percent

Kitchen 13,624 55.3

Architecture 3,832 15.6

Furniture 323 1.3

Arms 111 0.5

Clothing 868 3.5

Personal 194 0.7

Activity 525 2.1

Transportation 61 0.2

Unknown 5,092 20.7

Total 24,630

Exploring Everyday Life Through Artifacts 87

Three canning jars, identified from 27 pieces, werepresent. One was a blue “Ball Mason” found in Fea-ture 17, and the other two were clear canning jarsfrom Feature 48. Twenty-seven canning jar lid frag-ments were collected, most from Features 2 and 17.One of the lid liners was marked “Boyd’s GenuinePorcelain Lined.” The use of canning jars for foodpreservation was also less common in Arizona thanin other parts of the United States. This may partlybe a result of environmental factors; for example, whowants to can food during the summer? It may alsoreflect different food preservation strategies, such asthe use of drying, or merely the use of foods in sea-son. Regardless, it is apparent that canning was nota preferred method for food preservation by the Leónfamily.

Alcoholic beverage bottles were identified throughtheir distinctive finishes or bases. Nineteen frag-ments, from 10 beer bottles, were found. Nine cham-pagne or wine bottles were represented by 40 pieces.Two lead wine bottle seals were also found, with onefrom Feature 17 marked “California Wine Co., Tuc-son, Arizona.” Thirteen other alcoholic beveragebottles were identified from 36 fragments. These in-cluded several with brandy finishes and one or twowhiskey flasks. The total number of alcoholic bever-age bottles was quite small, as compared with othersites of the same time period (e.g., Mabry et al. 1994).

Very few soft drink beverages were identified atthe site. One “Welch’s Grape Juice” bottle was foundin Feature 17. The site was occupied prior to the bot-tling of many types of soda pop. Further, many bot-tles were returnable, and as a result, were unlikelyto be thrown away by thrifty individuals. Other bev-erage bottle glass could have been either for alco-holic or soft drinks and included 128 fragments ofglass. Two wood corks were found in Features 4 and10; 43 crown caps were found, most from Features17 and 48; and a clear bottle stopper and two bottleopeners were found in Feature 17.

Many other pieces of glass could not be identi-fied as to their specific bottle form. These included170 aqua, 33 blue, 14 cobalt blue, 6 light blue, 1 lightbrown, 190 brown, 20 dark brown, 455 clear, 40 darkolive green, 221 olive green, 70 green, 3 light green, 1lime green, 27 milk, and 8 turned-purple: a total of1,259 pieces. The olive green pieces likely came fromwine, champagne, or liquor bottles, although ink andmedicines occasionally come in bottles of this color.Similarly, many of the brown glass fragments wereprobably from beer or liquor bottles. However, thesmall size and indeterminate form of these glasssherds made it impossible to identify their contents.Consequently, they were placed in the unidentifiedglass container category.

The food and beverage containers recovered fromthe site indicate the Leóns purchased a small num-ber of bottled products. The sauces and condimentsadded flavoring to meals. Canned foods were prob-ably commonly served. Canned meats, such as thesardines, were probably a luxury item only occasion-ally enjoyed. The family consumed relatively smallamounts of alcoholic and soft drink beverages.

Food Preparation

Artifacts used to prepare food are often uncom-mon at sites, because they tend to be more durableand are less easily broken than other items. This wasnot true for the León homestead, where many frag-ments of ceramic bowls used to mix and cook foodswere found. A minimum of 28 bowls was representedby the 364 pieces collected. Most of the bowls weremanufactured in Mexico and featured glazed interi-ors and unglazed exteriors. Some have sooted bot-toms, indicating they were used for cooking (Figure5.1). Some of the bowls may also have been used toserve foods at the table. Metal pots and Native Amer-ican ceramics were probably also used over fires. A

Figure 5.1. Mexican bowls were used for food preparationby the León family, from their farmstead, AZ BB:13:505(ASM).

88 Chapter 5

few other preparation vessels are represented by 14pieces of jars or pitchers and 98 fragments of otherMexican or yellowware vessels.

Among the other food preparation artifacts col-lected were five iron knife blades broken into ninefragments. Two of the blades had wooden handlesand were probably used to cut up meat and veg-etables. A broken cover lid for a wood-burning stovewas also found.

The León family used one of their interior cornerfireplaces for some of their cooking. Cirilo León’shouse had an interior kitchen, located on the right sideof the zaguán. The retention of the corner fireplacein this same room in the León farmstead suggests itwas also the kitchen. The scraped areas north andwest of the house contained no evidence for a sepa-rate cooking structure. Some food preparation likelyoccurred outdoors, especially during hot summerdays.

Food Service

Food-service artifacts are items used to servefood and beverages at the table. Dishes are oftenbroken during use and when being washed, dried,and put away. It was not surprising that a largenumber of food-service artifacts were found at theLeón site. A total of 3,915individual fragments offood service artifacts wascollected (Table 5.3). Theinitial analysis indicatedthat artifact fragmentswere evenly distributedamong cups (n = 357),plates (n = 341), and bowls(n = 363), with smallernumbers of saucers (n =132) and tumblers (n = 55).Dinner knives, servingspoons, tablespoons, and ateaspoon were also found.A brass serving spoon orladle, recovered from Fea-ture 4, is particularly inter-esting due to its large sizeand unusual shape (Figure5.2).

A small number of otherservice vessels were identi-fied. These included: frag-ments from two creamers orgravy pitchers, several serv-ing bowls, several platters,pitchers, a sugar bowl, and

teapots. The León homestead generally lacked manyof the elaborate serving dishes found in Euro-Ameri-can households in Tucson (Mabry et al. 1994). Manymeals were probably served out of the Mexicanglazed-ware and olive-glazed ware bowls discussedpreviously. Many other sherds were placed in thefood-service category based on their shape, thickness,and decoration, but could not be identified to spe-cific vessel form.

To better understand the types of dishes used atthe León table, the ceramics artifacts from Features4, 14, and 25 were laid out. Cross-mending was con-ducted, allowing for a more accurate estimate of thenumber of vessels discarded into the large pit fea-ture. A minimum of 119 vessels was present, with atleast 105 of these used for food service. Cups werethe most common, with 34 examples identified, fol-lowed by bowls (n = 22), plates (n = 14), and saucers(n = 10). It is uncertain if the differing number of ves-sels represents greater breakage and discard of cups,or perhaps easier identification of certain vessel parts(cups and saucers were easier to differentiate thanplates and bowls).

The cups, bowls, plates, and saucers recoveredfrom Feature 4/14/25 are listed in Table 5.4 by theirtype of decoration. Plain cups and saucers were themost common. Sponge-stamped, transfer-prints,and peasantwares were found in approximatelyequal numbers. These were decorated with stampedand hand-painted flowers or transfer-printed scenesbordered by flowers and vines. Changes in ceramicdecorations are discussed in detail later in the chap-ter.

ARCHITECTURAL ARTIFACTS

Artifacts used to build structures are included inthe architectural category, with 3,832 artifacts, rep-resenting 15.6 percent of the total assemblage. TheLeón's original house was probably constructed fromnative materials—stone, adobe bricks, ocotillos,saguaro ribs, and other locally available items. Thesecond house, probably built in the 1870s, also con-tained local materials. However, as the house wasremodeled, new materials and technologies were in-corporated. Nails were used to hold wood elements,brought into Tucson by the railroad, together. In theearly 1900s, the house was apparently retrofitted withelectricity and running water. Finally, one room wasapparently converted into use as a bathroom, andthe outdoor latrine was abandoned. Many of the ar-tifacts associated with these endeavors were collectedduring the current project. Other items—such as brickfragments, rocks, and pieces of adobe—were notedon field forms and discarded at the site.

Figure 5.2. A largebrass serving spoon re-covered from the Leónfarmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).


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90 Chapter 5

Table 5.4. Cups, bowls, plates, and saucers from Feature 4/14/25, León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Decoration Cups Saucers Bowls Plates Other Total

Plain 12 9 5 6 - 32

Molded 2 - 3 - 6 11

Transfer 5 - 1 5 17 28

Flow blue - - 2 1 - 3

Sponge-stamped 5 1 6 1 4 17

Annular 3 - - 1 - 4

Peasantware 6 - 4 - - 10

Porcelains 1 - 1 - 2 4

Total 34 10 22 14 29 109

Nails

Nails were extremely common but poorly pre-served at the León homestead. A total of 2,803 nailfragments, representing a minimum of 908 nails,were collected, with only a sample of nails collectedfrom Features 2, 17, 48, and 61. Very few of the nailswere complete.

Nails would have been used primarily in struc-tures, fastening wood boards and timbers together,or to hold roofing materials in place. Most of the nailsfound at the León house were probably used for fas-tening boards, although a few roofing and finishingnails were also collected. Adobe houses would haveused few nails, and it is not surprising that the ear-lier features and soil layers within the large borrowpit contained few nails. Conversely, nails were ex-tremely common in the later features, suggestingsome wood-frame construction was present duringthe later occupation of the site. Some of the nailsfound at the site were probably not used in build-ings; however, it is impossible to separate the differ-ent uses. Other uses of nails include the manufac-ture of furniture, wagons, packing boxes and crates,and implements.

Door Parts

Hilario Gallego was born in Tucson in 1850, andwhen interviewed in 1935, he stated:

Some of the doors were made of brush and saguarosticks tied together with twigs or, when the peoplecould afford it, with rawhide. Some times the wholedoor was of rawhide. . . (Gallego 1935:77).

The first house at the León farmstead likely re-sembled the dwellings Gallego recalled. The secondhouse had doors installed on the exterior and possi-bly the interior. As these door locks and hinges woreout or new doors were installed, some of the hard-

ware was discarded. A 10-inch-long strap hinge anda lock part were found in the Feature 2 sheet trash. Ascreen door hook and a pintle were found in the Fea-ture 4 pit. Finally, a set of hinges was found in theFeature 48 outhouse.

Window Glass

Hilario Gallego also described the windows—orlack thereof—in Tucson houses of the 1850s:

Oh no, none of those windows had glass; we didn’tknow anything about glass in those days . . . and[sometimes] the windows were made of strings ofrawhide (Gallego 1935:76-77).

The number of windows likely remained smalluntil the arrival of the railroad allowed glass to beeasily imported.

A total of 898 fragments of window glass was col-lected. Most of the window glass was aqua colored,with a small amount of clear glass. Window frag-ments were found in 10 features, with slightly morethan half from Feature 4. Only a sample of windowglass was collected from Feature 48; excavators notedthat window fragments were quite common in thisfeature. Photographs of the eastern and southern fa-cade of the León farmhouse indicate there were atleast four windows in the house. It is not surprisingthat some of them were broken and replaced duringthe occupation of the structure.

Water-related Artifacts

Water and sewer pipes were discovered runningup to the addition to the León homestead. Thesewater pipes were probably installed some time afterFrancisco and Ramona lived at the site. All of thewater utility artifacts were from post-1900 features.They included a piece of pipe from Feature 2, a brass


faucet marked “Hot” from Feature 17, and a faucetand a piece of sewer pipe from Feature 48.

Archaeological evidence suggests the Leóns ob-tained water from a shallow well (Feature 28) earlyin the occupation of the site. The well was destroyedin a flood, and it is not known where the Leóns gotwater afterward; however, some of the large Papagoollas were likely used to store water. A water com-pany was started in the late 1890s in Tucson; how-ever, it is unlikely that water was piped to the Leónfarmstead until much later.

Electrical-related Artifacts

Electricity was first generated in Tucson in 1882,although it did not become commonplace for an-other decade. The León house was probably wiredfor electricity sometime after 1900. The electricalitems found at the site all came from later featuresand indicate the house was retrofitted for electricalwiring.

Twenty-three electrical artifacts were found at thesite. Three electrical fixture or fuse parts were recov-ered from the Feature 2 trash midden. A piece of elec-trical wire and a plain insulator were found in theupper portion of Feature 4. One piece of electricalwire was found in Feature 22, and a fixture was col-lected from the site surface. Four pieces of electricalwire were recovered from Feature 17. The Feature48 outhouse contained two pieces of electrical wireand three electric fixtures or fuses. From inside Fea-ture 10, the western room, another fixture was col-lected, and a pair of porcelain insulator tubes, usedto retrofit existing structures for electricity, werefound in the northern addition, Feature 11.

HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS

Few household furnishings are typically recov-ered from archaeological sites; at the León farm-stead, 323 artifacts were placed in this category.Furniture is usually quite durable and rarely dis-carded, frequently used for decades, or longer. Ad-ditionally, many components of furnishings eitherdo not survive in the archaeological record—suchas wood—or cannot be identified as furniture parts—such as nails or screws. Therefore, it is difficult todetermine what furniture was inside the historicstructures.

Thirteen furniture-related artifacts were collectedfrom the León homestead. A clock bell clapper, a fur-niture caster, and three small lock parts were foundin the Feature 2 sheet trash. A possible miniaturedrawer pull, a hook, and a possible piece of basketrywere found in Feature 4. A clock key was found in

Feature 17. The Feature 48 outhouse yielded aweight—possibly used to anchor curtains—a caster,and a furniture tack. Finally, a decorative finial, orknob, was found in Feature 61.

The artifacts provide little insight into the inte-rior of the house. A concern about time-keeping isreflected by the clock parts. At least one table or chairhad floor casters and probably dates to the post-1880occupation of the house, because casters would havebeen more useful with wooden floors. More detailedinformation about domestic furnishings can be ob-tained by examining household inventories and in-terior photographs.

Lighting

Unlike furniture, lighting artifacts are much morelikely to be damaged and discarded. The fragile na-ture of glass lamp chimneys and later, light bulbs,often resulted in their being broken.

One brass lamp burner was found in Feature 2,and two were found in Feature 4. A possible burnerpart was also found in Feature 48. Lamp chimneyglass was fairly common. The majority of the chim-ney glass was clear; only seven of 227 pieces (fourmilk glass and three pink) were colored. Most ofthe chimney glass was found in Features 17 (n =72), 4 (n = 67), the sheet trash Feature 2 (n = 30), andin the outhouse Feature 48 (n = 23). Additionalpieces were found in Features 25, 28, 36, 39, and 47.The overall impression is that the Leóns used a fewkerosene lamps to illuminate the interior of theirhome.

Evidence for electrical lighting was limited to twolight bulb bases from Feature 48 and a fragment of abulb from Feature 47 and two more from Feature 48.The latter feature also contained a decorative redbulb.

ARMS AND AMMUNITION

The Tucson Basin was a dangerous place to liveduring most of the nineteenth century. Residents ofthe area clustered tightly around the decaying wallsof the Tucson Presidio, established by the Spanish in1776, for protection from Apaches. The Apache hadbeen at war with the Spanish and the local PimanIndians since their earliest contacts. A pacificationprogram brought Manso, or “tame” Apaches, to Tuc-son, where they lived north of the Presidio. In ex-change for peace, the Spaniards provided theseApaches with food, clothing, and tools. The settledApache reduced hostilities, both by removing poten-tial fighters, but also by filtering information aboutother Apache to the Spanish military.

92 Chapter 5

It is not surprising then, that firearms were astaple of life in Tucson when the León farmstead wasestablished in the mid-nineteenth century. At thattime, most men living in the west carried guns, andmany owned several. The primary effectiveness ofthese firearms was probably as a deterrent, althoughthere are many records of conflicts with the Apachein which shots were fired from both sides.

The musket was the earliest type of firearm avail-able in the Tucson Basin. A musket utilizes a stonegunflint to ignite gunpowder. The force of the result-ing explosion propels a round lead ball. Because sup-ply lines were dangerous, working firearms wereprobably considered as valuable as food and cleanwater in the desert Southwest, and ammunitionwould have been conserved.

