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Native Californians at the Presidio of San Francisco: Analysis of Lithic Specimens from El Polín Spring

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Abstract

Relatively few archaeological studies have examined the experiences of native people at Spanish colonial military installations. A small flaked lithic assemblage at the Presidio of San Francisco provides insight into the lives and labor of Native Californians there. Technically proficient knappers, making do with poor-quality, locally available material, engaged in freehand core reduction and produced non-symmetrical, bifacially flaked tools through percussion production. These tools were most likely used for cutting during specific tasks. The analysis reveals how Native Californians in colonial institutions maintained flintknapping traditions in social spaces that were likely shared by native people and colonists.

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Acknowledgments

Field investigations at El Polín Spring during 2003-2004 were conducted as part of the Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project, a collaborative research program between Stanford University, the Presidio Trust, and the National Park Service. This research was supported by the Presidio Trust, National Park Service, and several Stanford University departments and programs, including the Department of Anthropology, the Stanford Archaeology Center, UPS Endowment, the Program on Feminist Studies, the Office of Technology Licensing Research Incentive Fund, the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and the Iris F. Litt, M.D., Fund of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. The authors are especially grateful to the Eric Blind, Liz Clevenger, and Kari Jones at the Presidio Trust for their support and encouragement; to the Anthropological Studies Center at Sonoma State University for sharing reports and primary data from their 2009-2010 field investigations at El Polín Spring; to Brian Wickstrom and Leo Barker for providing access to lithics analysis reports and data from other San Francisco Bay area sites; to Tom Origer for the obsidian hydration analysis; to Richard Hughes, John Eddy, and Hector Neff for their geochemical analyses of specific lithic specimens; to Kat Bennett at 360Geographics for development of Figs. 1, 2, and 5; to the IJHA editor and reviewers for their insightful comments; and to the Stanford Humanities Center, for providing space and time for the development of this article manuscript.

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  1. Anthropology Program, School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA

    Kathleen L. Hull

  2. Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Barbara L. Voss

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Correspondence to Kathleen L. Hull.

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Hull, K.L., Voss, B.L. Native Californians at the Presidio of San Francisco: Analysis of Lithic Specimens from El Polín Spring. Int J Histor Archaeol 20, 264–288 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-016-0335-8

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