Glass
Beads from Mission San Miguel Arcangel, 1797-1840
Abstract
Archaeological excavations conducted at Mission San Miguel Arcangel recovered 127 glass beads of 27 varieties, including 21 varieties of drawn beads and 6 varieties of wound-beads. The assemblage contains a high percentage of hot tumbled drawn beads (83% of all rounded drawn beads) common to the second quarter of the nineteenth century and later, coinciding with the Mexican period, ca. 1821-1846. The remaining rounded drawn beads (13%) are furnace or pan rounded drawn beads that coincide with the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century period for the site. The assemblage also includes a high percentage of small blue and white beads (70% of the assemblage). This indicates that during the Spanish California Mission Period, ca. 1769-1821, Native Americans occupying the early-nineteenth-century neophyte enclosure east of the mission site had access to predominately small blue and white embroidery beads, generally indicative of an early contact period. Relatively few large necklace beads (7% of the assemblage) are in the assemblage, and those that were recovered consist principally of relatively small necklace beads that have undecorated simple shapes. Relatively large, highly decorated necklace beads were nonexistent, indicating most of the beads in this assemblage were relatively inexpensive. These less expensive beads may be indicative of a preference for the importation of inexpensive, smaller beads by Spaniards and Mexicans during the California Mission and Mexican periods.
Summary
Mission San Miguel Arcangel was founded on July 25, 1797, at the confluence of the Salinas and Nacimiento rivers. It was established by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, Presidente of the California Missions, who succeeded Father Junipero Serra. Named for Saint Michael the Arcangel, the mission was the sixteenth of 21 Franciscan missions established in Alta California.
In 2004, four 1 x 1-meter units were excavated approximately 500 feet east of the mission, along the north side of the north wall of the neophyte quadrangle “enclosure.” The bead assemblage analyzed included 127 glass beads, categorized by classes and types with individual beads described by varieties (Ross 2004). Of these 127 beads, there were 27 varieties including:
Drawn Beads
Decorated Cut Drawn Beads (2 varieties)
Undecorated Furnace or Pan Rounded Drawn Beads (3 varieties)
Undecorated Hot Tumbled Drawn Beads (16 varieties)
Wound Beads
Undecorated, Freewound Lamp Wound Beads (5
varieties)
Decorated, Freewound Lamp Wound Beads (1
variety)
The glass bead assemblage from Mission San Miguel Arcangel represents the temporal period from the late 18th to mid-19th-centuries, corresponding with the 1797-1840 occupation period for the mission. The beads are predominantly blue and white beads commonly associated with initial contact between Euro-American and Native Americans. Most beads are small undecorated embroidery beads with a few small undecorated necklace beads. The paucity of moderately and highly expensive glass beads suggests that Spaniards and Mexicans were importing a high percentage of relatively inexpensive beads for gifts and recompense for services provided by Native Americans. Since this bead assemblage came from the early-19th-century neophyte enclosure east of the mission site, it probably can be attributed to Native American use, loss, and discard.
Drawn beads
Wound beads
Reference
Ross, Lester A.
2004 Glass Beads from Mission San Miguel Arcangel (CA-SLO-2189), San Miguel, San Luis Obispo County, California, 1797-1840. Ms. Submitted to Greenwood and Associates, Pacific Palisades, CA.
12 February 2005