Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2024
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways," at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
European expansion into California brought with it new cultures and ways of life, especially to the San Francisco Bay. This cultural shift was intensified by the massive growth in population following the Gold Rush Era and Manifest Destiny movements of the mid-nineteenth century. With easy access to ports, the San Francisco Bay welcomed thousands of immigrants and rapidly became a place of cultural, economic, and ethnic diversity. To better understand the complexity of the populations living in historic San Francisco Bay, we combine multidisciplinary approaches that focus on life history, cultural landscapes, diet, health, and death. Studies include faunal analyses, examining health with historic documentation and osteological analyses, stable isotopic reconstruction of diets, and mortuary analysis.
Other Keywords
Stable Isotopes •
Structural Violence •
Faunal •
Paleopathology •
Archaeology •
Zooarchaeology •
Diet •
Privy •
Cattle Ranching •
California Missions
Geographic Keywords
San Francisco •
California •
Sacramento •
San Francisco Bay Area •
Greater San Francisco Bay Area
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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Addressing Structural Violence Through the Untold Life Histories of Marginalized Individuals Buried in San Francisco’s City Cemetery (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Construction activity at the Legion of Honor Museum in the 1990s uncovered more than 900 burials from the former City Cemetery in northwest San Francisco. Bones from human burials that exhibited pathological conditions were accessioned at the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical...
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Bioarchaeological and Archaeological Analysis of Human Remains from a Medical Waste Deposit at Point San Jose, San Francisco (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2010, human and faunal remains and medical waste were inadvertently discovered in a pit behind the historic military hospital at Point San Jose (now Fort Mason), San Francisco. The contents of the pit dated to the 1870s. In partnership with the National Park Service, Chico State...
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A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Structural Violence in the Mid-Nineteenth Century San Francisco (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The purpose of this study is to explore the embodied evidence of structural violence through a bioarchaeological analysis of 16 commingled, fragmented, and pathological human remains. This exploration reveals how mid-nineteenth century San Francisco society marginalized individuals in...
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Drake or Cermeño: The Riddle Of A 16th Century Pig At Pt. Reyes National Seashore. (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The search for the precise landing spot of Sir Francis Drake on the western coast of North America has lasted centuries. The discovery of sixteen-century Ming Dynasty porcelain and other European artifacts located at Point Reyes National Seashore has long been at the center of the...
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Living Large in the Delta: Connecting Post-Gold Rush Sacramento with San Francisco Luxury Trends (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 marked a transition point for the transport of goods away from steamship via San Francisco and towards direct links with New York and Boston. The Enterprise Hotel site, dating from the late-1860s to early-1880s, and located along...
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Moov’in Around: 19th Century Cattle Ranching at Blue Oaks Ranch Reserve, California (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Rancho Cañada de Pala was a 15,000-acre Mexican Land Grant established in 1839. A small section of this original ranch forms Blue Oaks Ranch Reserve in Santa Clara County. When California became a US state in 1850, the ranch was slowly subdivided into smaller segments with various...
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Stable Isotope Perspectives on Diet and Dietary Change within the California Mission System: An Example from the Sanchez Adobe (CA-SMA-71) (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In collaboration with Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of Mission San Juan Bautista, we analyzed bone and tooth collagen from 15 human burials and faunal remains exposed during recent construction work at the Sanchez Adobe, CA-SMA-71, dating between 1780 and 1800. Tracing diet across skeletal...
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Understanding Historic Health: How 19th Century San Francisco Death Records Supplement Archaeology (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Historic records and archaeological data provide important sources of data for testing hypotheses and understanding human health in 19th century populations. Nineteenth century San Francisco coroners kept detailed death records for all people, including infants and children, who passed...
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Using Zooarchaeology and Stable Isotope Analysis to Explore Animal Husbandry Practices in 19th Century San Jose, California (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Life and Death in the San Francisco Bay: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Historic Lifeways", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the 19th century, Santa Clara County, California, was known as the "Valley of Heart's Delight" for its importance as an agricultural and farming region. Although historical accounts abound, our understanding of the practice of raising and tending domestic livestock is limited. By...