Dogs First Tamed in China -- To Be Food?

Here is an interesting article about Dog domestication.

John Roach
for National Geographic News

September 4, 2009

Wolves were domesticated no more than 16,300 years ago in southern China, a new genetic analysis suggests—and it's possible the canines were tamed to be livestock, not pets, the study author speculates.

"In this region, even today, eating dog is a big cultural thing," noted study co-author Peter Savolainen, a biologist at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

"And you can also see in the historical records as far back as you can go that eating dogs has been very common" in East Asia.

"Therefore, you have to think of the possibility that this was one of the reasons for domesticating dogs."

Dog Diversity

The new work, published Wednesday in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, bolsters the long-held theory that dogs first became "man's best friend" in East Asia.

That notion came under fire last month, based on a DNA analysis of so-called village dogs in Africa.

The highest level of genetic diversity in modern dogs should exist in the region where the animals first came under human control.

But the August study found that African village dogs have a similar amount of genetic diversity as those in East Asia, calling into question the origins of dog domestication.

For the new work, Savolainen and colleagues analyzed the entire mitochondrial genome—DNA passed down only from the mother—of 169 dogs, as well as portions of the genomes from 1,543 dogs from across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

These dogs all share at least 80 percent of their DNA, the team found. The animals' genetic diversity increased the farther east the scientists looked.

The greatest diversity was found in a region south of the Yangtze River in China.

According to Savolainen, the data make it "totally clear" that genetic variation in East Asian dogs is much higher than anywhere else in the world.

The analysis also suggests that wolves were domesticated from several hundred individuals sometime between 5,400 and 16,300 years ago.

This is around the time Asian hunter-gatherers were adopting a more settled agrarian lifestyle, which is part of what makes Savolainen think the canines might have been kept as food.

Support, But Not Proof?

Adam Boyko, a biologist at Cornell University in New York and co-author of the August study, agrees that the new work shows greater genetic diversity in East Asia than Africa.

But Boyko said he would like to see more genetic evidence before he calls the finding proof of domestication.

"But clearly, it is a very interesting result," he said. "There is a ton of data backing it up, [and] they put forth a really interesting hypothesis for dog domestication."

Destruction by our troops (and others) to the ancient city of Babylon

This is very sad. Apparently the war in Iraq has caused substantial damage to the Ancient City of Babylon. Probably may other archaeological sites. We heard about the looting just after the invasion. The following is paraphrased from a couple of news articles including the one linked above and the LA Times and CommonDreams.org.

The U.S. troops as well as contractors in Iraq drove heavy machinery over ancient roadways, they bulldozed hilltops, leveled other areas, and dug trenches throughout the site. This is according to UNESCO. The have a PDF you can download, but I don't know how to link to it. Sorry.

UNESCO noted that the damage didn’t begin with the U.S. military and that archaeologists took away some of Babylon’s finest treasures in the 19th century. There were some significant modifications by Saddam Hussein when he embellished the site with his own structures. And after the US military gave the site back to the Iraqis, after March 2003, looters hit the site hard.

They are working to improve the city and restore the damage but the damage is fairly significant. The US (State Department) is going to spend $700,000 towards restoration. Also, an international group-- The Future of Babylon Project --is working toward making the site a World Heritage site. The Future of Babylon Project is a partnership of the World Monuments Fund, a New York-based nonprofit organization, and Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.

I hope they can fix it. It is a world treasure. Something I hope I will visit someday.

Lubbock Animal Shelter - the southeast loop

I did a survey this week for the new animal shelter (an adoption center) for the City of Lubbock.


Pretty easy - small area, took about 2 hours. But it was not pretty. They have decided to go with this chunk of land that is away from any kind of traffic except people zooming by on the loop. There is no easy access to the area and it is desolate. This is going to be a place where people come to adopt animals . . .why would they choose such a remote place? If you read my posts regularly you will remember I did another location for the animal shelter and in that area they destroyed historic structures in order to get the project approved only to find out they did not have the right to use that property for anything other than a park. Destruction for nothing! It is aggravating to see the impact of the city councils' poor decision making skills.