After Mexico became independent in 1821, thepacification program ended, and Apache raids onTucson were renewed. Over the next few years, doz-ens of Tucson residents were killed, and the presidioforces frequently mounted sorties against the Apache(Officer 1987). Francisco Solano León had more thanone encounter with the Apache as he escorted thepresidio payroll to Tucson from Arizpe. The last at-tack against the Tucson Presidio was in 1850, bywhich time the Apache had also acquired firearms.The arrival of the Americans in the mid-1850sbrought greater security, although the Americansalso found movement beyond Tucson restrictive anddangerous due to threats of attack.

Muskets became outdated in the 1850s, after theintroduction of the self-primed bullet cartridge inwhich the gunpowder, bullet, and primer are con-tained within a single cartridge. This self-containedcartridge allowed for much quicker reloading, andfirearms chambered for these rounds were muchmore accurate than most muskets.

The Gadsden Purchase of 1854 added lands southof the Gila River to the United States and opened thePimería Alta to American occupation. To protect thesettlers from the Apache threat, the U.S. Army wasdispatched to several points. Several short-lived mili-tary camps (including Fort Lowell) and a supply de-pot were re-established in Tucson, but the militarycould provide only spotty protection from raids.However, the military’s presence opened supply linesfor arms and ammunition in Tucson. Although self-defense was paramount, a great deal of ammunitionwas probably also expended during this time onhunting (for food or sport) and target practice.

After the last of the hostile Apache had beenkilled, captured, or displaced in the late nineteenthcentury, the Army saw no further need to maintaina presence in Tucson, and they abandoned Fort Low-ell in 1891. Local residents, however, continued toload their guns in defense against the real (or per-

ceived) threat of rustlers, thieves, rogue Indians, andeach other. Newspapers from the early Territorialperiod frequently mention gun fights within the com-munity. Additionally, the suppression of the Apacheopened up hunting territory in and around Tucson.One hundred and eleven arms and ammunition ar-tifacts were collected from the León farmstead.

Early Armaments

A trigger guard from a Brown Bess rifle was foundin Feature 4 (Figure 5.3). The Brown Bess was manu-factured in England, and the Mexican military wasforced to import many of these weapons after achiev-ing independence from Spain, with Spanish sourcesfor arms effectively cut off. Historians had suspectedthe Tucson Presidio soldiers used this type of rifleduring the Mexican period (Thomas Peterson, per-sonal communication 2000). Francisco Solano Leónlikely carried the Brown Bess during his trips toArizpe to collect the fort’s payroll and when hehelped to establish the border between the UnitedStates and Mexico in 1855.

Except the trigger guard, the only other gun partfound at the site were gunflints. Three gunflints wererecovered from Feature 4, another from Feature 25,and three more from Feature 28. (Figure 5.4). Sev-eral of the gunflints appear to have been fashionedfrom locally available rock, perhaps indicating inven-tiveness when faced with supply sources hundredsof miles away.

Figure 5.4. A gun flint and a musket ball recovered fromthe León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Figure 5.3. A Brown Bess trigger guard from the 1820s,recovered from Feature 4, the León farmstead, AZBB:13:505 (ASM).


Six lead musket balls were found at the site, fiveof which were fairly complete (see Figure 5.4; Table5.5). Tom Peterson and Mark Santiago of the ArizonaHistorical Society examined the musket balls. The fivemeasurable balls would have been used in the mus-kets and pistols utilized by soldiers and civiliansduring the Spanish, Mexican, and early AmericanTerritorial periods. Each was large enough to kill ormaim a person or horse. The gun technology of thattime did not allow for particularly accurate firing, soone would either want to be close to one’s target, orblanket an area with shot, hoping that someone wouldbe struck. The León family likely had guns to protectthemselves against Native Americans and may alsohave used them for other targets, such as animals.

The .60-caliber ball was probably used in a pis-tol, while the others—ranging from .62- to .69-caliber—were probably used in muskets. Round lead ballsfell out of popularity beginning in the 1850s, withthe introduction of conical ammunition, such as theMinie ball, in 1855 (Tom Peterson, personal commu-nication 2000).

Post-Civil War Armaments

The arrival of the Americans in 1856 led to a rapidinflux of people and goods. A number of differenttypes of pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns wereintroduced into the community. Every householdprobably had one or more weapons, and the Leónfamily was no exception.

Bullets

Three unfired bullets were recovered from theLeón farmstead, all from the large borrow pit (Fea-ture 4). One appears to have teeth marks on it, andanother has been cut with a knife. Another bullet wasrecovered from Feature 28. These bullets may indi-cate residents of the León house reloaded their owncartridges.

Rifle, Carbine, and Revolver Cartridges

A total of 90 bullet cartridges were recoveredduring excavation. Most of the cartridges are sizedfor revolvers, carbines (small rifles), or shotguns. Awide variety of bullet cartridge types and sizes wererecovered during excavation. The breakdown of typesrecovered from each feature is provided in Table 5.6.A few cartridges were too corroded to determine cali-ber size. Because a bullet can only be fired from aweapon chambered for that round, at least 10 differ-ent firearms are represented at the site.

Compared with the cartridge assemblages recov-ered archaeologically from other contemporaneoussites in the Tucson Basin, ammunition recovered from

Table 5.5. Musket ball dimensions, from Features 4 and 28,the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Feature:Provenience Caliber

4:1779 .65

4:1802 .68 or .69

28:1974 .60

28:2095 .60 or .62

28:2147 .65

Table 5.6. Bullet and shotgun cartridge sizes, by feature, from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Feature

0 2 4 10 17 28 38 48 Row Total

Rifle, carbine, and revolver

.22-caliber – 3 8 1 5 1 – 4 22

.28-caliber – 1 5 – – – – – 6

.32-caliber – 1 1 – – – – – 2

.38-caliber – 2 1 – 1 – – 1 5

.44-caliber 1 – 3 – – – – – 4

.45-caliber – 2 3 – – – – 1 6

.50-caliber – 1 3 – – – 1 1 6

Shotgun shells

12-gauge – – 3 2 18 – – – 23

16-gauge – 1 – - 6 – – – 7

20-gauge – – – – 1 – – – 1

Unidentified – 2 5 – - 1 – – 8

Column total 1 13 32 3 31 2 1 7 90

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the León homestead contains a larger percentage ofvery small rounds and shotgun shells than long-range rifle cartridges. No shotgun cartridges werefound at Rancho Punta de Agua, AZ BB:13:16(ASM), a ranch located south of San Xavier del Bacthat was occupied between 1855 and circa 1877(McGuire 1979:57-61). A total of 28 cartridges werecollected from Rancho Punta de Agua, ranging insize from .32- to .50-caliber. McGuire (1979:57) notesthat weapons in this size range would have beenideal for shooting deer-sized animals or humansfrom a distance of approximately 50 yards or more,and that the assemblage is consistent with what onemight expect for a remote ranch subject to frequentApache attack. The most common round recoveredat Punta de Agua was the .44, composing almosthalf the assemblage.

Ammunition recovered from Fort Bowie, occu-pied by the military between 1862 and 1894, is com-prised primarily of .45-caliber rounds, with modesat the .22- and .50-caliber size as well (Herskovitz1978). The size range represented at Fort Bowie isessentially the same as that for the León homestead,except the presence of a few 8-gauge shotgun shellsand an unusual .46-caliber round. However, the dis-tribution of sizes clusters around shell sizes that werestandard military issue, and many of the .22 car-tridges postdate the occupation of the fort. Like thePunta de Agua assemblage, the Fort Bowie cartridgeswere well-suited for conflicts with Apaches.

Artifacts recovered during excavations of Tuc-son’s Block 180 also provide an interesting contrastto the León cartridge (Ayres 1990). This site, withevidence of occupation from prehistoric timesthrough about the 1920s, contained primarily .45- and.50-caliber rounds, with very few cartridges smallerthan a .44-caliber and relatively few shotgun shells.Block 180 was located within the center of town,within a mostly urban setting.

In contrast, a common round recovered from theLeón homestead was the .22-short, a shell most ap-propriate for shooting varmints and bottles. Smallrifles chambered for .22 rounds were also given tochildren who were learning to shoot.

Most of the cartridges recovered from the sitecame from the borrow pit (Feature 4) and a trash pit(Feature 17). There is a clear difference in the typesof cartridges present in the two features. The earlier,Feature 4 assemblage consists almost entirely of rifleand pistol cartridges, while Feature 17 containsmostly shotgun shells. This shift may representchanges in the occupants of the house, changes inthe cost and availability of different kinds of ammu-nition, or changes in the role of firearms over time.The low proportion of shotgun shells at the sites re-viewed above might seem to suggest they were intro-

duced later. However, many people travelingthrough the Tucson Basin during the 1840s and 1850scarried shotguns. The presence of cartridges at thehomestead indicates that either they were fired inthe nearby area, collected for reuse, or discarded asdefective.

.22-Caliber. Twenty-two total .22-short cartridgeswere identified. This round was developed by DanielWesson in 1857, for the Smith and Wesson (S&W)First Model revolver (Barnes 1980). Eleven .22-shortcartridges were recovered from Features 2, 4, and 17with the headstamp “U,” indicating they were manu-factured by the Union Metallic Cartridge Companybetween 1892 and about 1912 (Hull-Walski and Ayres1989:132). Another .22 cartridge bears the headstamp“US” for the U.S. Cartridge Company. That mark wasused between 1869 and 1936 (Hull-Walski and Ayres1989:175).

.28-Caliber. Only six cartridges of this caliber wererecovered during excavation; all were found in thelarge borrow pit area (Features 2 and 4). None bearheadstamps, and all were of the centerfire type. Nocartridges of this size are shown in the 1902 Searsand Roebuck Catalog.

.32-Caliber. Only two .32-caliber cartridges arepresent in the assemblage. One has a datable maker'smark. It is stamped: “W.R.A. CO. 32 W.C.F.” indi-cating it was manufactured by the Winchester Re-peating Arms Company. This mark postdates 1873(Herskovitz 1978:47).

.38-Caliber. Five .38-caliber cartridges were recov-ered during excavation. The two found in Features 4and 17 were too corroded to read a headstamp. Thetwo .38 cartridges found in Feature 2 bear the mark“REM U.M.C. .38 SHORT.” This type of cartridge candate as early as 1866, when a Remington Model 1866revolving rifle became available as a .38 rimfire(Barnes 1980). A later .38 cartridge—also manufac-tured by the Remington-Union Metallic CartridgeCompany—was recovered from Feature 48. It ismarked “REM U.M.C. .38 SPL,” a mark that occurson .38 special rounds after 1911 (Hull-Walski andAyres 1989:158).

.44-Caliber. Four .44-caliber cartridges were foundat the site, all but one of which were recovered fromFeature 4. The other cartridge of this size came froma nonfeature context and is marked “U.M.C. .44 C.F. W.” This mark is that of the Union Metallic Car-tridge Company, and it was used after 1873 (Hersko-vitz 1978:49).

.45-Caliber. A total of six .45-caliber cartridgeswere recovered from the site. Feature 2 yielded anexternally primed .45-70 cartridge marked “C. 84F,” indicating its date of manufacture was 1884(Herskovitz 1978). A Webley-type cartridge marked“W.R.A. Co. 45 WEB” was also recovered from the


feature. A cartridge manufactured before 1899 andmarked “W.R.A. CO. NO. 45 COLT” came fromFeature 4, along with a shell marked “W.R.A. CO.45-70.” Both were manufactured by the WinchesterRepeating Arms Company, and the latter cartridgedates to between 1872 and about 1912 (Barnes1980:126; Herskovitz 1978:51). Probable .45-calibercartridges, unmarked, were also found in Features4 and 48.

.50-Caliber. Six .50-caliber cartridges were recov-ered from the site—1 from Feature 2, 3 from Feature4, 1 from Feature 38, and 1 from Feature 48. Nonewere headstamped.

Shotgun Shells

12-Gauge. Twenty-three 12-gauge shotgun car-tridges were recovered from the site. Many haveheadstamps. Marks present on the three 12-gaugeshells from Feature 4 are: “U.M.C. No. 12 HIGHBASE,” “U.M.C. NO. 12 S G,” and “WINCHESTERNO. 12.” None of these marks can be securely dated.

Feature 10 contained two 12-gauge shotgun car-tridges. One reads “W.R.A. CO. NO. 12 RIVAL” anddates between 1866 and 1940 (Logan 1959:8). Theother reads “1901 No. 12 REPEATER” and datesbetween 1900 and 1938 (Hull-Walski and Ayres1989:176).

A total of 18 12-gauge shells were recovered fromFeature 17, including five “U.M.C. CO. No. 12 NI-TRO CLUB” shells that date between 1899 and 1911(Hull-Walski and Ayres 1989:166) and one “U.M.C.CO. No. 12 ARROW” that dates between 1876 and1911 (Hull-Walski and Ayres 1989). A shell marked“1901 NO. 12 LEADER. WINCH” dates between1894 and 1921 (Hull-Walski and Ayres 1989:191), andthe similar “1901 NO. 12 REPEATER” dates between1900 and 1938 (Hull-Walski and Ayres 1989:176). The12-gauge shell marked “WINCHESTER NO. 12LEADER” recovered from Feature 17, was manufac-tured between 1907 and 1921 (Hull-Walski and Ayres1989:191).

16-Gauge. Of the seven 16-gauge shells recoveredfrom the site, six were recovered from Feature 17,and the other one was recovered from Feature 2. Oneshell from Feature 17 bore a mark that could not besecurely dated: “U.M.C. CO. No. 16 ACME.” How-ever, the “U.M.C. CO. No. 16 ARROW” from thatfeature dates between 1876 and 1911 (Hull-Walskiand Ayres 1989). Feature 2 yielded a 16-gauge shellmarked “W.R.A. Co. RIVAL.,” a mark for whichdates could not be found.

20-gauge. One 20-gauge shotgun cartridge wasalso recovered from Feature 17. Its mark “WIN-CHESTER NO. 20 REPEATER,” dates between 1900and 1938 (Hull-Walski and Ayres 1989:204).

Lead Shot

One piece of buckshot was recovered from Fea-ture 17, and three were found in Feature 4. Two ofthe pieces from Feature 4 are large, averaging ap-proximately ¼-inch diameter.

Native American Weapons

Five likely historic-period projectile points were re-covered from the León farmstead (Figure 5.5). One isa fragment from the middle of a point, three are com-plete, and one is a basal fragment that is identifiablyHistoric or Protohistoric. The complete points includea rather crude, unnotched tri-angular piece; a narrow, finelyserrated, unnotched triangu-lar point; and a small, side-notched point with a deeplyconcave base. These are gener-ally consistent with the rangeof arrow point shapes manu-factured by Apache knappers.Three Native American men—Coyote, Silvestre, and Gre-gorio—lived with the Leónfamily in August 1860, work-ing as farm laborers. Thesemen may have been Apache,because descendants today re-call that Francisco was friendlywith members of this tribe. Itis also possible the arrows werecollected after one of the frequent Apache raids thatoccurred in the 1840s up until 1852 (Officer 1987).

The final fragmentary point has the deeply con-cave base and fine flaking associated with Protohis-toric Sobaipuri people. The remaining fragment is themidsection of a blade; its size and thickness matchthose of the side-notched point. The side-notchedpoint and the nondiagnostic fragment were manu-factured from materials available in the northern ex-tent of the Tucson Basin. The other three materialsmay have been acquired from nonlocal sources.

CLOTHING

Many artifacts relating to clothing and dress wererecovered from the León farmstead, with the 868pieces representing 3.5 percent of the entire assem-blage. These items were retrieved from contexts dat-ing as early as 1840, until about 1910. During this 70-year span, the styles of clothing worn by the Leónfamily would have changed a great deal.

