Mortuary Culture of the Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery

Summary

This is an abstract from the "City and Country in the American West:Post-1848 Historical Archaeologies of Denver and Los Angeles" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The site of Agua Mansa is a historic ranchero settlement in the San Bernardino valley, established in 1845 by migrants from Abiquiu, New Mexico, on land surrounding the former Mission San Gabriel. The Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery was one of few surviving structures following a flood in 1862 that destroyed the settlement of Agua Mansa and nearby La Placita. A recent SRI Archaeological report of the cemetery has uncovered formerly buried headstones and grave markers, presenting a new opportunity for analysis of the impacts of religious and ethnic identity on the mortuary culture of historic archaeological sites. This research will address how graves were used as physical reminders of community identity and connection, looking deeper at the choices made by families of the deceased to include religious motifs and Spanish inscriptions despite a growing English-speaking Anglo presence in the San Bernardino Valley. Through analysis of grave design, iconography, and epitaphs of the surviving headstones at the site, this paper will consider the impacts of ethnic and religious identity on the development of mortuary culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• City and Country in the American West:Post-1848 Historical Archaeologies of Denver and Los Angeles

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53002