The End of the Midden

We finished with the midden, exposing the mass debris field of rocks that had been dumped and scattered and under that we found the central cooking feature, perhaps reused several times. We found a few projectile points in all these rocks and several pieces of rocks removed from making other chipped stone tools extent of excavations

Pit feature

Below are the projectile points (dart tips for spears)

Our Burned Rock Midden

This is a burned rock midden we are excavating on the Fort Hood base. It was initially identified by ground penetrating radar. We excavated a small shovel test which encountered some rocks so we opened a 1x1 meter square unit and this is the top of the burned rock midden in that unit.We then excavated the east (right side in this photo) of the midden to see a cross section. This is during the process of removing the rocks from that half.


We then exposed more of the midden which you can see below. The previously excavated section is the whole towards the top of the feature in the photo below.

Fort Hood Archaeology, once more

Digging the past: Hood works to preserve history

by Bryan Kirk | Killeen Writer
Published: June 14, 2009

FORT HOOD - In tale after tale where treasures rumored beyond imagination drove men to uncharted territory and distant lands, “X” was said to mark the spot.

But in the tale of real life, where men and women who thirst for history and work feverishly to preserve it, there is no specific “X,” just a few broken shards of pottery, a pair of rusty discarded dog tags dating back to World War I or a child’s toy.

“These were lives,” said Sunny Wood, an archaeologist with Fort Hood’s Cultural Resources Management Program. “Some of this stuff people would consider collectors’ items or antiques.”

But there is much more than that, especially when ancient history mixes with the present day.

“What always sticks out in my mind is that we’ll find a projectile point that is 8,000 years old on the same surface as a Pepsi can from last week,” Wood said. “It drives me nuts.”

One man’s trash

A hole in the ground has been Ginny Hatfield’s and Tim Griffith’s office for the last four weeks.

Archaeologists Tim Griffith and Ginny Hatfield sift through sediment collected from Fort Hood’s site No. 41CV1553, a recently discovered collection of fire rocks in paluxy soil. Artifacts from the site date from 200 to 1,500 years ago. Scott Gaulin/Telegram

Off the beaten path, and only a few yards from a deeply rutted tank track, Griffith and Hatfield had staked a handful of tiny white and red flags to make a series of shallow digs for artifacts, and into the lives of an ancient people.

Under a canvas canopy, Hatfield had staked several grid squares outlined with twine that stretched 1 yard wide by 3 yards long.

The rock oven or roasting pit that ancient people used to cook wild onions, plants and game. Scott Gaulin/Telegram

Using a small shovel and a brush, she’d been digging carefully with Griffith, meticulously sifting mounds of sandy soil through a screen.

What they’d uncovered was what’s commonly known in archaeological circles as a rock oven or a roasting pit that ancient people used to cook wild onions, plants and game. It dates from 200 to 1,500 years ago.

In one small square, Hatfield had uncovered only a small part of the oven and hoped to collect some ancient plant materials to determine what was cooked.

“From this one we’ve taken several samples of soil,” Hatfield said.

They also have collected some rock samples to see if residue can be collected from those, Hatfield said.

“We are in the beginning stages of examining all of this,” she said.

Researchers have not just found the large roasting oven, but also stone chips that may have been used to fashion spear points and arrow heads.

Of course, a lot of the discoveries might have remained long buried if it were not for technology.

Aside from shallow digs with tiny shovels, archaeologists use imaging technology to find anomalies.

“What they did is come out here and put a grid over this whole area,” Wood said. “They ran ground-penetrating radar to figure out where these clusters of rocks are, to kind of hone down where we were going to put our focus. Otherwise you are coming out here with a probe or a shovel to see what’s out here.”

Once those anomalies are found, archaeologists get to work digging, and sifting through time itself.

Griffith shoveled a small amount of sandy soil and watched the fine remnants fall back to the earth.

What was left were fragments of rocks that intrigued Griffith.

That’s because the burned rocks that fashioned the oven, when you strike them together will emit a sulfuric scent, much like a match being struck.

Thousands of years ago, prehistoric cultures learned that heated rocks could be used to bake foods, specifically bulbs or fibrous plants.

These were usually cooked at least overnight and sometimes for several days before they could be eaten.

Rocks, heated within a pit and covered by layers of plants and insulating earth, can hold heat for up to 48 hours, and that is why these ovens were so effective. The larger and more numerous the rocks, the more slowly they will dissipate heat and the longer they will stay hot enough to cook the food.

