The San Agustin Mission Excavation - Week 6

Excavations at the San Agustin Mission site have turned toward documenting portions of the Early Agricultural Period village that underlay the Mission.

This image shows the foundation of the San Agustín Mission compound wall and the
excavation of Early Agricultural Period houses, 2 feet below the mission complex.

Over twenty pithouses have been located in the project area and archaeologists have excavated portions of eight houses so far. Two types of structures are present. Three have large interior pits and may have been used as places to store crops and seeds. The remaining houses have flat floors with an occasional fire hearth, probably used to heat the house during the winter.

An Early Agricultural Period storage pit with grinding tools.
The longer stone is a large pestle, which is about 18 inches long.

An Early Agricultural Period house with a hearth and many "post-molds." The post
molds look like small pits, evidence for wooden interior support posts. The large number
of post molds indicates that this house was remodeled at least once during its use.

Artifacts found in the houses include projectile points (commonly called arrowheads), grinding stones, a bone awl, and pieces of animal bone- the remnants of meals eaten over 2,000 years ago.

Projectile points from the Early Agricultural Period.

The seventh week of work at the San Agustin Mission site saw rain showers which made the site somewhat muddy and halted work for several days. Important finds continue to be made, revealing that much more of the overall site has survived than had been previously thought.

Several areas of Mission-era trash have been discovered. Excavations in this midden deposit have yielded chopped cattle bones, Native American pottery, and a Piman arrowhead.

Several irrigation canals are being studied. A large Hohokam canal runs southeast to northwest through the site. A possible Early Agricultural period canal curves through the site, its base lined with fire-cracked rocks.

Eleven Early Agricultural Period pithouses have been excavated. An especially exciting find was two carved stone bowls or trays in one pithouse. One bowl was oval with two projections on one side and a carved design (perhaps representing a turtle or tortoise shell) on its base. The second tray was rectangular with "horns" projecting from each corner. These types of artifacts are very rare and this is the first pithouse where two such artifacts have been found.

An Early Agricultural Period carved stone bowl.

An experimental rebuilding one of the Early Agricultural Period pithouses was undertaken. Archaeologists recreated the wood framework of one the excavated pithouses. Based on the size of the posts found in the particular house, small saplings were used. Other saplings were woven through the uprights, created a basket-like superstructure. Grass or cattail thatching would have completed the structure, along with some mud daub along the sides.

Read the excavation progress report from weeks 1-3
Read the excavation progress report from weeks 4-5
Read the excavation progress report from weeks 8-9