Hello, I am Megan Kane, a research assistant working with the Market Street Chinatown collection.

After a long break, the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project is ready for a website update! My name is Megan Kane, and I am a research assistant working with the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project. I first started working with the MSCAP collection four years ago. At the time, I was in awe of the Market Street Chinatown collection and the sophisticated questions that archaeologists could ask of a historical site. Well, that awe never left and now I am working in historical archaeology. I am constantly amazed by the Market Street Chinatown collection and the potential it holds for further research, and that potential has never been more apparent than right now.

Have a look at our beautifully organized file cabinet and the wealth of documentation that we have for the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project!

Over the last several months, I have been working with the documentation from the original excavations and analysis at Market Street Chinatown. Up to now, the documents were stored in boxes in no particular order. Starting last December I began working with the documents, organizing them, scanning them and analyzing them. I created a database just for the Market Street documents that includes a PDF of each one, so we can search and read documents right from the computer without having to handle the originals. All of that is great, but the really exciting thing to come out of this project is the new understanding of just how much information we do have about the original excavations! Far more information has been preserved about the original excavations than any of us ever imagined. This is tremendously exciting as we plan further research with the collection. We will be able to address far more sophisticated questions about the Market Street Chinatown now that we can analyze the artifact assemblage in conjunction with the documents. Stay tuned as we explore this very exciting collection!

Featured Artifact

A true workhorse of the lab! This batch scanner has allowed me to digitize and organize all of the documents related to the Market Street excavations.

Our artifact for the week is a little unusual, but this object has made my life so much easier over the last several months as I have scanned and analyzed documents that it is worth highlighting. Meet our batch scanner! This scanner will take a stack of 50 pages and turn them into a PDF automatically. It has allowed me to scan thousands of pages of field records, lab records and reports and to make them available electronically. It has revolutionized the way that we work with the documents and with the collection. As we plow ahead with our analysis of the Market Street Chinatown archaeology collection, we will owe many thanks to this machine.

Guido Pezzarossi and Adrian Myers cataloging glass artifacts from the Market Street Chinatown

Greetings from the historical archaeology lab at the Stanford Archaeology Center. In Summer 2008 two new Stanford graduate students, Guido Pezzarossi and Adrian Myers, worked with the assemblage of glass artifacts from the Market Street Chinatown collection. Our goal has been to get as much as possible cataloged and entered into the computer database. As we catalog we’re undertaking preliminary analysis: at the minimum describing the artifact and whenever possible the method of manufacture and other diagnostic attributes. After nearly completing the glass from Lot 85-31 (about 9 boxes), we’ve noted that the majority of glass artifacts can plausibly be related to alcohol consumption. We catalogued many “Champagne” and “Mineral” style bottle finishes, as well as many bottle bases with deep push-ups, all attributes that are usually (but not always) associated with wine and liquor bottles. However the assemblage certainly is diverse; along with the liquor bottles, we’ve seen medicine bottles, inkwells, lamp chimneys, tableware and decorative items. We’ve also come across a number of glass artifacts that we can’t identify, thus we’re including two “mystery artifacts” in today’s post. Have a look at the pictures and please let us know your thoughts. Post a comment below, or email the Project Director at bvoss@stanford.edu.

Featured Artifacts

Mystery Glass Artifact #1

Mystery Artifact #1: Single fragment of colorless glass, with iridescent patination. Weight: 47 grams. Manufacture method unknown, but no evidence of mould seams. Includes what appears to be the finish or spout from a bottle or jug, but could be something else. The finish is approximately 18 millimeters in diameter and the bore is approximately 8 millimeters in diameter. The bore of the finish is blocked by residue, possibly dirt or decayed cork (established as not metallic). The body glass is between 1 and 2 millimeters thick. Again, at first sight this would appear to be a fragment of an oddly shaped, bulbous, bottle. However, seemingly it could also be a fragment of a household or industrial furnishing such as lamp.

Mystery Glass Artifact #2

Mystery Artifact #2 Fragments of colorless glass, with iridescent patination. Combined weight: 194 grams. Manufactured by press molding. Fragments crossmend into what appears to be part of a decorative household furnishing, possibly a lamp base or sconce. Impressed with a grape vine pattern, with residue of gilding or paint in the crevices.

Archival-quality ethafoam is used to cushion and protect artifacts from breakage.

As I welcomed a new, massive roll of Ethafoam into Dr. Voss’s lab at Stanford last week, I knew it was time to share our progress with all the friends and partners of the Market Street Chinatown Project. I started working with the collection in September, organizing and recording previously catalogued materials in preparation for curation and use by future researchers. After many hours of sorting and resorting, close to two dozen boxes are ready to be packed in stable, protective packaging and to have their content inventories entered into our artifact database. The goal of this stage of the project is to provide an organizational system which can help track the progress of cataloguing, and within which each artifact can be relocated for further analyses. While working through the materials I was impressed by the diversity of the collection – with ceramics of Asian and European manufacture ranging from plain, thick and utilitarian to refined and decorative; bottles from an array of commercial products including hair tonic, bitters, sauces, and alcoholic beverages; and a fascinating combination of small objects such as buttons, doll parts, gaming pieces, and toothbrushes. Student researchers have already made a great contribution to our understanding of the collection, but it seems that there are many more potential research projects waiting in these boxes!

Cuttlefish bone fragments from the Market Street Chinatown faunal collection

The next stage of my work with the Market Street Chinatown collection is to sort and catalog faunal remains from the 1985, 1986, and 1991 excavations and prepare a portion for specialized zooarchaeological analysis. In the few boxes I’ve sorted so far, the many bags of large mammal, bird, and fish bones hint at the wealth of dietary information they can provide. One type of faunal material that I hadn’t seen in a collection before is cuttlefish bone, the white, spongy, layered fragments from the internal “shell” of a kind of cephalopod. Other mollusk shells, from oysters and mussels, add to the potential information about residents’ use of marine resources.

Featured Artifact

19th-century condiment bottle, possibly for mustard, distributed by Hunnewell & Co.’s

This portion of an aqua-colored, post-molded bottle with embossed panels on either side reading “…NNEWELL & CO” and “BOSTON” is a great example of how one artifact can be a key for interpreting others of its kind. In her glass cataloging work, Jessica found several fragments of distinctive deep aqua, octagonal bottles with concave panels. None of these fragments had embossed labels indicating the containers’ former contents, though, so they couldn’t be attributed to a product or manufacturer. When I found this bottle among the 85-31 “small finds,” I knew it could help us with those other fragments. A bit of research using Bill Hunt’s Medicine Bottle Glass Index [http://www.nps.gov/history/mwac/bottle_glass/index.html] helped to fill out the manufacturer’s name to “J.L. Hunnewell &Co.” of Boston, and a search of the Society for Historical Archaeology’s Historic Bottle Website [http://www.sha.org/bottle/] gave us the lead that these might have held mustard or other seasonings. More research into Hunnewell & Co.’s line of products and bottle styles may help us to refine the identification.