“This is really kind of a neat project,” Wood said. “We’ve got some guys from Texas A&M who are interested in this. We’re going to get some good data out of this.”

This specimen is a bi-face beveled knife, meaning that it was worked on both sides of the stone. Scott Gaulin/Telegram

A metates was recovered from the site. The center was cored and dissolved in acid to reveal it was used to grind acorns, wild onions and garlic, hyacinth and camis. Charred nutshells were also found that archaeologist Sunny Wood suspects are pecans and walnuts. Scott Gaulin/Telegram

The program

The Cultural Management Program, which manages resources representing more than 10,000 years of occupying the land, has been in existence on Fort Hood since 1978 and is one of the stronger programs situated on military posts in the United States.

“We have 98 percent of the installation surveyed for archaeology and cultural resources,” Wood said.

Over the years, there have been some pretty significant finds on post.

In 1970 construction crews who were building the Pershing Creek Housing area discovered the partial tusk of an extinct wooly mammoth.

Discoveries on the more than 2,200 recorded archaeological sites range from prehistoric rock shelters to historic homesteads and cemeteries, early military structures and even a few sites considered sacred by a number of Native American tribes.

Chances are pretty good that researchers and archaeologists have barely scratched the surface since most prehistoric sites go quite deep.

Building goodwill

Fuller coordinates with seven Native American tribes in the United States to ensure their ancient sites remain intact, and as protected as possible.

Those tribes include the Apache, Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa, Tonkawa, Mescalaro Apache and Witchita.

“Obviously, some are more interested than others, it just depends on the tribe and how active their cultural resources division is,” Fuller said.

When tribal remains are located or stolen remains recovered, Fuller contacts the tribes to see what they’d like done, and often they will agree to come to Fort Hood to perform a sacred ceremony.

Many of the tribal remains are reburied at the Leon River Medicine Wheel, which is regarded as a sacred ceremonial site, or at the Comanche National Indian Cemetery, both of which are managed and protected by Fort Hood.

But coordinating and cooperating is not just about reburial, it’s also about learning, especially when archaeologists find something new.

“We provide them all of our stuff and they give us feedback on what they think the archaeological site means,” she said. “As opposed to us telling them what it is, we want them to tell us what they think it is, too. It’s very much a cooperative effort.”

Fort Hood Archaeology again

I am having even more fun conducting archaeology in Fort Hood now that the marines are encamped! They have taken positions on the ridge we drive across to get to the site and on the next ridge over . . .and probably on some others I don't know about. We were discovered by a lone marine on a mission to find a place to go to the bathroom. We were taking lunch, blasting some Irish drinking songs and a marine with gun slung across his chest and holding an entrenching tool (folding shove) came walking up. We talked with him for a bit, told him what we were doing and he then told us they were part of a massive live fire exercise involving a whole bunch of marines from the northeast coast (New Jersey and Pennsylvania). When he told us we might need to be careful, given the live fire and all, we determined our route into the site crossed in front of the guns . . . so now we get an escort as we drive in and out from the site. The escort involves a marine walking in front of us, just behind their line of howitzers.

Today while we worked we heard howitzers on the ridges around us being fired. The ones closes to us were so loud we could here the whistling of the round as it sailed through the air. Pretty cool. On our way out, they actually fired while we were still next to them. It was VERY VERY loud. You could feel the earth move and the wind rushed by us . .. very cool

This video shows nothing but you can hear the firing of the howitzers in the background

fun fun

Now I am living in Briarcliff

I really want to participate in the Small Town Snapshot Sunday so . . . now I am living in Briarcliff! I spend so much time visiting my brother in Briarcliff (near Spicewood, Texas . . . just outside Austin) that I have decided it is my second home. I visit my brother and his wife while I am conducting fieldwork in the area . . .and will spend several weekends here. Briarcliff is a village along Lake Travis and has about 1500 people in it. It is a wonderful remote part of the world where the deer are often grazing in the lawn. My actually home, where my husband resides, is in Lubbock Texas - on the High Plains - which has a population of 200,000. The deer all over the place really amazes me. They are not at all afraid of people.

It is not uncommon to see deer in the front yard . . . even with their babies


This is a deer I saw simply driving along the road
I love this area - very green and hilly and very close to the lake.

