1918 Spanish flu ward Apr 8

We Have Been Here Before: A History of Epidemics in Southern Arizona

Historical archaeologist Homer Thiel provided information for a newspaper article on the 1918 Spanish flu, published by the Arizona Daily Star on April 6, 2020. This blog entry is an expanded presentation of Homer's research on the history of epidemics in the Tucson area. The appearance of the COVID-19 virus…

Feb 21

The Soldiers of the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson

Homer Thiel explores what documents and artifacts tell us about the the lives of the Spanish and Mexican soldiers who were garrisoned at the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson between 1775 and 1856. On August 20th, 1775, Hugo O'Conor, an Irishman employed by the Spanish military, selected the location of…

Jan 24

Meat: What’s for Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper!

Desert Archaeology zooarchaeologist Jenny Waters and historical archaeologist Homer Thiel talk about how archaeologists use animal bone to explore the meats eaten by people in the past. There were probably few, if any, vegans or vegetarians in southern Arizona during the pre-contact, Spanish, Mexican, or American Territorial periods. People hunted…

Jul 15

Early Agricultural Period Ceramic Figurines

Jim Heidke, Desert Archaeology’s senior ceramic analyst, explores the clay figurines made by the earliest farmers in the Tucson Basin. At once recognizable and enigmatic, these small artifacts played an important but as-yet incompletely understood role in the lives of the Tucson Basin’s earliest farmers. Since 1986, Desert Archaeology and…

Church at Tucson on San Antonio's Day, 1860," from The Loyal West in the Times of the Rebellion by John W. Barber and Henry Howe, 1865 Jun 13

World Without End: Archaeology of the Catholic Church in Tucson

Homer Thiel details some of the history and artifacts connected to the Catholic Church in Tucson. In the mid-1690s, an Italian-born Jesuit priest, Father Francisco Eusebio Kino, set out from his mission in Dolores, Sonora, heading north into what is now southern Arizona. Kino was seeking to convert the local…

Feb 8

The Broken and the Whole: Cruciforms in the Tucson Basin

Desert Archaeology's ground stone analysts, Dr. Jenny Adams and Tessa Branyan, discuss a rare Early Agricultural period artifact type. What do the Las Capas, Los Pozos, Santa Cruz Bend, and Clearwater sites have in common, besides the fact that people lived in these settlements along the Santa Cruz River during…

Feb 5

Home, Sweet Home in the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson

Historical archaeologist Homer Thiel takes us on a home tour of 18th- and 19th-century Presidio households. Tucson was a Spanish and then Mexican fortress from its establishment in 1775 until the last Mexican soldiers marched away in March 1856. During this 81-year time span, the average population numbered between 400…