At the request of Stuart W. H. Ching, curator of the Mission Houses Museum, and under contract to Heath Construction Services, Inc.,T.S. Dye & Colleagues, Archaeologists, Inc. conducted archaeological monitoring during renovations to the Mission Houses Museum on December 9th and 10th, 2002.
The project area is located between the Chamberlain House and the Visitor Center building, where a utilities trench was excavated.
The archaeological monitoring consisted of two days of observation, artifact recovery, and mapping. The excavation process and the facings of the trench were closely watched for loose or embedded artifacts and features. Excavated sediment was put through a 0.125 in. sieve to facilitate recovery of artifacts that had been missed by the initial observation.
The large number of ceramic artifacts identified as kitchenware
recovered from the project area near the Chamberlain House
makai lanai suggest that the area was used to discard broken
dishes and other kitchen refuse. The ceramic evidence indicates that
the area was used from the early to the late 1800s, which is in
keeping with the historical information on the Mission Houses
site.