Figure 5.5. A Pimapoint was one of sev-eral arrow pointsfound at the Leónfarmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

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During the nineteenth century, women’s cloth-ing underwent dramatic stylistic changes, both na-tionally and locally. These changes are most evidentin the apparel of wealthier women, who tended toown clothing for different types of occasions. Menalso dressed up for special occasions, although theirgood clothes were often cut very much like every-day wear. Children’s clothing was seen as utilitar-ian, and fashion was not considered a priority untillate in the nineteenth century.

During the 1830s and 1840s, Mexican civiliansresiding in Arizona dressed simply. Jesús García re-ported that, during the summer, many Mexican menwore the same clothing as local Indians (Officer 1987:147). Durivage reported in 1849 that this costumeconsisted of “a very brief breechcloth, sometimesvaried by a shirt of coarse duck” (Bieber 1937:212).García also reported that shoes were fashioned outof leather and that women wore blouses and longskirts of unbleached cotton cloth, with shawls orscarves (rebozos). Some of the cotton cloth may havebeen manufactured locally, but Officer (1987:366)reports that most of it came from Hermosillo.

During the mid-nineteenth century, small amountsof fabric and assembled garments were brought intothe Tucson area by travelers (mostly Americans)passing through the area on their way to or fromCalifornia. These items were carried for the expresspurpose of trading for provisions. Nathaniel Jones,of the Mormon Battalion, traded clothing to Mexi-cans in Tucson in 1846, in exchange for beans and flour(Officer 1987:200). Eight years later, however, JamesG. Bell found he could not buy a single melon from agroup of Pima and Maricopa Indians near Tucson forthe price of a “good cotton shirt” (Bell 1932:63).

In 1849, Lorenzo D. Aldrich (1950:52) reportedtrading cotton goods to Mexicans just outside of Tuc-son for the price of “3s.” per yard. William P. Huffwas prepared for a great deal of trading in 1850, andfound eager Mexican customers near San Xavier forseveral items:

At Socorro on the Rio Grande I had purchased thirtyyards of very fine blue strouding [woolen cloth] attwo dollars a yard, eight-bolts of whole pieces offlashy prints or calico selected well to please theeye and taste of an Indian or a Mexican at fifteencents per yard, five whole pieces of fine bleacheddomestic one yard wide at fifteen cents per yard;two dozen pair of ladies stockings at twenty centsper pair, and two dozen pair of ladies fine prunellabootees at one dollar and six bits per pair, with alot of ribonets [sic], beads, pins, needles, tape, but-tons, thread, thimbles, and butcher knives. . . . TheMexican brought with him, his wife, his twodaug[h]ters, and his two sons. . . . All of them werebarefooted except sandals strapped to their feet. Thedresses of the mother and her two daughters were

rent and torn whilst the ragged and nearly workout clothes of the youngest girl scarcely fell to herknees (Hosmer 1991:58-59).

Huff also carried men's and children's boots, hats,fine- and coarse-tooth combs, scissors, strands ofwhite beads, blue glass beads, thimbles, pins, needles,threads, jewelry (including crosses), and blue jeanfabric which he traded to local Mexicans.

Wool and silk were materials of choice for betterclothing, coats, and other outerwear during the sec-ond half of the nineteenth century (Laraine DalyJones, personal communication 2000). In contrast,cotton was preferred for everyday clothing, becauseit could be washed and was cooler for working andfor the hot summer days of the Sonoran desert. Cot-ton was also less expensive and could be obtainedwith printed designs.

Women’s dresses housed at the Arizona Histori-cal Society in Tucson that date to the 1840s are char-acterized by plain, drab-colored cottons and silks,with high waists, slightly bloused sleeves, high col-lars, and self-fabric trim (if any). In the 1850s and1860s, these simple dresses were replaced by slightlyfuller skirts and blouses or “waists,” often withdropped shoulder seams, pagoda style (flaring, el-bow-length) sleeves, and plain collars. During themid-1850s, Queen Victoria began using plaid fabrics,and many European and American women quicklyfollowed suit.

Men’s clothing was strongly influenced by mili-tary conventions, at first by the ill-provisioned Mexi-can military, and later by the American troops whocame to help protect settlers from the Apache. Menassociated with both militaries and many wealthiersettlers wore sack coats (jackets cut horizontally inthe back with high, small lapels, and several frontbuttons). This style was still being offered in the 1902Sears Catalog. Under these coats, they wore simplecotton, wool, or flannel shirts; wool trousers; andvests, if available. Boots were often made by localleathersmiths. Men’s clothing styles gradually be-came more refined as the men moved into the civil-ian sector.

After the Civil War, women’s dressier clothingchanged dramatically. The mass of the wide, fullskirts was pushed to the back. This style gave rise tothe bustle, a form made of fabric, horsehair, or metalthat supported a long rear train. Skirts were layeredin twos or threes, often incorporating an asymmetri-cal overskirt. Collars were carefully tailored. Thisperiod also experienced a surge in the popularity ofone-piece dresses for daily wear, often with little or-namentation (Laraine Daly Jones, personal commu-nication 2000). By the 1880s, red fabrics were beingmanufactured domestically and contrasted starklywith the ubiquitous “drabs” used for women’s dresses.


The 1890s brought another new trend—large,gathered sleeves known as leg o’ muttons. Thesesleeves were paired with tight bodices, bustles orheavily draped trains, and high necklines. Many ofthe photographs of the León family featured in Chap-ter 3 (this volume) illustrate this full-sleeved style,with heavy bodice ornamentation, typical of the Vic-torian period. Tight bodices were replaced during thisdecade with loose blouses that permitted more easeof movement. This new style contributed to, and wasfueled by, changes in women’s activities. It was rec-ognized at that time that women benefitted from ac-tivity and exercise and looser clothes were madeavailable for that purpose.

Clothing preserves poorly in the archaeologicalrecord. Cloth and leather decompose, leaving behindthe less perishable portions of clothes including but-tons, shoe nails, and various metal snaps and buck-les. Over 500 artifacts relating to clothing and dresswere recovered from the León homestead. Theseitems were retrieved from contexts dating as earlyas 1840, until about 1910. They include buttons, buck-les, snaps, scissors, jewelry, shoes, clothes pins, shredsof fabric, and a bottle of sewing machine oil. Theitems provide some information about the clothingworn by the León family.

Buttons

Buttons are often the only portion of clothing thatis preserved in the archaeological record. Becausebuttons have historically been (and still are to someextent) saved for reuse, many worn-out garmentswere tossed into trash pits without their buttons,only to decay without a trace. In turn, buttons wereused on newer and newer garments, until they werefinally lost or intentionally discarded. As a conse-quence, buttons are usually older than the archaeo-logical materials with which they are associated.When the León homestead was first founded, but-tons would have been in scarce supply and wereprobably conserved.

In the button industry, button sizes are expressedas lines, or lignes. There are 40 lines to the inch, andthe most common button sizes are even incrementsbetween 10 and 60 lines. Button size and type canindicate the type of garment for which they wereintended. Early Sears Roebuck catalogs includedguidelines about the types of buttons appropriatefor various uses, and many seamstresses and cloth-iers probably followed those guidelines (Claassen1994). Button sizes between 12 and 20 lines were rec-ommended in the 1895 through 1904 catalogs fortrim, shirts, waist, girls’ dresses, and women’sdresses. By 1908, these sizes were also recommendedfor sweaters and undergarments. Approximately half

the buttons found at the León homestead fit into the12- to 20-line size range, most of which were manu-factured from shell or glass.

In the 1895 through 1904 Sears catalogs, buttonsover 20 lines were recommended for dresses, jack-ets, coats, undergarments, and overalls. By 1908, ref-erences to their use for undergarments were dropped,and they were suggested for use in waistbands. Ap-proximately one-third of the buttons from the Leónsite are larger than 20 lines, including all but one ofthe bone buttons (bone buttons were specifically rec-ommended for pants or corsets). Most of the metalbuttons recovered from the site were larger than 30lines, indicating their use on overcoats and other largegarments. Many of the metal buttons were mis-shapen, broken, or too eroded to measure, but ap-peared to fall into this range. Five of the nine bonebuttons recovered from the site measure 26 lines.Because shell buttons in this unusual size went outof production in 1911 (Claassen 1994), these bonebuttons were likely also manufactured prior to that.

A total of 321 buttons were recovered from theLeón house excavations. The range of button mate-rials recovered from the site is typical for the timeperiod. The most common material is porcelain orglass (n = 128), followed closely by shell (n = 115),metal (n = 55), bone (n = 9), Bakelite (n = 4), hardrubber (n = 7), and plastic (n = 3). Metal, bone, andshell buttons have been manufactured in quantitysince at least the eighteenth century, and porcelainbuttons have been available since the early 1800s(LeVine 1975:69). Hard rubber buttons date no earlierthan the 1850s, and Bakelite (early plastic) and mod-ern plastic buttons date to the turn-of-the-centuryor later.

Two main styles of buttons are included in thebutton assemblage: disk and ball. Disk-shaped but-tons comprise the majority of the assemblage andinclude both sew-through and rear-shanked buttons.Very few ball buttons were found; all have rearshanks, indicating they were probably used on shoes.

Sew-through Disk Buttons

Porcelain or Glass. The most common type of but-ton in the León assemblage is the mass-producedporcelain or glass, four-hole, round disk button, witha recessed face (Figure 5.6). Distribution of this typeof button is summarized in Table 5.7. Most are white,but examples of gray, black, cobalt blue, and brownbuttons were also found. These buttons were prob-ably used on factory-made garments, such as inex-pensive shirts and dresses. One of the buttons has abrown printed calico pattern, made to match calicofabric. Calico buttons were first produced in the 1840s(LeVine 1975:65). Porcelain and milk glass buttonsare still widely used today.

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Variants in this category, not tallied in the dis-cussion above, include a matching set of four cobaltblue, glass, two-hole buttons with an impressed flo-ral design. These buttons were recovered from Fea-ture 48. Feature 4 yielded two two-hole brown por-celain buttons with raised faces, as well as a whiteporcelain button with two holes and a molded spokepattern. A plain white button with two holes wasrecovered from Feature 18. An unusual 22-line whiteporcelain button, with a painted gray rim, was pulledfrom Feature 38. Additionally, a sew-through but-ton with a conical back was recovered from Feature36. This type of button is suitable for use on a sweater.

Pearl or Shell. Pearl (mother of pearl) disk but-tons comprise the second-most common button typefound at the León site. This type of button wasmanufactured in the United States during the nine-teenth century, but Birmingham, England, remainedthe shell-button capital of the world until late in thecentury. Shell buttons were made by hand-cuttingor hand-sawing disks (blanks) from ocean or fresh-water shells. They were then drilled, sanded, andpolished. In the late nineteenth century, machineswere invented to automate this process somewhat.Sizing of shell buttons is somewhat irregular, dueto the nature of the raw material and the manufac-turing process.

The pearl disk buttons recovered from the site canbe divided into five main types: flat-front, concaveor recessed-face, raised-relief, fisheye, and carvedspoke (Table 5.8). Miscellaneous buttons include a24-line button from Feature 4, with two holes placednear the edge of the disk like a pendant. Anotherunusual pearl button from that feature is very thick

and trapezoidal in cross section. It mea-sures 14 lines across and has deeply re-cessed holes. A single 18-line “whistle”type of button, so named for having onehole on the front and two on the back,was found in Feature 17. Additionally,a four-hole shell button with a conicalback and deeply recessed holes wasfound in Feature 25.

Flat-front pearl buttons have eithertwo or four holes and occasionally haveshallow, scribed circles around the pe-rimeter. Three of the flat-fronts are darkor smoky in color. Concave or recessed-face buttons cover a wide range of sil-houettes, including shallow basin shapesand sharply recessed centers. A few ofthe overall concave shell buttons fea-tured a raised disk or circle in the cen-ter, into which the sewing holes weredrilled. Several fisheye buttons were re-covered, named for the eye-shaped in-dentation in the center of the button in

which two sewing holes are found. They include ex-amples of a variety known as the “ring fisheye,”named for a raised rim at the edge of the button. Oth-ers have raised circles around the fisheye itself. Threesmall buttons were also recovered with a hand-carved spoke design on the front.

Bone. Nine bone disk buttons were recovered fromthroughout the site (Features 4, 8, 10, 17, and 48).The size range, 20 to 26 lines, is consistent with theirtraditional use as trouser buttons. Bone buttons areusually made of cattle bone that has been cleaned,boiled, and cut into lengthwise slabs from whichdisks of various sizes were removed. Among the bonebuttons recovered from the León site, most have re-cessed faces with either two or four holes. One hasvery large holes (1/8 inch).

Metal. Feature 2 yielded one two-hole aluminumbutton and one large, two-hole tin button. Two simi-lar tin buttons were recovered from Feature 4, as wasa highly eroded four-hole zinc button with a raisedrope design around the border and an extremelyrusted four-hole iron or steel button. The only sew-through brass button came from Feature 4. It has arecessed face with a decorative border and is approxi-mately 30 lines in size. Feature 17 yielded a four-holeiron or steel button, and a probable four-hole tinbutton was recovered from Feature 28. Because pres-ervation is often poor, it is difficult to accuratelymeasure metal button sizes. However, most appearto measure approximately 30 lines and are appropri-ately sized for trousers, jackets, coats, and overalls.

Synthetics. Hard rubber sew-through buttonsfrom the site include a dark brown, two-hole, 29-linebutton recovered from Feature 4. It is ornamented

Figure 5.6. Various clothing buttons recovered from the León farmstead,AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).


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100 Chapter 5

Table 5.8. Distribution of the main types of pearl, sew-through disk buttons, by feature, from the León farmstead, AZBB:13:505 (ASM).

Flat-front

Concave or Recessed-face Raised-relief Fisheye Carved Spoke Row Total

Feature 2 - 5 1 2 - 8

Feature 4 9 11 6 2 - 28

Feature 8 - 1 - 1 - 2

Feature 10 - 6 1 - - 7

Feature 17 6 16 - - - 22

Feature 18 - - - - 1 1

Feature 22 - 1 - - - 1

Feature 25 - - - - 1 1

Feature 28 1 - - 1 1 3

Feature 36 - 1 - - - 1

Feature 38 1 - 1 - - 2

Feature 48 2 9 - 9 - 20

Feature 61 - 1 - - - 1

Column total 19 51 9 15 3 97

ton, so the metal of the shank shows through the but-ton. Loop shanks, also made of metal, are attached tothe back of the button either with a flat plate, or byinserting the wire into a shallow hole on the back.Unfortunately, most of the shanked buttons recoveredfrom the León farmstead were very corroded, so thetype of shank could not always be identified.

Porcelain and Glass. Pin-shanked buttons from Fea-ture 4 include two, black glass buttons, 22 and 26lines respectively. The 22-line button has a recessedface. Feature 17 yielded a clear, frosted glass pin-shankbutton that measures 15 or 16 lines. Loop-shankedbuttons include a black conical glass button; anopaque, brown glass semispherical button; and abumpy-textured, heart-shaped, light blue glass but-ton found in Feature 4. A fancy, lavender, facetedglass button front was recovered from Feature 4. Itwas indented with a gilded fleur-de-lis on the backvisible through the translucent glass. It measures 24lines and is missing its back shank. A white porce-lain button with a yellow-painted star pattern on thefront and a red-painted rim was also recovered fromFeature 38.

Shell. Only two shanked shell buttons were foundat the site. One 20-line button, found in Feature 17,has a brass shank and a plain face with a shallowscribed circle around the front edge. Additionally, a24-line loop-shanked shell button was recovered fromFeature 48.

