The Old Stand: A Historic Resource Study of the Royal Presidio of Monterey, 1770 - 1840

Purpose of the Study: The Royal Presidio of Monterey functioned as the center of cultural, political, and economic activities in California during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. There has been very little published about the Presidio of Monterey in comparison to the other three Presidios and the 21 California missions despite this significance. The purpose of this study is to produce a Historic Resource Study of the Presidio centered on the period from 1770 to 1840. The study provides a detailed historical and archaeological overview of the Presidio in order to inform future legal compliance and preservation efforts. This thesis also contributes to scholarship on the Presidio's formation as a frontier settlement, examining both the built environment and sociocultural landscape. Procedure: Archival data was collected using historical research methods and then cross-compared with archaeological investigations in order to describe and reconstruct the evolution of the Presidio quadrangle through time. In addition, census and mission records and other primary sources were examined in order to identify and interpret processes of ethnogenesis among the soldiers and settlers at the Presidio of Monterey. Findings: Two primary processes contributed to the formation of the Presidio. First, the Presidio quadrangle underwent physical processes, including five major phases of construction and modification due to inconsistent maintenance, fire and weather damage, foreign attack, and changing leadership. Second, the soldiers and settlers of the Presidio experienced changes to their ascribed identities under the sistema de castas through processes of ethnogenesis and transitioned to gente de razon, a more unified identity. Conclusions: The review of documentary and archaeological records demonstrates that the colonial landscape of the Presidio was formed through a diverse array of physical and cultural processes during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These processes included various physical developments and modifications to the environment as well as significant changes in colonial social and ethnic structures. By examining how space is created and reconfigured with that of sociocultural processes, archaeologists can better understand the ways in which colonial subjects perceived and shaped their experiences within the landscape.