Global Networks of Trade, Migration and Consumption: Evidence from the Gold Rush-Era Fauna at Thompson’s Cove (CA-SFR-186H), San Francisco, California

Author(s): Cyler N. Conrad; Allen G. Pastron

Year: 2015

Summary

San Francisco, originally known as Yerba Buena, became a confluence of international trade, human migration and commercial activity during the California Gold Rush (1848-1855). How did the massive influx of argonauts to the San Francisco Bay area affect domestic, native and exotic fauna in this region? A recently excavated site, Thompson’s Cove (CA-SFR-186H), located on the original shoreline of Yerba Buena Cove in present day downtown San Francisco, provides new evidence into this global network of trade and population movement by the presence, diversity and composition of the archaeofaunal assemblage at the site. Dating between the late-1840s to 1860s, the fauna from Thompson’s Cove captures the dynamic interchange between pre-Gold Rush economic activity and Gold Rush-era importation and subsistence activity in Alta California. 

Cite this Record

Global Networks of Trade, Migration and Consumption: Evidence from the Gold Rush-Era Fauna at Thompson’s Cove (CA-SFR-186H), San Francisco, California. Cyler N. Conrad, Allen G. Pastron. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Seattle, Washington. 2015 ( tDAR id: 433929)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 49