Metal. Most of the metal buttons recovered fromthe site have rear shanks. They include two UnitedStates military buttons—both manufactured from

by a series of raised concentric rings on the front andis marked on the back “N. R. Co./GOODYEAR/PAT. 1851.” This is the mark of the Novelty RubberCompany, organized in 1855, to manufacture but-tons using the Goodyear patent (Albert and Kent 1949:406). The same mark has been found on rubber but-tons from contemporaneous sites, including RanchoPunta de Agua (1855-1877) near San Xavier del Bac(McGuire 1979) and La Casa del Rancho los Cerritos(1844-1885) in southern California (LeVine 1975).

Another dark brown, rubber button found in Fea-ture 4 has a raised scroll and leaf pattern. A 16-line,four-hole rubber button was also recovered fromFeature 48. Two sew-through Bakelite buttons werepulled from Feature 4. Both are thick and somewhatmisshapen, possibly indicating they were home-made. One is black; the other is dark purple. The mostmodern-looking button in the assemblage is a white,plastic button with an elaborate cut-out design andapplied red, green, and yellow painted details. Thisbutton has two holes and measures 30 lines.

Shanked Disk Buttons

Shanked buttons are those with loops or holes onthe back side that permit the button to be attachedwithout showing the stitches. Shanks can be integratedinto the button material (self-shanks), or attached tothe rear. Most attached shanks are metal, regardlessof the main material of the button. They are availablein a variety of shapes and types. Pin shanks are at-tached through a perforation in the center of the but-


brass and of the size and style used for coats of en-listed men (Figure 5.7). The first button belonged toan infantry member and exhibits the Line Eagle de-vice that was manufactured between 1833 and 1865(Brinckerhoff 1972:5). The other is an early GeneralService button, made between 1855 to 1884 (Brincker-hoff 1972:5). Both military buttons were recoveredfrom Feature 4.

Fourteen other brass buttons recovered from thesite are also rear-shanked. The smallest is a 16-line,hollow button found in Feature 2. In addition to themilitary buttons described above, Feature 4 yielded10 brass buttons and fragments, including the backsof several fabric-covered buttons and one large but-ton that may also have been used on a military coat,but is unmarked. A brass button or snap cover wasrecovered from Feature 10. The face of this buttonhas been textured to simulate hammered metal. Ananchor design is featured on a button from Feature17. Two brass buttons that were once fabric coveredalso came from Feature 17.

The only copper button found at the site has asquare shank on the rear and has remnants of blackpaint. It was recovered from Feature 17. All the ironand steel buttons recovered during excavation arehighly corroded and fragmentary. They include 14buttons from Feature 4, 1 from Feature 13, 6 fromFeature 17, and 1 from Feature 61. One shanked zincbutton-back and two shanked tin buttons were re-covered from Feature 4. Two 40-line tin buttons werealso found in Feature 17.

Synthetic. Two shanked rubber buttons were re-covered from Feature 4. One is reddish in color,spherical, and is missing its shank. The other is brownand has two rows of four tiny circles impressed inthe front, inside a hexagon and a circle. This buttonappears to be quite old. In contrast, a fancy, red, plas-tic shanked button with a raised scroll and berry orflower pattern was recovered from Feature 2. Thisbutton appears to be modern. Feature 17 also yieldeda plastic, heart-shaped “opal” set in a brass settingwith a loop shank.

Ball Buttons

Five ball (or sphere) buttons made of variousmaterials were recovered from the site, all with at-tached rear shanks. This type of button was tradi-tionally used for shoes in the nineteenth century andwould have been made only in black or white. Later,ball buttons were also used for sweaters. A 16-linewhite shell ball button with a brass shank was re-covered from Feature 4, and a white 16-line porce-lain ball button with a brass loop shank was foundin Feature 17. A black glass ball button, missing itsshank, was recovered from Feature 4. Two black

buttons—made of hard rubber or plastic—were alsofound. They include an unusual, 12-line, wood grain-textured button with a brass loop shank found inFeature 2, and a plain black 16-line ball button witha brass shank found in Feature 17.

Collar Studs

Another type of “button” identified at the site isthe pawn-shaped collar stud. Only three examplesof this type were found, all from Feature 17. Theyare manufactured from white porcelain or milk glassand have a series of concentric grooves on the flatside.

Buckles, Snaps, and Other Fasteners

Although buttons were the most common type ofclothing fastener recovered from the León household,34 buckles, snaps, and clips were also present. In manycases, it was not possible to determine the originalfunctions of the fasteners, although many are the cor-rect size for suspenders or garters. However, the useof metal buckles in women’s undergarments did notbecome widespread until the twentieth century(Laraine Daly Jones, personal communication 2000).

Feature 2 contained four fasteners, including agoblet-shaped buckle, two plain garter or suspenderbuckles, and one suspender snap. Similar items werefound deeper in the borrow pit. Feature 4 containeda brass suspender or garter clip with a crown deco-ration, a plain brass belt buckle of possible militaryissue, and eight suspender or garter snaps (two steeland six brass).

A trash pit (Feature 17) yielded one very elabo-rate brass suspender clip, three garter or suspendersnaps (one of which has cloth attached), and a smallbrass buckle. A brass suspender buckle recoveredfrom Feature 8 still has a small amount of white wo-ven cloth attached.

Figure 5.7. A pair of brass U.S. military buttons recoveredfrom the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

102 Chapter 5

A small, nicely made mother-of-pearl belt bucklewas recovered from Feature 48. That feature alsoyielded a small iron or steel buckle sized for awoman's belt, as well as a small brass buckle and adecorated suspender clip (Figure 5.8).

Accessories

A total of 17 glass beads were recovered duringexcavation of Features 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 28, and48. The beads vary greatly in color, although mostare round or nearly so. The range of colors is consid-erable: white, clear, yellow, red, light blue, blue, co-balt blue, aqua, green, and dark blue-green. Most ofthe beads are about ¼ inch in diameter and wouldhave been suitable for use in a rosary or necklace. Afew of the more elaborate faceted beads may havecome from hat pins or earrings. One very unusual,perfectly spherical, iridescent glass bead has ex-tremely thin walls. This bead would have been toodelicate for everyday use.

Eighteen jewelry items were found at the site. Themost striking is a carved shell cameo that was foundin Feature 25, with a mill or New England scene setin a brass setting (Figure 5.9). Feature 2 yielded ahomemade brass wire earring, a jewelry pendantwith places for three glass gems (now missing), anda brooch with fleur-de-lis and raised dot patterns andtwo holes for inset gems (now missing). In Feature 4,a gilt brass pendant with a purple “gem,” a heart-shaped brass pendant or charm, a small brass pinwith an abstract design, a brass or copper ring, and apossible lead hat pin were found. Other items includea fragment of a gold chain and the back of an ovalbrass brooch from Feature 17, a round brass pendantwith an abstract design from Feature 6, and a deco-rative aluminum hat pin from Feature 48.

Four homemade jewelry items were made fromshell. Two pendants were present, one from an oliveshell and one from a Panamanian cockle. One shellbead was manufactured from a bittersweet shell, anda probable bead was made from a turret shell. All fourof the shell jewelry items come from the earliest de-posits at the site and suggest the Leóns adorned them-selves with shell jewelry during the Mexican period.

Three fragments of purse frames were recovered.One, that appears to be made of zinc, has fragmentsof red cloth adhering to it; it was found in Feature 4.Brass purse frame fragments were recovered fromFeatures 2 and 48. The former consists of a purse claspof molded scrolling floral design, with a ball claspand a ring for a chain to attach.

Several hair accessories were also found. A darkbrown, hard rubber, decorative hair comb with shelledging was recovered from Feature 4. Additionally,two, small, brass barrettes were found in Feature 17.

Figure 5.8. A decorated brass suspender clip from Feature48, the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Fabric

Cloth does not usually preserve well in buriedarchaeological sites; therefore, it is not surprising thatonly two pieces of woven fabric were recovered fromthe homestead. Feature 10 yielded numerous frag-ments of a single piece of black, woven, wool cloth.Small fragments of black cotton cloth were also re-covered from Feature 48.

Figure 5.9. A carved shell cameo depicts a womannext to a mill with a typical New England scenein the background; recovered from Feature 25, theLeón farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).


Shoes

Numerous shoe parts were found throughout thesite, from Features 2, 4, 10, 17, 18, 28, 36, 47, and 48.The most impressive item was a silver-plated brassshoe buckle recovered from Feature 4. Other itemsincluded numerous fragments of highly deterio-rated leather (some with shoelace eyelets attached),seven individual shoe heels, and two brass heelplates. Numerous individual shoelace eyelets andgrommets, shoe sole fragments, shoe nails, twometal shoelace tips, and numerous rubber insolefragments were also collected. Three of the shoeheels were small enough to fit a child or a smallwoman, and at least one sole appeared to be from aman's shoe.

Sewing or Clothing Care Items

A few items that were used for sewing or cloth-ing care were recovered from the site. These itemsinclude 2 brass safety pins, 2 rusted portions of scis-sors, 4 clothes pin springs, and a bottle that reads“SEWING MACHINE OIL.”

PERSONAL

The personal artifacts category is a catch-all groupof artifacts that generally includes the personalpossessions of a single individual, such as coins andtokens, tobacco or opium paraphernalia, religiousitems, medicines, and hygiene items. The category isfor artifacts that were typically found in a person'spockets or medicine cabinets. Keys are typically in-cluded in this category, although none were foundat the site. A total of 194 artifacts from the León farm-stead were placed in this category.

Coins and Tokens

Prior to the arrival of the Americans in the 1850s,much of the trade within Tucson was done throughbarter; people exchanged goods and services. A smallamount of coinage was probably present; however,there were few things that could be purchased. AForty-Niner named James Bell, traveling westthrough Arizona on his way to California, reported:

Currency here, and in fact, from El Paso up, is prin-cipally copper, about the size of a twelve and a halfcent piece, and without any regard to weight, isworth one sixteenth of a bit, denomination, onequarter. American coins do not pass, their being astatute against it (Bell 1932:56).

The coin described is probably the quarter real, a smallcopper coin minted in Sonora.

After the 1850s, United States money was the pre-ferred medium of exchange, as noted in documentsinvolving financial transactions, such as deeds orstore inventories. Mexican coins, however, continuedto be used until the early 1900s.

Twelve coins were recovered from the Leónhomestead site. Eight were quarter real coins mintedin Hermosillo (5 from Feature 4, 2 from Feature 25,and 1 from Feature 28) (Figure 5.10). The coins aremarked on the obverse side “EST. D. SONORA. UNA.CUART.,” with a pair of quivers separated by an ar-row. The reverse side is marked “A DE 1832 L. S.HERMOSILLO,” with a date (ranging from 1832 to1836) and a Phrygian cap surrounded by the radiat-ing rays of the sun. The initials L. S. refer to Leon-ardo Santoyo, who minted the coins (Pradeau 1934).The examples from the León homestead included onefrom 1832, one from 1834, and two from 1835. Theremaining four had illegible dates. The same type ofcoin has been found at the Tucson Presidio, the Mis-sion of San Agustín, the San Xavier Mission, Puntade Agua, and at Tubac—indicating it was the pre-ferred coin for the region, perhaps because it was theonly available coinage.

Four other coins were minted in the United States.An 1876 half dime and a 1879 Indian head pennywere recovered from the Feature 4 fill. A 1920 pennycame from the Feature 2 sheet trash and an 1891 In-dian head penny was found outside the house foun-dation during wall clearing. Deeds recorded by theLeón family indicate they used United States moneyfrom the 1860s.

Two trade tokens were also recovered from theLeón farmstead. One token from Feature 2 wasmarked “Doug Hinton May 31 Good Luck,” with astylized flag on the reverse. The second token was

Figure 5.10. A cuarto real minted atHermosillo between 1832 and 1836,from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

104 Chapter 5

recovered from Feature 17 andwas marked “Good for 5¢ intrade,” and on the reverse, “42”(Figure 5.11). These tokens weredistributed by merchants and sa-loons for several reasons: as pro-motional pieces, to reward cus-tomers, for tax purposes, and formaking change.

Tobacco

Five pieces of white kaolin to-bacco pipes were found in theborrow pit, Feature 4. Three frag-ments belonged to the same ka-olin pipe (Figure 5.12). The pipe has elaboratelymolded busts inside circular wreaths, which, in turn,are between an upper row of abstract flowers and alower row of raised designs. The heel of the pipe hasa crest-like design. The remaining two pieces werefragments of stems.

Clay pipes are rare in Tucson and southern Ari-zona. Previous excavations have resulted in the re-covery of a small number of clay pipes. Tubac, Puntade Agua, and excavations at Phoenix Blocks 72 and73 recovered 10 kaolin pipe pieces, as well as severalplastic pipe stems, snuff bottles, and tobacco tins(Thiel 1998). One bowl fragment was found in exca-vations at the Tucson City Hall west lawn (Thiel2004). A number of pipes were also recovered fromfeatures during the Tucson Urban Renewal projectand are curated at the Arizona State Museum (ASM).

Few of these fragile smoking implements werelikely imported into Tucson. Local residents areknown to have been smoking cigarettes in 1846, whenmembers of the Mormon Battalion reported findingthem in the presidio storehouse. The use of rolledcigarettes and cigars probably continued into theAmerican Territorial period, as well as the use of snuffand chewing tobacco.

Religious

Eleven religious artifacts were found at the Leónfarmstead (Figure 5.13). A fragment of a brass cruci-fix with a molded Christ was recovered from Fea-ture 4, as was a detached Christ corpus. A Victo-rian-era mourning cross, molded from hard rubber,was found in the upper fill of the well, Feature 28.This cross had acorns, a traditional symbol of mourn-ing, and was probably made to resemble jet. A giltchain with beads, two religious medallions, and awood and brass crucifix were found in Feature 17.The crucifix was missing the Christ corpus; however,

a small diskwith the crownof thorns andsun rays wasstill attached tothe wood in-lays. This wasidentified as a nun’s cross by Sister Alberta Cammack(personal communication, 2000) and was likely usedby Sister Amelia, Cleofa León. The religious medalswere both oval. One was brass and was marked,“Holy Mary Ever Virgin and Conceived Without Sin,Pray for Me Who Implore Thy Aid.” The other wassilver plated and was marked, “Joseph, Model ofPurity, P. P. Us, Guardian Angel [illegible] me.” Themedals, the rosary chain and beads, and the crucifixmay have all once been a part of the same artifact—broken and discarded into the depression.

Religious artifacts are very rarely found at secu-lar sites in Arizona. One religious medallion was re-covered during work at Sunset Park in Tucson (Thiel1996).

As noted in Chapter 3, the León family weremembers of the Catholic church. Francisco’s andRamona’s lives were entwined with religion; there-fore, the recovery of crucifixes, medallions, and ro-sary beads is not particularly surprising.

Medicines

A relatively small number of medical artifactswere recovered from the site. The late nineteenth andearly twentieth century were boom years for patentand proprietary medicines, which promoted boister-ous claims for cures while providing little actual help.It appears, however, that the León family was notinterested in purchasing these sorts of medicines.

A total of 69 medical artifacts were recoveredfrom the site—most were fragments of medicine

Figure 5.12. A kaolin clay pipe fromFeature 4, the León farmstead, AZBB:13:505 (ASM).

Figure 5.11. A trade token recoveredfrom Feature 17, the León farmstead,AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).


bottles. One bottle of “Bronchi-lyptus For Coughs”was recovered from the general site area; two “BromoSeltzer” bottles were found in Feature 17; and a“Chas. H. Fletcher” Castoria, or cod liver oil, bottlewas found in Feature 48. A few other fragments ofbottles—including a mentholatum ointment jar fromFeature 48 and a bottle embossed “(c)hemists” fromFeature 39—were collected. The extensive fragmen-tation of glass bottles may have reduced our abilityto identify them. There was also a lack of prescrip-tion bottle finishes and embossed product names orgraduated markings, which are common on store-bought medicine bottles.

