Tracing the use-life of an early Denver neighborhood cistern: A multi-proxy analysis of soil development, domestic practices, and urban privacy

Abstract

A multi-proxy artifactual, sedimentological, micromorphological, and geochemical investigation of soils collected from a community cistern (Denver, USA) elucidate its use-life regarding westward late nineteenth-century Euro-American settlement and early twentieth century residential domestic and industrial activities. This analysis identifies fifteen depositional strata within the cistern to clarify site formation and evolution over time. Results reveal distinct phases that inform us about the evolving needs of a community through its water management and observed through cistern construction, its obsolescence, and its reuse as a waste receptacle. The preservation and study of cisterns offer important lessons for the study of urban soil development, domestic practices, and ideas about privacy held by urban dwellers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.