Fort Hood Archaeology

I am having a pretty good time, even though it is hot and humid, working on west Fort Hood. Fort Hood is one of the largest army bases in the U.S. They are doing a terrific job taking care of their cultural resources--aka archaeology (considering tanks are plowing through the terrain carving ruts everywhere). We are excavating three sites, evaluating the anomalies identified by ground penetrating radar. About half the anomalies turned out to be something archaeological. We are currently exposing a burned rock midden which is a large pile of rocks that have been fractured by fire while in use as an oven or hearth or from use boiling water. These are common features in central and west Texas.

This photo shows the dirt on top of the midden


This is the top of the burned rock midden . . .we are currently removing the dirt from around this unit to expose more of the feature.

These sites are sitting on Paluxy Sandstone formation which was once the coast of the Gulf of Mexico something like 80 million years ago. I am standing on this bedrock in the photo shown below . . .

Full-Figured Statuette, 35,000 Years Old, Provides New Clues to How Art Evolved

By John Noble Wilford in the New York Times
May 14, 2009

No one would mistake the Stone Age ivory carving for a Venus de Milo. The voluptuous woman depicted is, to say the least, earthier, with huge, projecting breasts and sexually explicit genitals.

Nicholas J. Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, who found the small carving in a cave last year, said it was at least 35,000 years old, “one of the oldest known examples of figurative art” in the world. It is about 5,000 years older than some other so-called Venus artifacts made by early populations of Homo sapiens in Europe.

Another archaeologist, Paul Mellars of the University of Cambridge, in England, agreed and went on to remark on the obvious. By modern standards, he said, the figurine’s blatant sexuality “could be seen as bordering on the pornographic.”

The tiny statuette was uncovered in September in a cave in southwestern Germany, near Ulm and the Danube headwaters. Dr. Conard’s report on the find is being published Thursday in the journal Nature.

The discovery, Dr. Conard wrote, “radically changes our view of the origins of Paleolithic art.” Before this, he noted, female imagery was unknown, most carvings and cave drawings being of mammoths, horses and other animals.

Scholars say the figurine is roughly contemporaneous with other early expressions of artistic creativity, like drawings on cave walls in southeastern France and northern Italy. The inspiration and symbolism behind the rather sudden flowering have long been debated by art historians.

Commenting in the journal on the discovery, Dr. Mellars, who did not take part in the research, wrote that the artifact was one of 25 similar carvings found over the past 70 years in other caves in the Swabian region of southern Germany, “a veritable art gallery of early ‘modern’ human art.”

These sites, he concluded, “must be seen as the birthplace of true sculpture in the European — maybe global — artistic tradition.”

Scholars say the large caves were presumably inviting sanctuaries for populations of modern humans migrating then into Central and Western Europe. These were the people who eventually displaced the resident Neanderthals, around 30,000 years ago.

Dr. Conard reported that the discovery was made beneath three feet of red-brown sediment in the floor of the Hohle Fels Cave. Six fragments of the carved ivory, including all but the left arm and shoulder, were recovered. When he brushed dirt off the torso, he said, “the importance of the discovery became apparent.”

The short, squat torso is dominated by oversize breasts and broad buttocks. The split between the two halves of the buttocks is deep and continuous without interruption to the front of the figurine. A greatly enlarged vulva emphasizes the “deliberate exaggeration” of the figurine’s sexual characteristics, Dr. Conard said.

The object reminded experts of the most famous of the sexually explicit figurines from the Stone Age, the Venus of Willendorf, discovered in Austria a century ago. That Venus is somewhat larger and dated about 24,000 years ago, but it is in a style that appeared to have been prevalent for several thousand years. Scholars speculate that these Venus figurines, as they are known, were associated with fertility beliefs or shamanistic rituals.

Sexual images in early Homo sapiens European art: A. A "Venus" figurine from Willnedorf, Austria, 105 millimeters in height, dated about 28,000 years ago; B. Female "vulvar" symbols carved on a limestone block from the La Ferrassie rock shelter, southwest France, dated about 35,000 years ago; C. A phallus, carved from the horn core of a bison, from the Blanchard rock shelter, southwest France; the carving is about 36,000 years old and is 250 millimeters long.

The Hohle Fels artifact, less than 2.5 inches long and weighing little more than an ounce, is headless. Carved at the top, instead, is a ring, evidently to allow the object to be suspended from a string or thong.