A few other medicinal artifacts were present.These included: vials from Features 2, 17, and 48;threaded caps for bottles or tubes from Features 2and 48; a pipette from Feature 10; and a medicinetube from Feature 17.

Hygiene

Hygiene artifacts are those used to clean andmaintain the human body; 72 artifacts from the Leónfarmstead fit into this category.

Forty-four pieces of combs made from bone,hard rubber, and plastic were collected. Four weredouble-sided combs manufactured from cattle bone.The remaining examples were manufactured fromhard rubber or Bakelite and included single-sidedand double-sided examples. One comb from Fea-ture 28 was marked “I. R. Comb Co. Goodyear1931,” with the number apparently representing a

model number, not a date. Combs from dated con-texts indicate bone combs were initially used by theLeón family, and that bone and hard rubber combswere used by the 1880s.

Dental hygiene is represented by a bottle of“Rubifoam for the Teeth” found in Feature 17, sevenfragments from a ceramic toothpaste jar found inFeatures 2 and 4, and a partial mandibular denturefound on the surface of the site. No toothbrushes werefound—not surprising given the overall lack of den-tal care prior to the 1920s, when only 20 percent ofthe American public regularly brushed their teeth(Mattick 1998).

Cosmetic containers were found in Features 2and 48—both were cold cream jars. A part from ametal razor was collected from Feature 48. Fourbottle fragments came from cologne or toilet waterbottles—one each from Features 4 and 48 and twofrom Feature 17. Several bottles thought to have heldantiseptic or cleaning fluids were also found.

Chamber pots and lids were uncommon at thesite, with four examples collected from Features 4and 10. Fragments of a wash basin were found inFeature 17, as was a complete soap dish.

ACTIVITIES

A category for the items that do not fit well intoother categories is that of activities artifacts. A totalof 525 artifacts from the León farmstead were identi-fied as activity related. Some of these items are workrelated, some were used in landscaping, and othersfor communication and recreation.

Tools

Eight tools were found at the León homestead.These were a shovel handle from the Feature 2 sheettrash and a horseshoeing hammer from the Feature17 trash pit. The remaining six tools came from Fea-ture 4 and included a tool handle, a wrench, a chainlink, a blacksmith's hammer, a hammer used to pullnails, and an awl.

Farming

The León house was adjacent to Tucson's agri-cultural fields, and the family is known to havegrown crops along the river. Artifacts used in farm-ing were relatively rare at the site—a result of theirdurability, as well as the fact that they were prob-ably repaired when broken. Archaeologists uncov-ered a blade broken into 30 pieces, a hay-cutting knifeblade, 2 hoes, a brass hose nozzle, a pair of sheep

Figure 5.13. A hard rubber mourning cross, a wood andbrass crucifix, and a Christ corpus, recovered from Fea-tures 28, 17, and 4, respectively, the León farmstead, AZBB:13:505 (ASM).

106 Chapter 5

shears, 46 fencing staples, and 1 piece of barbed wire.One of the hoes was complete and would have beenused for cultivating and weeding crops (Figure 5.14).Some of the staples could have other uses, for ex-ample, to fence off areas around the house from live-stock, or to hold electrical wire in place. More thanone piece of barbed wire was probably present; how-ever, most of the wire found at the León homesteadwas very rusted and fragmented.

Gardening

Fourteen fragments from coarse earthenwareflower pots were collected from the site. Pieces werefound in Features 2, 4, 17, 23, and 48. Most of the sherdscome from post-1900 features. They indicate an inter-est in decorative plants or portable plant containers.

Miscellaneous Hardware

Hardware items that could have come from avariety of items—including furniture, harnesses, andthose for electrical wiring—are placed in the miscel-laneous hardware category. These were a brass rivet,a brass screw, two small iron staples, and a nail witha circular plate attached to its head.

Nuts and Bolts

Nuts and bolts have many uses. They were usedin wagons and carriages, in machinery, to hold cer-tain pieces of furniture together, and so on. A total of26 bolts, 4 bolts with attached nuts, 11 nuts, and 8washers were recovered from the León homestead.

Communication

A large number of artifacts related to written andprinted communication were found at the site, withthe 227 fragments representing a minimum of 92 in-dividual items (Figure 5.15). Two complete glass inkbottles and pieces from an additional nine glass andceramic ink bottles were collected. It was not pos-sible to determine what color of ink the bottles onceheld. No pen parts were found.

Pencils were represented by 12 brass ferrules thatonce held erasers and by 32 pieces of pencil leads,with a minimum of 24 pencils present.

School slates were the most common communi-cation artifact, with 126 fragments collected. Thesepieces may have come from as many as 32 differentslates; however, the high degree of fragmentation and

the inability to fit broken pieces together made it im-possible to determine the actual number present. Atleast two types of slates can be differentiated. One typehad sets of two parallel lines scratched on it; the otherhad sets of five parallel lines. These lines would havebeen helpful in teaching children the correct way toform their letters. The slate with five inscribed linesmay have been used for musical notation. Descendantsof the Leóns believe that Francisco and Ramona hadone of the earliest pianos in Tucson. Daughter Maríais known to have played the piano, and Cleofa at-tended a music college. Seven pieces of chalk, repre-senting five individual pieces, were used on the slates.

Two pieces of printer's type were found in Fea-ture 4; neither was marked. One was a spacer and theother once had a now-illegible letter. Cirilo Leónworked as a typesetter for the Arizona Daily Citizen inthe 1870s, and the type likely came to the site in hispockets before being thrown away. Fragments ofnewspaper were found in room Feature 10 and in

Figure 5.14. An iron hoe from the León farmstead, AZBB:13:505 (ASM), used to cultivate and weed crops.

Figure 5.15. Education artifacts were common at the Leónfarmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM): pencil leads, an ink bottle,and school slate fragments.


outhouse Feature 48. The latterpaper was from an English lan-guage paper. The paper waslikely recycled into toilet paperafter it had been read. Two pagesfrom a book with a characternamed “Lambert” were foundinside room Feature 10. Theseappear to have been from a re-cent paperback novel, and wereintroduced into the feature byburrowing rodents. Anotherpiece of paper was blue in colorand may represent a piece froma label, or possibly wallpaper. Fi-nally, a brass paper clasp from amanila envelope was collected.

The high number of com-munication artifacts indicatesan interest in literacy by theLeón family. This is not surpris-ing, however, given the advo-cacy for education that FranciscoSolano León was well-known forin Tucson.

Toys

Toys appear to have been frequently lost and dis-carded at the León farmstead, with at least 83 itemsrepresented by 95 artifacts (Figure 5.16). Thirty-threeof these were fragments of bisque porcelain dolls.Six of the pieces were from frozen Charlotte or solidbody dolls. These included several torso fragments,an arm, a head with blue eyes and black hair, andone doll with molded clothing. Most of the doll piecescame from medium-to-large, hollow-headed dolls.These dolls had either molded blond hair, or headson which wigs would have been attached. One smallhead with blue-black hair and blue eyes was found,as was a small leg with a yellow boot with a blacktoe and another larger leg with a black boot andmolded stockings. The pieces represent a minimumof 14 dolls. Toy doll dishes were also found, includ-ing several that had apparently fallen through thefloor boards of the later house. The 12 fragmentsrecovered included a plate, two cups, a small potlid, and a zinc teaspoon.

A cast iron toy revolver was found in Feature 4.Two toy jacks, a bone domino, three toy wheels, a toycar steering wheel, and four fragments of a rubberband from a slingshot were also found. A small blockof fired clay found in Feature 28 is probably a gamingpiece. Another gaming piece from Feature 14 was fash-ioned from a fragment of an oliveware vessel. It had

been worked into an oval and was probably used incheckers or some other game. A fragment of turnedivory from Feature 17 may be a part of a chess piece.

Most of the toys (66 percent) were found in fea-tures dating to after 1900. This may reflect the grow-ing availability and lower cost of toys in this period,but may also be because there were few toys madeof durable materials during the early occupation ofthe farmstead. The León and Romero girls playedwith dolls and doll dishes, and the family boys likelyplayed with the marbles, the toy gun, and the slingshot. Marbles, the gaming pieces, and the dominomay have been used by adults.

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation artifacts are those used to movepeople and goods from one point to another. Thesecan include horse equipment, wagon hardware, andbicycle and automobile parts. Only 61 transportationartifacts fit into this category.

Stable Items

Horses were the main mode of transportation inTucson prior to the turn of the century, remainingpopular into the 1920s, gradually being replaced by

Figure 5.16. Toys found at the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM). (Top row,doll parts. Bottom row, a marble and a bone domino.)

108 Chapter 5

automobiles. Horses could be saddled and ridden,or harnessed to draw carriages and wagons. Horsesand oxen could also be harnessed to pull plows andother agricultural equipment.

Saddles were represented by a circular brassdecorative concho, a cinch ring, and a stirrup. Frag-ments from horse or ox harnesses or bridles weremore common, with seven buckles (14 fragments), apiece of leather with an iron pin in it, four rings, andfour rivets present. Some of the equipment used toattach harnesses to wagons was also found, withthree center clips or rings and a whiffletree hook col-lected, as well as two pieces of a probable wagonpart. Finally, eight fragments from seven differenthorseshoes were found.

Mechanical and Automotive Items

Fifteen artifacts, representing eight individualitems, are from machines and automobiles. Theseinclude three fragments from two battery cores, agasket, a cotter pin, a small motor part, and eightfragments of hose or inner tube. The first automo-bile arrived in Tucson in 1899, and by the 1910s,they were increasingly common. It is uncertain ifthe mechanical items found at the site were actu-ally from an automobile. Documentary sources in-dicate León family members had cars by the 1930s;however, the earliest ownership of a car remainsunknown.

UNIDENTIFIED ARTIFACTS

A large number of artifacts (5,092) remain uni-dentified. These include many pieces of metal andsmall fragments of ceramic vessels—none of whichwere large enough to allow for their identification.Iron objects were often the most difficult to identifydue to rust, corrosion, and fragmentation. Iron, steel,and tinned artifacts were generally poorly preserved,a common condition of buried metal items in south-ern Arizona. A few items are potentially identifiable,including components of larger artifacts, but whichwere sufficiently obscure that the analyst was un-able to place them.

A lead seal and a brass pendant were perhapsthe most interesting of these items (Figure 5.17). Alsoincluded in this category were whole or fragmen-tary marine shells that may have been collected tomake jewelry or were souvenirs from visits to theGulf of California or the Pacific Ocean. Two of theLeón children, Manuel and María, attended schoolin California, so they or their father could have col-lected the shell.

ANALYSIS

Archaeologists recovered a variety of artifacts atthe León farmstead site during the testing phase in1998 (Thiel 1999a). The initial examination of theseitems suggested the site was occupied from about1850 to 1910, and that the large borrow pit, Feature4/14/25, could be excavated stratigraphically, pro-viding assemblages that could be separated by timeperiod. This was an exciting find, because the pit wasfilled during a pivotal timespan, ranging from whenTucson was a Mexican fortress, until Arizona becamethe forty-eighth state. The large number of artifactscould be used to address some very basic researchquestions, including:

• When were the various features at the site usedfor trash disposal?

• How did material culture—the everyday objectsused by the Leóns—change during the occupa-tion of the site?

• Were distinctive artifacts used by Mexican fami-lies in Tucson? How do the recovered artifactsdiffer from other excavated sites?

• Did the León family purchase the latest fashion-able items? How did the arrival of the Ameri-cans in 1856, and the railroad in 1880, change life?

• Do the artifacts suggest the Leóns were wealthy?

In the remainder of the chapter, each of thesequestions is examined individually.

Dating the Occupation of the Site

When was the León farmstead occupied? Dur-ing what time period was trash discarded into thelarge borrow pit? When was the second structurebuilt? These questions can be addressed, becausesome of the artifacts found at the site can be datedthrough maker's marks, product names, and distinc-

Figure 5.17. A lead seal and a pendant were among theunidentified artifacts from the León farmstead, AZBB:13:505 (ASM).


tive manufacturing techniques (Table 5.9; see alsoAppendix B).

Artifacts found in each feature were manufac-tured for varying amounts of time. A number ofguides provide dates for bottles, ceramics, metalitems, and other artifacts (see Appendix B). The lat-est beginning manufacturing date for a feature wasdetermined by identifying which artifact was the lastto begin manufacture. The range in dates includesthe earliest and latest manufacturing dates for allartifacts from a feature. The ranges for individualartifacts in a feature were averaged, then added to-gether, and finally, an overall manufacturing datewas calculated. The probable date of filling was de-termined by examining all of these dates, as well aslooking at whether the dates for individual artifactstended to cluster at a certain time period.

Most of the datable artifacts came from the latestfeatures at the site. Feature 48, the outhouse on thewestern side of the site, was the last historic-periodfeature filled during the 1920s and 1930s. The arti-facts found in the Feature 2 trash midden containeditems thrown away from the 1900s, to shortly after1920. Feature 17, a shallow trash pit, was slightly ear-lier, with items manufactured in the 1900s to 1910sfound in the pit.

The earlier features at the site contained fewerartifacts with maker's marks. In some cases, it wasnecessary to use the type of ceramic decoration tosuggest dates. As an example, the large, trash-filledborrow pit (Feature 4/14/25) was excavated in threemajor stratigraphic layers. The top layer containeditems manufactured from the early 1890s to the 1910s.The middle layer had artifacts dating from the 1870sto the 1880s. Finally, the earliest fill in the pit yieldedartifacts from as early as the 1840s to the 1860s. Only afew datable artifacts came from the earliest layer—

most were transfer-print ceramics with Romanticpatterns (Samford 1997). These sherds lacked maker'sor manufacturer's marks, although the color of thetransfer and the overall design allowed them to be ap-proximately dated. The lack of datable artifacts fromthe early levels of the borrow pit is not surprising. It islikely that few imported manufactured goods wereowned by the Leóns during this period.

In summary, artifacts indicate the initial occu-pation of the León homestead began in the periodbetween the 1840s to the 1860s, a time matching his-torical records that suggest the Leóns were livingat the site by the mid-1840s. Artifacts from the lowerportion of the borrow pit, Feature 4/14/25, andfrom the well, Feature 28, reveal these features arethe oldest uncovered. The reoccupation of the site,beginning in the mid-1870s, can be seen by artifactsrecovered from the borrow pit. Through time, theoverall number of features increased, and a largesample of items discarded from the 1890s to the1920s were recovered, including the top of the bor-row pit; a trash-filled pit, Feature 17; and an out-house, Feature 48.

Changing Artifacts: Historic Ceramicsand Other Items

The timespan between 1840 and 1930 was oneof great change, with Tucson evolving from a smallborderland fortress to a community linked to theoutside world by roads, rails, telephones, and a gov-ernment-supported postal service. To the handfulof people who were born in Tucson and lived untilthe beginning of the twentieth century, such as Ra-mona Elías de León, the changes must have beenunimaginable.

Table 5.9. Dated features at the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Feature Type Latest Beginning Manufacturing Date Range

Averaged Manufacturing Dates

Probable Date

2 Sheet trash 1920 1885-1964 1918.8 1910-1925

4 Borrow pit, upper fill

1936 1832-1936 1893.7 1890s-1910s

4 Borrow pit, middle fill

1876 1831-1890s 1856.9 1870s-1880s

4/14/25 Borrow pit, lower levels

1860s 1814-1867 1838.2 1840s-1860s

17 Trash-filled pit 1910 1858-1938 1911.7 1905-1915

38 Planting pit 1892 1892+ – 1892+

48 Outhouse 1930 1885-1970 1940.25 1920-1935

Note: Artifacts for which there is no known ending date of manufacture, or that are still being made today, were excludedfrom the “Averaged Manufacturing Date” column, or, for Feature 4, were assigned 1950 as an ending date.

