Historical Archaeology at the Golden Eagle Site

Sacramento, California's Golden Eagle Hotel site provides material correlates of an upper-middle-class restaurant and saloon dating to the mid-19th century.  Archaeological investigations on the J/K/6/7 block took place in the summer of 1979, and was initiated by the Sacramento Museum and History Department on behalf of the city's Redevelopment Agency.  This project marked an important chapter in Sacramento's ongoing cultural resources program, and this report explores broad concerns of urban archaeology within the regulatory context that will sound familiar to contemporary readers.

Along with numerous chapters on the wide variety of material remains uncovered during excavation, the importance of this report lies in its recommendations addressing the need at the time for a city-wide, theory-oriented research design.  The interpretive section proposes a number of schemes relating to urban development that might be implemented in such a design.

The full report can be found here (86 MB pdf).

A compressed version of the report can be found here (31 MB pdf).