110 Chapter 5

The León family has its roots in Tucson, with Fran-cisco and Ramona born and raised in the presidio.During their childhood, Tucson was an isolated fron-tier community, constantly on alert for attacks by theApache. Goods were brought north to Tucson bymule pack train, but this was often a costly and dan-gerous journey. As a result, relatively few items wereimported. Documentary sources indicate arms andammunition, religious items, some foodstuffs andbeverages, books, writing equipment and paper, andcloth and clothing were brought into the community(Dobyns 1976; McCarty 1976, 1997). While some per-ishable materials—such as items made of leather,cloth, and wood—have left no traces, archaeologicalinvestigations have identified ceramic vessels, beads,guns, ammunition, coins, and religious artifacts thatdate to the Spanish and Mexican periods at the Pre-sidio of Tucson (Thiel 2004; Thiel et al. 1995).

Accounts by the earliest Anglo travelers, re-viewed in Chapter 2 (this volume), agree there was ashortage of basic goods in the late 1840s, at about thetime the León site was first occupied. By the mid-to-late 1850s, Anglo and Mexican entrepreneurs wereimporting a variety of goods (McGuire 1979). Withina few years, a variety of merchandise could be pur-chased as wagons laboriously hauled freight in over-land. The arrival of the railroad in 1880 made the worldreadily accessible to Tucsonans and allowed any andall goods to be imported into the community.

Ceramics

During the occupation of the León site, many ce-ramic artifacts were broken and discarded. During thecurrent excavations, 5,000 sherds were collected fromartifacts manufactured in Mexico, England, France, theeastern and midwestern United States, China, andJapan (Table 5.10). An additional 3,624 Native Ameri-can-made sherds were found and are reported in de-tail in Chapter 7. Each of the other major types ofhistoric-period ceramics is described below.

Mexican Ceramics

Ceramics manufactured in Mexico were importedinto Tucson during the Presidio era into the Ameri-can period. These vessels were used to transportfoods and beverages, for storage and meal prepara-tion, and for meal service.

Mexican Glazed Wares

A total of 629 sherds of lead-glazed, wheel-turnedMexican ceramics were collected. This type of ceramicis inadequately understood, especially for sites from

the mid-1800s onward. Vessels come in a variety offorms and have many different glaze colors, some withadditional painted or molded decoration. Glazedsherds found at the León site range from olive greento brown to orange. Many vessels have moderatelythick walls, are glazed on the interior, and are glazedonly along the rim of the exterior, unless the vessel isa jar or pitcher, in which case most of the exterior maybe glazed. A few vessels, however, have quite thinwalls, a terra cotta appearance, and are either un-glazed, or have a very ephemeral light green-to-oliveglaze. Many have sooted bottoms, suggesting theywere used as cooking vessels. Others were probablyused for mixing, storing, and serving foods.

Bowls are the most common vessel form for Mexi-can glazed ware at the León home, representing 72percent of the glazed sherds. Several bowls hadlooped handles at one side and a series of fingerprintindentations at the opposite side of the rim, whichmay have facilitated pouring.

Shallow footed saucers were also present, includ-ing one complete example (Figure 5.18). Jars andpitchers were represented by 29 sherds and platesby 22 sherds. The remaining sherds came from ves-sels whose form could not be identified. In one case,a gaming piece had been fashioned out of a sherd.

Previous researchers have called olive greenglazed vessels Guanajuato Green (Caywood 1950:85;Gerald 1968:53; Shenk and Teague 1975:95). Thecream-to-light green glazed bowls have been calledTonala Glaze or Tonala Polychrome (Caywood1950:85; Gerald 1968:54). Both types have been iden-tified at other Tucson Presidio sites (Thiel et al. 1995),the Tubac Presidio (Shenk and Teague 1975), and atPunta de Agua (McGuire 1979:27). In Tucson, use ofthese glazed vessels continued into the early 1900s(e.g., Thiel 1996; Thiel and Desruisseaux 1993). It iscurious that these vessels continued to be used whilemajolica was abandoned. The Mexican vessels wereprobably either inexpensive or in demand for someother quality, such as being durable or being able tobe placed directly onto a stove.

Mexican Majolica

A total of 53 pieces of Mexican majolica was re-covered from the León homestead. Most were bro-ken into small fragments by trampling, making itdifficult to determine individual vessel form and styleof decoration. No vessels were reconstructible.

Polychrome sherds were most common; 24 sherdswere decorated with yellow, orange, brown, andgreen floral and abstract motifs. All these sherds wereprobably a type called Aranama Polychrome, whichis thought to have been manufactured from about1750 to 1850 (Cohen-Williams 1992). Fifteen pieces


Figure 5.18. A Mexican saucer from the León farmstead,AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Table 5.10. Ceramics from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Ceramic Type Count Ceramic Type Count

Mexican European and Domestic Porcelain (cont'd.)

Majolica Electrical 10

Blue 15 Kaolin 5

White 14 Bisque 32

Polychrome 24 Sanitary 1

Mexican earthenware Majolica

Mexican glazed terra cotta 204 European 1

Olive green glazed 425 Other

Fired brick 18

European and Domestic Tile 1

Hard-paste earthenware (whiteware) Unknown 16

Plain 2,895 Stoneware

Transfer-printed 240 Coarse 39

Flow blue 113 Brown 35

Hand-painted 96 Buff 7

Annular 47 Gray 8

Annular and sponge-stamped 44 Yellowware 24

Sponge-stamped 63 Other 17

Decal-print 130

Flashed 1 Asian

Mocha 3 Chinese stoneware 35

Gilt 30 Chinese glazed ware 28

Tinted 15 Chinese celadon 21

Porcelain Chinese blue porcelain 1

Decal-print 83 Chinese white porcelain 4

Hand-painted 23 Chinese, other 2

Plain 146 Japanese porcelain 7

Gilt 37

Tinted 40 Total 5,000

of majolica with blue designs were found, most be-ing Puebla Blue-on-white or Huetjotzingo, whichwere probably manufactured from about 1700 on-ward (Barnes and May 1972). An additional 14 frag-ments were undecorated and probably represent theplain areas of decorated vessels. The majolica sherdsappear to have come from cups and plates.

Mexican majolica is commonly found at Spanishand Mexican period sites in Arizona. It was importedinto northern Sonora in barrels and crates strappedonto mules. Majolica dishes were expensive luxuryitems that brought bright colors to tables for thoseindividuals willing to pay high prices. Excavations andsurveys within, or adjacent to, the Tucson Presidio(Ciolek-Torrello and Swanson 1997; Olson 1985; Thiel

112 Chapter 5

1996; Thiel et al. 1995; Williams 1998); at the TubacPresidio (Shenk and Teague 1975); at San Xavier(Robinson 1963); and at other Spanish-era presidiosand religious complexes have recovered majolica.Mexican majolica is not found at sites dating to theAmerican Territorial period, after 1856. For example,archaeological work conducted at the Punta de Aguasite, first occupied in 1855, did not recover any Mexi-can majolica (McGuire 1979). By the 1850s, peoplewere likely able to acquire transfer-print vessels deco-rated with exotic scenes, and majolica probably wentout of style in Tucson.

The relatively small number of majolica sherdssuggests the Leóns may have had a handful of vesselswhen they first moved to the site, with some beingused for awhile, perhaps representing heirloom pieces.

Mexican Ceramics Summary

Mexican ceramics represented approximately 14percent of non-Native American ceramics collectedat the site. The frequency of Mexican ceramics foundin datable contexts changes dramatically throughtime. When compared with other ceramics (exclud-ing Native American sherds), Mexican sherds com-prise 30 percent of the ceramics from the pre-1880sdeposits and fall to 10 percent in the 1890s. By the1910s, when Feature 17 was filled with trash, only 2percent of the discarded ceramics were Mexican.The overall number of sherds from the earliesttimespan is quite small, limiting current under-standing of ceramic use for this period. There aremuch larger sets of sherds from the later dated de-posits. The overall high number of Mexican ceram-ics suggests easy transportation for these was in placeby the early Territorial period. An alternate explana-tion is that most Mexican vessels were purchasedduring the early occupation of the site and that thesevessels were used over a 10- to 20-year period, gradu-ally being broken and discarded, with a larger num-ber thrown away just before and after the railroadarrived. After the railroad arrival, only a handful ofMexican vessels were purchased by the Leóns. Theywere probably replaced by Euro-American manu-factured counterparts, such as stronger iron pots orEnglish ceramic mixing bowls.

Ceramics from Europe and the United States

Ceramics from England and Europe were prob-ably first imported into Tucson by the 1820s to 1840s,in very small numbers (Barnes 1984). Until the Ameri-can entrance into Tucson, European ceramic vesselswere carried to Mexico in ships, brought overland orby boat to Guaymas, and then brought overland by

pack train into the community. Consequently, theseimported ceramics were quite expensive, and onlya small number are likely to have been brought toTucson. Excavations at the Tucson and Tubac pre-sidios suggests most were decorated with elaboratetransfer-print “romantic” scenes depicting far-awaycastles, mosques, and pastures.

Other decorative styles are found in Tucson, withvarying popularity, as are undecorated vessels. Thearrival of the Americans resulted in an increase inthe number, forms, and diversity of decoration ofEuropean (mainly English) ceramics. American-made ceramics were largely spurned until the turn-of-the-century, when the Sears, Roebuck & Companycatalogs began to tout their quality and cheapness.The number of vessel fragments, by form, is summa-rized in Table 5.4 for the various decoration typesfor Feature 4/14/25, the feature containing the mostvessels.

Cups were most common, possibly reflecting thegreater likelihood for their breakage as they were re-peatedly handled during meals, as well as the fact thatcup fragments are relatively easier to discern. Bowlsmay also be broken more often than saucers and plates,with the latter two usually left in one place duringmeals. In contrast, bowls may be lifted and tilted, in-creasing the likelihood they could be dropped andbroken. The unknown/other category includes manyfragments of saucers, plates, and bowls that could notbe distinguished from each other.

Plain Whitewares

Plain vessels were the least expensive historically.At the León site, they were also the most common formof “decoration” (Figure 5.19). Of interest is the highnumber of plain saucers and cups. Ninety percent ofthe saucers from Feature 4/14/25 were undecorated.The reason behind this trend is uncertain, but it mayreflect the purchase of a number of undecorated sau-cers at one time, or perhaps an attempt to formmatching sets of undecorated cups and saucers.

Transfer-printed

Transfer-print vessels with elaborate designs arecommonly found at Tucson sites dating from the1850s to the early 1900s (Barnes 1984; Thiel et al.1995). Transfer-printed vessels have colored designs,formed by rubbing a thin paper onto a engraved cop-per plate to pick up a pattern, which is subsequentlyapplied to the surface of the vessel. The paper wasremoved prior to a two-stage firing (Majewski andO'Brien 1984). This method was used extensively inthe Staffordshire, England, area, with many vesselsimported into North America.


At the León farmstead, 240 transfer-printedsherds were collected (Figure 5.20). Seventy-sevenpercent of these sherds were in varying shades ofblue. Other colors were present, although in smallernumbers. Purple accounted for 10 percent of thetransfer-print sherds and black for 5 percent. Theseoutnumbered the red, green, brown, and polychromesherds. Many different designs were present, and thefamily does not appear to have had any matchedtransfer vessels. Instead, Ramona had cups, bowls,and plates with scenes of castles, cathedrals, and for-ests. These romantic patterns were very popular fromthe 1820s to the 1870s. One Blue Willow pattern platewas recovered—a popular design found in manyhomes. A soup tureen lid and a pitcher from Feature17 have elaborate floral designs typical of the laterVictorian era (Figure 5.21).

One type of transfer-print is flow blue, in which achemical agent is thrown into the kiln during firing,producing a blurred effect on the design. This methodwas developed after about 1840 (Majewski andO’Brien 1984). At the León site, 113 flow blue sherds,from an estimated 14 vessels (see Figure 5.20),were recovered. All have either floral or ro-mantic scenes. A matching cup and plate werefound at the base of the borrow pit, represent-ing a vessel that was probably purchasedsometime between 1840 and 1860 (TeresitaMajewski, personal communication 2000).

Hand-painted

The hand-painted vessels at the Leónsite—also called sprig decoration, and some-times Gaudy Dutch—are decorated withsmall floral elements on a plain background(Majewski and O’Brien 1984: 157). This styleof decoration was used primarily for tea sets.Ninety-six sherds from an estimated 15 ves-sels had red, blue, and purple flowers, andgreen and black foliage (Figure 5.22). Somewere decorated with red annular bands at therim or close to the base. The Leóns had teasets consisting of cups and a saucer decoratedin this manner, as well as several bowls(which may actually be large, handle-lesscups). The peak production period of this typeof ceramic was from 1840 to 1860 (Majewskiand O’Brien 1984:159). In southern Arizona,this type of ceramic has been found at Puntade Agua, Tubac, at the Mexican componenton Spruce Street, and at the various Presidioexcavations (McGuire 1979; Shenk andTeague 1975; Thiel 1996, 1997; Thiel et al.1995). It is rarely found at sites dating after1880 (e.g., Thiel 1998).

Figure 5.19. Plain, inexpensive ceramics were favored bythe family of either Paz León de Romero or Manuel León;cup and saucer from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505(ASM).

Figure 5.20. Transfer-print (top row) and flow blue ceramics madebetween 1840 and 1860, recovered from Feature 17, the León farm-stead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

114 Chapter 5

Annular Decorated

Annular decorated vessels are hand-painted ves-sels with bands of applied paint, usually runningdown the exterior from the rim to just above the base.

At the León farmstead, cups with blue and brownbands were found, as was a plate with a thick brownband next to the rim. Similar cups have been foundat other sites, including Punta de Agua (McGuire1979). This ceramic style was probably imported intoArizona from the 1850s or 1860s, until approxi-mately 1900, although it is found in relatively smallnumbers.

Sponge-stamped and Spatter

Sponge-stamped or stick spatter vessels weredecorated by cutting sponge roots into patterns,mounting the root onto sticks, and stamping designsonto vessels. Spatterwares have speckled designscreated by spattering paint onto vessels. Sixty-threesherds from an estimated 12 vessels—cups, bowls,and a pitcher—were decorated in this fashion (Fig-ure 5.23). Motifs include green leaves; purple, brown,and black flowers; blue fleur-de-lis; blue spatters; andgeometric blue, red, and green designs. Some vesselsalso had blue and red bands.

Decal-printed Vessels

Decal-print (also known as decalcomania) re-semble transfer-prints but differ by having sharplines of the design; shaded colors; and brighter, morenatural colors, often polychrome. The individualdecals were placed over the glaze of the vessel, anda fingernail run across a decal print may detect the

Figure 5.21. A transfer-print soup tureen lid (a) and pitcher (b) dating to the late 1800s to early 1900s, recov-ered from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Figure 5.22. Fragments from peasantware cup and saucerfrom the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).


Figure 5.23. Pieces from a sponge-stamped saucer and cup,recovered from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

slight raised relief of the design. This decorationmethod was in use beginning in the 1890s. Multi-colored floral decal prints were very popular fromthe 1890s to the early 1910s, with art deco and ab-stract geometric patterns becoming popular after-ward.

Archaeologists found 130 decal-printed sherds atthe León homestead, from an estimated 26 vessels(Figure 5.24). Most of the sherds are early decal prints,featuring sprigs of blue, pink, and green flowers,common from about 1900 to 1915. A few from Fea-ture 48 appear to date into the 1920s, and featurebands of decoration at the rim. One fragmentary platefrom the sheet trash, Feature 2, had a scene of SantaClaus leading a mule or burro ridden by the VirginMary (Figure 5.25).

European Porcelain

European porcelain was more expensive thanother ceramic types. At the León site, these included83 decal-printed sherds, 37 that were hand-painted,and 40 that were tinted. Another 146 pieces wereplain, many of which probably represented un-painted portions of decorated vessels, although thiscount also includes several plain doll dishes.

Other European or American Ceramic Types

Other ceramic types were represented by smallernumbers of sherds. One fragment of English ma-jolica was found in Feature 4. The piece was from acup with a green and purple exterior and an ivory-colored interior. Three frag-ments of mochaware, a hand-painted type of decoration rarelyfound in Arizona, were found atthe site.

Stonewares were repre-sented by 50 sherds, glazedbrown, buff, and gray. Mostwere from beer and ink bottles,although at least one crock wasidentified. Stoneware crocks arealso rare in Tucson, because foodwas rarely preserved by picklingor curing in salt in the desertSouthwest. Yellowware was rep-resented by 24 sherds, most ofwhich probably came from sev-eral mixing bowls. All have yel-low glaze on the interior and ei-ther white or yellow glaze on theexterior. Thirty-nine sherds ofcoarse earthenware were col-lected, most from either flowerpots or marbles.

Figure 5.24. A decal-print bowl dating from the 1910s and 1920s, the León farm-stead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

116 Chapter 5

Asian Ceramics

Porcelain vessels manufactured in China werehighly valued by people throughout the world andwere brought to North America in large numbers.During the Spanish period, from 1775 to 1821, a fewvessels appear to have brought into Tucson (Barnes1984). However, it was not until after the arrival ofthe railroad in 1880—which also brought a smallnumber of Chinese who settled in the community—that a large number of Asian ceramics were broughtinto the area.

Chinese Ceramics

Chinese ceramics were found in small numbersat the León homestead, primarily in the upper layersof sheet midden and in the large borrow pit. Twenty-seven pieces came from glazed food or wine jars.Another 35 pieces were from brown stoneware jars;21 pieces were of celadon, including rice bowls andone or two spoons; 1 fragment was from a Bamboorice bowl; and 1 decal-printed lid with a circus scenefrom Feature 48 dates to the 1910s or 1920s.

These artifacts may point to a Chinese presenceat the site. The 1883 Sanborn map indicates Chinesegardeners' shanties were present east of the Leónhomestead. However, it is more likely that the hand-ful of artifacts represent occasional purchases at oneof the Chinese-owned grocery stores in town. TheChinese dishes may have been novelties, and the

Leóns may have bought a fewjars of sauce, pickled foods, orwine, or possibly used the emptycontainers for another purpose.

Japanese Ceramics

Japanese porcelain ceramics,mostly tea sets, were importedinto Arizona after about 1900(Thiel 1998). Only seven pieceswere recovered from the site,representing two or three kagaware vessels, including a cupand a bowl. All were from con-texts that date to after approxi-mately 1900. Kaga ware vesselsare decorated with polychromescenes with red and green chry-santhemums and geisha girls.

Ceramic Change ThroughTime

The ceramics from the León site reflect the pur-chasing decisions of Ramona Elías de León, probablyfrom sometime in the 1840s to the 1880s, and prob-ably also the purchases of Paz León de Romero af-ter the 1880s up until the 1910s. This long timespanexhibits dramatic changes in how the region wasgoverned, on the economic ties between Tucson andthe outside world, and new transportation routes—all of which affected how ceramics were brought intothe community. At the same time, new methods ofceramic manufacture and changing styles introducednew choices for consumers. Therefore, it is not sur-prising that the ceramics utilized by the León familychanged during the occupation of the site.

As noted above, the deposits from the borrowpit dated from as far back as the 1840s, up to theearly 1900s. Archaeologists excavated the fill of thepit in four major stratigraphic layers, with thedeeper layers extending farther back in time. Fewsherds were found in the bottom two soil layers;therefore, the artifact counts for these layers werecombined in the current analysis. Two later featuresprovided additional samples. Feature 17 containedartifacts dating from about 1900 to 1910. Feature 48contained artifacts that date to the final years of thedomestic occupation of the site, from the 1910s tothe 1920s. The artifacts from these features allowan examination of how ceramic purchases changedthrough time.

Table 5.11 lists ceramics by rough types, most ofwhich relate to where the ceramics were manufac-

Figure 5.25. A decal-printed, hand-painted Christmas plate features Santa Clausleading a mule carrying the Virgin Mary; recovered from Feature 2 at the Leónfarmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).


tured. The hard-paste earthenwares (whitewares),stonewares, and porcelains were manufactured in En-gland, Europe, and the United States.

As early as the 1840s to the 1870s, European ce-ramics outnumbered Mexican ceramics (althoughsome sherds are suspected to have come from laterdeposits and were introduced into the earlier depos-its by burrowing rodents). The overall number of ves-sels manufactured in England and Mexico was quitelow, and these vessels were used for serving foodsand beverages. Native American ceramics were uti-lized for cooking, food, and water storage, and prob-ably for some food serving.

Ceramics discarded during the 1870s to 1880stime frame changed little in terms of the overall types.However, there was a significant reduction in thenumber of Mexican ceramics thrown away in the1880s to the 1890s. This suggests Mexican ceramicswere no longer being purchased and were probablybeing replaced by metal vessels or by European orAmerican ceramics. The overall frequency of hard-paste earthenwares continued to increase, reflectingthe greater availability and use of these ceramics. Thetrend continued into the 1910s. The late 1910s andearly 1920s saw increased usage and discard of Eu-ropean porcelains, which probably became more af-fordable during this period.

The trends noted in Table 5.11 reflect discard pat-terns. Most ceramic vessels can be expected to be usedfrom 10 to 20 years. Consequently, the increasednumber of hard-paste earthenwares thrown away inthe 1890s to 1900s represents an increased numberof these dishes purchased in the preceding 10 to 20years. The Leóns appear to have purchased manyimported English ceramics soon after the arrival ofthe railroad in Tucson in 1880. Even prior to the rail-road, Francisco and Ramona's household had a num-ber of imported (and probably expensive) Englishceramics.

Why would the couple purchase these dishes,when cheaper counterparts may have been available?One reason could be that Ramona may have pre-ferred the elaborate and colorful decorations foundon many of the pieces. The major decoration typesfound on the English and American ceramics duringthese time periods are listed in Table 5.12.

A number of trends are readily apparent, espe-cially when viewed graphically (Figure 5.26). Un-decorated whiteware fragments predominate in allthe periods. Many of these sherds represented un-decorated portions of decorated vessels. There is anincrease in the number of undecorated sherds, ris-ing in overall frequency to a high of 80 percent ofthe whitewares and porcelains in the 1880s-1890s,before declining. Two factors were probably atwork. First, the number of completely undecoratedvessels increased from the early occupation until the1890s, before declining. This coincides with an eco-nomic depression in the mid-1890s, perhaps suggest-ing the Leóns had to buy less expensive ceramics.Second, the overall amount of decoration probablydecreased, as the Leóns purchased fewer vesselswith elaborate decorations that covered most of thevessel, buying dishes with simpler, more spare deco-rations instead.

This latter trend is visible with the decline in thenumber of vessels decorated with flow blue, sponge-stamped, annular, and hand-painted. Vessels withthese types of decorations had mostly disappearedby the early 1900s. They were replaced by decal-printed whiteware and porcelain vessels, along witha small number of whiteware vessels with gilt linesand with tinted porcelains. All of these were lesselaborately decorated. Chinese and Japanese porce-lains formed only a small portion of the ceramics usedby the household.

The changing kinds of decoration reflect anawareness and purchase of new styles by members

Table 5.11. Number of historic-period ceramics and their frequency (in parentheses), by time period, from the Leónfarmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Type 1840s-1860s 1870s-1880s 1880s-1890s 1890s-1910s 1910s-1920s

Mexican 113 (30) 185 (30) 184 (10) 8 (2) 3 (2)

Hard-paste earthenwares

230 (60) 414 (66) 1,439 (80) 377 (86) 141 (80)

Stoneware 3 1 42 (2) 5 (1) –

Porcelain 35 (8) 22 (4) 88 (5) 33 (8) 30 (17)

Chinese 1 1 30 (2) 15 (3) 2 (1)

Japanese – – 1 – 1

Other 3 – 17 (1) 2 –

Total 385 623 1,801 440 177

118 Chapter 5

of the family. Decal-prints became available in the1890s, and were quickly purchased by the Leóns. Bythe 1920s, most of the decorated vessels used at thesite were decorated with colorful floral and abstract-geometric, almost Art Deco-appearing, decal-prints.Similarly, vessels with gilt lines and highlights be-came popular in the 1910s, and were also purchasedin small numbers by the family.

Ceramics recently excavated from a Barrio Libresite during the Connie Chambers project provides acomparative sample, again focusing on the white-ware and porcelain artifacts. The site, AZ BB:13:644(ASM), was occupied by lower-to-middle class Mexi-can families from the 1890s onward. Samples fromtwo features dating to the 1890s had 61 percent and78 percent undecorated whitewares. In contrast, asample from the 1900s contained only 44 percent.The number of transfer-prints declined as the num-ber of decal-printed whitewares and porcelains in-creased. The ceramic trends present at the ConnieChambers site were very similar to those at the Leónsite, although the Connie Chambers site had an over-all higher number of decorated pieces. The olderdate of the León assemblage is highlighted by thelarger number of sherds with transfer-printed, hand-painted, sponge, and annular decorations. Many ofthese styles had fallen out of favor by the 1890s,

when households first occupied the Connie Cham-bers site.

Excavations at two blocks in downtown Phoenixprovide another sample of ceramics that dated fromabout 1883 to 1919 (Thiel 1998:119). The ceramicswere discarded by lower-to-middle class Euro-Americans living in boarding houses and single-fam-ily homes. The samples are not directly comparable,however, because the Phoenix sample was based onminimum vessel counts rather than sherd counts.However, some of the same trends are visible, in-cluding a decline in plain whitewares after about1900, a decrease in transfer-prints that was reversedby the 1910s, an increase in the number of decal-printed vessels, and an increase in usage of Chineseand Japanese ceramics. These similarities probablyreflect marketing trends throughout southern Ari-zona.

The main differences between the León assem-blage and the ceramics from Phoenix include a greaterusage of plain dishes by the Leóns, as well as fewerpurchases of porcelain vessels. It is unclear why thiswas the case; however, the site was likely occupiedby Paz León de Romero and her family from the1890s to the 1910s, and the family may not have beenable to afford the more expensive decorated and por-celain dishes.

Table 5.12. The number of sherds and their frequency (in parentheses) within each time period, by type of decoration, fromthe León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Type 1840s-1860s 1870s-1880s 1880s-1890s 1890s-1910s 1910s-1920s

Hard-paste earthenwares

Plain 159 (60) 315 (72) 1,237 (80) 281 (69) 83 (48)

Transfer-print 30 (11) 27 (6) 65 (4) 49 (12) 3 (2)

Flow blue 14 (5) 19 (4) 38 (2) 5 (1) 1

Annular 3 (1) 5 (1) 24 (2) – –

Sprigged 15 (6) 28 (6) 30 (2) 3 2

Sponge 9 (3) 19 (4) 23 (2) 2 –

Gilt – 1 2 4 (1) 5 (3)

Tinted – – 3 – 1

Decal – – 17 (1) 33 (8) 46 (27)

Porcelains

Plain 5 (2) 14 (3) 42 (3) 8 (2) 8 (5)

Hand-painted 13 (5) 2 3 – –

Gilt 13 (5) 5 (1) 10 – –

Tinted – 1 18 (1) 1 1

Decal 4 – 15 (1) 24 (6) 21 (12)

Chinese 1 – 16 (1) 1 1

Japanese – – 1 – –

Total 266 436 1,544 411 172


Change Through Time in Artifact Function

During analysis of the León homestead collection,the function of each artifact was identified, if pos-sible. As noted in the descriptive portion of the chap-ter, nine basic categories were used: kitchen, archi-tecture, furnishings, arms and ammunition, clothing,personal items, activities, transportation items, andunidentified artifacts. How did the artifacts used atthe León farmstead change through time? The arti-facts from the borrow pit were again grouped intothree time periods. The artifacts from the shallowtrash-filled pit, Feature 17, formed a fourth time pe-riod (Table 5.13; see also Table A.2).

The pre-1870 deposits contained a small numberof identified artifacts, totaling 460 (not including Na-tive American sherds). A few of these items prob-ably date to later time periods and likely found theirway into lower soil strata as a result of rodent bur-rowing. The recovered artifacts from pre-1870 depos-its included: 2 glass and 1 shell beads; an iron knifewith a wooden handle; 19 pieces of bottle glass; afragment from an ink bottle; 2 pieces of homemadefired bricks; 2 milk glass, 1 iron, and 4 shell buttons;186 fragments of tinned cans; a pair of Mexican quar-ter reales; pieces of 2 bone combs; a doll; a gamingpiece made from an oliveware fragment; 2 gunflints;an iron hook; a carved shell cameo; 1 piece of lampchimney glass; 35 nails; fragments of a shoe; metalstrapping (possibly from a barrel); pieces of Mexicanglazed bowls; a kaolin pipe bowl; an iron ring; andpieces from whiteware plates, cups, and bowls.

Several trends are apparent when comparing thefrequency of the various categories through time. Onetrend is how deeply the artifacts were buried and

Figure 5.26. Changing ceramic styles are illustrated in a “battleship” diagram.

1840s-1860s

1890s-1910s

1880s-1890s

1870s-1880s

1910s-1920s

undecorated flow transferspongeannular sprigged gilt

plaingilt tinted decaldecal

hand-painted

porcelainhard-paste earthenware

how extensive traffic was over the area. The 1880s-1890s time frame has a dramatic increase in the num-ber of unidentified artifacts. This reflects the effectsof trampling on the artifacts at the top of the borrowpit, Feature 4. Many of the items collected from theupper levels of this feature were found broken intosmall pieces. Among the unidentifiable artifacts weremany fragments of ceramics, some of which are likelyto have been food preparation and serving vessels.Their small size prevented the identification of theirvessel form, therefore, they were placed in the uni-dentified category.

The most noticeable trend is the steady decline inthe number of kitchen-related artifacts. From a highof 78 percent in the 1840s-1860s, the frequency ofkitchen items fell to 53 percent by the 1910s. A likelycause of this is the increased number of architecturalartifacts. Only 10 percent of the earliest artifacts werearchitectural, gradually increasing to 31 percent. TheLeóns were using and discarding more nails andpieces of window glass through time. Glass windowswere probably installed at the León house by the early1880s—after the railroad made window panes easyto import and more affordable. The number of nailsfound at the site suggest their use in construction—perhaps in the wooden floors installed during thisperiod, or in a new roof. They may also point towardother uses. Nails can be found in wooden crates, fur-niture, wagons, and many other items. They may alsobe recovered from a site if people scavenged piecesof wood for reuse or for firewood. The nails from theLeón site were poorly preserved, and most were rec-ognized only from the tell-tale lump of rust at thehead of the nail. It was not possible to determine howmost of the nails were used, and some of the nails

120 Chapter 5

Table 5.13. Number and frequency (in parentheses) of artifacts in each time period, sorted by functional category, from theLeón farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM) (unidentified artifacts and Native American ceramics are excluded from the table).

1840s-1860s 1870s-1880s 1880s-1890s 1890s-1910s

Kitchen 361 (78) 1,362 (69) 3,686 (67) 1,287 (53)

Architectural 47 (10) 381 (19) 1,298 (24) 775 (31)

Furnishings 15 (3) 2 66 (1) 75 (3)

Arms 5 13 28 32 (1)

Clothing 17 (4) 158 (8) 224 (4) 162 (7)

Personal 12 (3) 10 37 28 (1)

Activities 3 55 (3) 144 (3) 84 (3)

Transportation 0 6 19 9

Total 460 1,987 5,502 2,452

placed in the architectural category were likely usedfor other purposes.

The decline in kitchen-related artifacts was sur-prising, because new canned and bottled food prod-ucts were likely to be available after the railroadarrival. However, the frequency of kitchen-relatedartifacts is still much higher than other sites of com-parable age. Excavations at the two blocks in Phoe-nix uncovered 15 wells and outhouses filled from1883 to about 1919. The frequency of kitchen-relatedartifacts ranged from 4.3 percent to 36.6 percent.These features tended to have a much higher num-ber of architectural artifacts, ranging from 10.4 per-cent to 77.9 percent, probably reflecting the greateruse of wood frame construction and also the greateramount of wood being used for other purposes atthe site (nails were primary architectural artifact atthis site) (Thiel 1998:111).

Excavations at the Pima County Courthouse in1992 uncovered a set of artifacts from features andsheet trash layers dating from about 1780 onward,associated with residents living inside the presidiowall (Thiel et al. 1995:205). The same trends noted atthe León farmstead were seen for the artifacts foundduring this project. Kitchen artifacts comprised 83percent of the artifacts for the period from about 1780to 1850, gradually declining to 59 percent by the 1910-1929 period. Architectural artifacts increased throughtime, from 10 percent of the pre-1850 artifacts, to anaverage of 27 percent after 1883. Most of the otherfunctional categories all had less than 4 percent inany given timespan.

Did the kinds of items used by members of theLeón family change through time? The differentkinds of artifacts for each functional category aresummarized, by time period, in Table 5.14. Duringall time periods, there were more kinds of kitchen,activity, and clothing artifacts than the other func-tional categories. This is not surprising, however,given the range of items that would have been used

in a kitchen, worn as clothing, or used as a tool or forrecreational purposes. The findings suggest the in-flux of Americans with new goods resulted in therapid acquisition of a broader variety of artifact typesby the León family.

In summary, the Leóns had a small number andvariety of possessions during the earliest occupationof the site. Ramona used primarily Native Americanceramics to prepare food and had a small number ofdecorated Mexican and English dishes to serve meals.The Leóns made do with a limited number of importedgoods, including a few utensils, ammunition (suggest-ing a musket was present in the house), and a fewpersonal possessions, such as coins. The arrival of theAmericans brought a wealth of new goods, and thefamily readily participated in the expanded economy.Ramona now served her meals using more decorateddishes and had a greater variety of kitchenware touse. New types of architectural artifacts, activity items,and clothing items were available. For members ofthe León family and other Mexican residents of Tuc-son, the American entrance into Tucson brought manychanges—some good, some bad.

Socioeconomic Status

The Leóns were one of the wealthier Mexicanfamilies in Tucson. Francisco operated a store in 1863,that generated $10,000 in sales in six months. Dur-ing the 1870s, he purchased a number of field andtown properties and operated two cattle ranches. TheLeóns escaped the poverty that many of their neigh-bors experienced. Ownership of the field propertieswas probably a starting point for the family's securefuture.

Do the recovered artifacts reflect this prosperity?Historical archaeologists have often sought to exam-ine artifacts for clues to socioeconomic status. Theyhave found, however, often no clear relationship


Table 5.14. Number of artifacts in each functional category, by time period, from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Function 1840s-1860s 1870s-1880s 1880s-1890s 1890s-1910s

Kitchen – 7 8 –

Food preparation 24 157 174 4

Food service 132 452 1,524 333

Food storage 186 512 1,246 852

Alcoholic beverage – 10 52 4

Beverage bottle – 35 74 14

Bottle glass 19 189 608 80

Kitchen Total 361 1,362 3,686 1,287

Architectural – – 2 –

Window glass 9 54 325 164

Nails 36 316 966 594

Construction materials 2 11 – 6

Construction hardware – – 2 2

Door parts – – 1 4

Electrical related – – 2 4

Water related – – – 1

Architectural Total 47 381 1,298 775

Household furnishings 1 1 – 1

Lighting 14 1 64 72

Household maintenance – – 2 2

Furnishings Total 15 2 66 75

Ammunition – 12 26 32

Gun parts 5 1 2 –

Arms and Ammunition Total 5 13 28 32

Clothing 12 153 216 152

Accessories 5 3 7 5

Maintenance and repair – 2 1 5

Clothing Total 17 158 224 162

Personal – – 13 2

Coins and tokens 2 2 2 1

Hygiene 8 6 19 12

Tobacco/Smoking 2 1 3 –

Religion – 1 – 8

Medical – – – 6

Personal Total 12 10 37 28

Activities – 1 7 4

Tools – 5 3 1

Toys 2 3 25 11

Hardware – – 1 –

Communication 1 42 68 38

Gardening – – 2 3

Farming – 1 19 18

Nuts and bolts – 3 19 9

Activities Total 3 55 144 84

Transportation – – – –

Stable items – 6 9 6

Automotive and mechanical – – 10 3

Transportation Total – 6 19 9

Unidentified 92 319 2,118 553

Total 552 2,306 7,620 3,005

122 Chapter 5

between a household and the items discarded. Indi-vidual decisions—such as thriftiness or a desire topurchase high status goods to impress friends andrelatives—may be reflected in the recovered artifactsand may mask the true economic condition of ahousehold.

A cursory examination of the artifact assemblagefrom the León farmstead provides few signs of ma-terial wealth. A small number of artifacts appear tobe high quality and therefore expensive; however,this is countered by the presence of lower qualitygoods as well.

Ceramics have been used extensively to evalu-ate economic status (Henry 1987; Miller 1980). Millerused inventories and other records that listed ceramicprices to develop a system for classifying ceramicsby cost. Households with more income were presum-ably able to afford more expensive ceramics. Thissystem was later modified for use in turn-of-the-century and for mid-twentieth century sites (Diehlet al. 1997:79; Henry 1987).

Ceramics from datable contexts at the León farm-stead are used to evaluate the overall value of pur-chased Euro-American hard-paste earthenwares andporcelains. During analysis, an attempt was madeto determine the Minimum Number of Vessels(MNV) represented by the recovered fragments.Evaluating the analyzed counts revealed that a fewadditional vessels were present. The MNV is listedfor nine categories of ceramics, divided into cups,bowls, plates, saucers, and other forms. A minimumof 110 vessels are represented by the hard-pasteearthenware and porcelain sherds from dated con-texts (Table 5.15).

Several trends are apparent. Vessels from earliercontexts were mostly transfer-printed or hand-painted. By the 1900s, there were many more plainvessels. The percentage of decorated vessels declinesfrom 67 percent in the 1840s-1860s, to 50 percent inthe 1890s-1910s.

The assemblage was examined using ceramicvalue indices (Henry and Garrow 1982:325; Miller1980). Miller studied nineteenth-century ceramicprice lists and distilled information into an eco-nomic scale. The scale was based on the relation-ships of costs of different kinds of undecorated anddecorated wares. The cheapest undecorated waresreceived a value of 1.00. The scale was establishedfor specific time periods, as ceramic prices have fluc-tuated through time. Miller’s technique was ex-panded past 1870 by researchers examining vesselsfrom the original Phoenix townsite (Henry andGarrow 1982). They used Sears, Roebuck & Companyand Montgomery Ward catalogs to calculate pric-ing scales for the period from 1895 to 1927. Ceramicprices were found to still be strongly linked to deco-rative techniques throughout this period.

The use of the indices is complicated, because theycover differing time periods and they fail to providevalues for some classes of ceramics—such as forhand-painted items after the 1870s. In this case, themost inexpensive decorated values were substituted.These data are summarized in Table 5.16, which re-lies on values for cups, saucers, bowls, and plates.

The index values initially indicate the León fam-ily purchased relatively high-cost ceramics, but afterthe arrival of the railroad, a variety of inexpensivevessels were purchased. The cost of ceramics in-creased slightly then, but when Paz or Manuel Leónoccupied the site, they were still purchasing relativelyinexpensive dishes. The overall values are about thesame, or higher, that those calculated for lower- andmiddle-class Phoenicians who lived on Block 73 be-tween the 1880s and 1920s, but lower than thewealthiest residents of that block (Thiel 1998:114).Overall, they suggest the Leóns were purchasing ce-ramics typical of middle-class urban Arizonans.

Examining socioeconomic status using artifactscan be a difficult endeavor. The artifacts from theLeón farmstead do not suggest the family had a greatamount of wealth, although individual items—suchas the carved cameo—indicate they had more moneythan some individuals. Documentary evidence dis-cussed in Chapter 3 indicates the family was finan-cially well-off, especially in the 1860s. The ceramicsfrom the site indicate it was during this time periodthat Francisco and Ramona purchased expensivedecorated vessels. The arrival of the railroad broughtmany goods—among these, inexpensive, undecoratedceramics. The family purchased many of these for dailyuse, along with a smaller number of cleverly deco-rated items bearing printed scenes or hand-paintedflowers. While the overall number of decorated ves-sels declined through time, the cost of these few luxu-ries increased, suggesting family members investedin a few expensive items to grace their table.

Artifacts and Mexican Ethnicity

Tucson is now a community composed of manydifferent ethnic groups. This was also the case in thepast. In 1880, Hispanics formed 63.8 percent of thepopulation (Sheridan 1992:3). Euro-Americans, Na-tive Americans, Chinese, and African-Americans alsolived in Tucson. Many of the Euro-Americans wereimmigrants from European countries, adding to thecosmopolitan flavor of the town.

Distinctive artifacts can be attributed to some ofthese groups, especially the Chinese, who importeda variety of kitchen, personal, and activity-relateditems (Lister and Lister 1989; Thiel 1997). Did theMexican residents also have distinctive artifacts? Ordid they largely abandon traditional material culture


Table 5.15. Minimum number of vessels from the León farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM), by time period.

Ceramic Style 1840s-1860s 1870s-1880s 1880s-1890s 1890s-1910s

Plain HPEa

Cup 2 4 1 4

Bowl - 1 7 6

Plate - 1 2 6

Saucer - 2 1 4

Other 1 unknown - 1 pitcher, 1 unknown 1 platter

Transfer-print HPE

Cup 1 2 1 (flow blue) 1

Bowl 2 (1 flow blue) 1 2 -

Plate - 2 2 2 (1 flow blue)

Other 2 (unknown) 1 pitcher, 1 unknown 1 platter 1 pitcher, 3 unknown

Decal-print HPE

Cup - - 1 -

Bowl - - - 2

Saucer - - - 1

Hand-painted HPE

Cup 1 1 3 1

Bowl 1 2 1 1

Plate - 1 1 -

Other - - 1 pitcher 2 unknown

Gilt HPE

Cup 1 - - -

Plate - - - 1

Other - - 1 unknown 1 unknown form

Plain porcelain

Cup 1 - - -

Plate - - - 1

Saucer - - 1 -

Decal-print porcelain

Cup - - - 2

Plate - - 1 3

Other - - - 1 unknown

Hand-painted porcelain

Cup - - 1 -

Other - 1 unknown 1 unknown -

Gilt porcelain

Cup - 1 1 -

Saucer - 1 - -

Total 12 22 32 44

Percent decorated 67 64 56 50

aHPE = hard-paste earthenware.

and adopt the items brought into Tucson by Anglostore owners?

Many artifacts manufactured in Mexico, or bycraftspersons trained in Mexico, were found at theLeón farmstead. Majolica and glazed leadware ce-

ramics—with 682 individual fragments of largebowls, small shallow bowls, and jars (13.6 percent ofthe non-Native American ceramics), and eight coinsminted in Hermosillo in the 1830s—were identified.Some of the other artifacts, such as the lead balls and

124 Chapter 5

gunflints, may have originated in Mexico; however,these items lack characteristics that can confirm this.

Other sites occupied by Mexican families or Euro-American males who married Mexican females pro-vide comparative data. The Punta de Agua siteyielded 57 sherds from Mexican ceramic bowls (com-pared with 4,584 Native American and 539 Euro-American sherds) (McGuire 1979). The frequency ofMexican ceramics is similar to that at the León farm-stead. Two manos, a metate, and a Hermosillo cuartoreal were the only other artifacts that were likely tohave been manufactured in Mexico or in the Tucsonarea.

Excavations in Phoenix have shown a strong re-lationship between the presence of Mexican andChinese residents at a site and the discovery of Mexi-can ceramics. Work conducted at the second Phoe-nix Chinatown located portions of 23 Mexican ves-sels, presumably used by the Chinese and Mexicanresidents of the area (Rogge et al. 1992:250). Otherexamples were found at features associated with aMexican family on Blocks 1 and 2 (Henry and Garrow1982:471). In contrast, during the excavation of Blocks72 and 73—occupied by Euro-Americans—only asingle Mexican sherd was recovered, out of over 2,600sherds. Native American sherds also representedonly about 23 percent of the total ceramic assemblage.Phoenix was first settled by Anglo entrepreneurs in1865, and had a much smaller Mexican populationthan Tucson, perhaps contributing to the lack ofMexican artifacts.

The presence of a high number of Native Ameri-can sherds, a relatively high number of Mexican ce-ramics, ground stone, and Mexican coinage may allpoint toward the occupation of a site by a Mexicanfamily or by a Mexican spouse. Euro-Americanhouseholds and businesses also used Native Ameri-can ceramic vessels during the American Territorialperiod (e.g., Carmony 1994). Mexican households,however, appear to have continued using NativeAmerican ceramics long after their Anglo compatri-

ots. This may relate to the lack of indoor plumbingin some households, as well as cultural factors, suchas the desire to season and cool water in porous wa-ter ollas (Thiel and Desruisseaux 1993). Through time,the number of Mexican ceramic artifacts in Tucsondeclines, even at sites that were occupied by Mexi-can families. This is likely a factor of the availabilityof less expensive ceramics manufactured in theUnited States and Europe, as well as decreased tradewith Mexico.

CONCLUSIONS

Artifacts recovered from the León household in-dicate the items used by family members changeddramatically through time. The household was prob-ably established in the 1840s, based on documentaryevidence. The earliest features at the site containedprimarily Native American ceramics and a smallquantity of European and Mexican ceramics. Throughtime, the Leóns continued to use some traditionalitems, made in the Tucson area or in Mexico. How-ever, these became less popular, and as they werebroken and discarded, they were replaced by manu-factured counterparts from the eastern United Statesand Europe. Why was this the case?

A number of factors likely led to these changes.The most obvious was the redirection of trade asAnglo businessmen established themselves in Tuc-son. During the Presidio era, trade was primarily tothe south, into Sonora. The Americans establishedtrade routes extending to the east and to the west,largely ignoring goods from Mexico. Locally madegoods, such as Papago ceramic vessels, continued tofind purchasers in Tucson; however, subtle changesin the kinds of vessels purchased reveal that manyforms had been replaced by more durable metal andceramic vessels manufactured in far-away factories.

Another reason for the change probably relatesto Francisco León’s role in the community. He was aleader among the Mexican residents and oftenworked with the Euro-American newcomers. Unlikemany of the remaining presidio residents, Franciscodid quite well financially. One result of this statuswas the ability—and perhaps the need—to own moreexpensive and current household furnishings. Thisis especially apparent in terms of the clothing itemsand food service vessels, both of which are diverseand included decorated and more expensive ex-amples. Native American ceramics are examined inChapter 7 in greater detail, exploring a number ofissues that were not discussed in this chapter.

Table 5.16. Calculated index values for ceramics from theLeón farmstead, AZ BB:13:505 (ASM).

Time Period Number Vessels Used

Total Value

Average Value

1840s-1860s 9 20.45 2.3

1870s-1880s 19 26.30 1.4

1880s-1890s 25 49.73 2.0

1890s-1910s 35 66.14 1.9

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