Taming Humanity's Urge to War: Must lethal conflict be an inevitable part of human culture?

I am posting another whole article because I thought this was pretty interesting. This is an article which is published in May 2009 Scientific American Magazine
Not so much archaeology as anthropology . . .

By John Horgan

SALT LAKE CITY—As deep as scientists peer into human history and prehistory, they have found evidence of violence. That was the bad news from 17 researchers in anthropology and other fields at “The Evolution of Human Aggression: Lessons for Today’s Conflicts” conference, held at the University of Utah at the end of February. The good news is that much can be done to reduce lethal conflict in the world today. As participant Frans B. M. de Waal of Emory University put it, humans are not “destined to wage war forever.”

De Waal, who studies primates, noted that observations of lethal group encounters among chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives, have promulgated the fatalistic belief that “war is in our DNA.” But chimps are also “peacemakers,” de Waal pointed out; they reconcile after fights by hugging, mouth and hand kissing, mutual grooming and food sharing. Humans engage in such behavior, too, de Waal said, flashing a photograph of John McCain and George W. Bush embracing—albeit with hideously insincere grins—after their bitter primary contest in 2000.

Reconciliation takes place, de Waal contended, “whenever parties stand to lose if their relationship deteriorates.” Chimpanzees from different troops, which compete for territory and hence treat one another with lethal hostility, rarely if ever reconcile, he noted. Among humans, however, “interdependencies between groups or nations are not unusual.” To promote peace, he suggested, nations should foster economic interdependence through alliances such as the European Union. Although the E.U. has “not created love between Germany and France” and other former adversaries, de Waal acknowledged, it has greatly reduced the likelihood of war in Europe.

Harvard University anthropologist Richard Wrangham agreed with de Waal that primate violence is not compulsive, or “instinctual,” but is “extremely sensitive to context.” One of the most robust predictors of violence between two groups of primates, Wrangham proposed, is an imbalance of power. Chimps from one troop invariably attack individuals from a rival troop when the attackers have an overwhelming number advantage and hence a minimal risk of death or injury.

Although humans are much less risk-averse than chimps, Wrangham asserted, human societies—from hunter-gatherers to modern nations such as the U.S.—also behave much more aggressively toward rival groups when they are confident they can prevail. Reducing imbalances of power between nations, Wrangham said, should reduce the risk of war.

So should controlling population, according to anthropologist Polly Wiessner of the University of Utah. Wiessner is an authority on the Enga, a tribal people who raise crops and pigs in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Warfare first surged among them 200 years ago, Wiessner said, after the introduction of sweet potatoes led to food surpluses and rapid population growth. Mortality rates subsided after Enga elders instituted stricter rules for warfare, such as bans on killing of women and mutilation.

The introduction of modern medicine into Enga society some 25 years ago decreased childhood mortality, triggering another “youth bulge” and surge in tribal conflict. Mortality rates have soared, Wiess­ner explained, because Engans now fight with shotguns and automatic weapons rather than clubs, knives and spears, their traditional weapons. Moreover, young mercenaries called “Rambos” hire themselves out to tribes in exchange for cash, young women and other booty. Together with promoting birth control, giv­ing young men “a meaningful way forward in life” should decrease violence, Wiess­ner proposed.

Climate change has also driven conflict. This lesson emerged from Patricia Lambert’s studies of the Chumash, hunter-gatherers who inhabited the coast of southern California for millennia before the arrival of Europeans. Many Chumash skeletons display signs of violence, including skull fractures and embedded arrow or spear points. Analysis of tree rings and other evidence, said Lambert, an anthropologist at Utah State University, suggest that violence among the Chumash escalated during periods of drought.

Lambert warned that droughts, which are expected to increase as a result of global warming, are already triggering conflicts around the world today. To drive this point home, she flashed a photograph of a well in Somalia; so far 250 Somalians have died battling over control of the well. To forestall such conflicts, Lambert said, governments must ensure equitable distribution of water and other resources.

The most upbeat speaker was Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, who argued that—contrary to what many scientists once believed—levels of violence are much lower in our era than they were before the advent of modern states some 10,000 years ago. According to ethnographic surveys and archaeological evidence, Pinker pointed out, 30 percent or more of the members of tribal societies died as a result of group violence; that percentage is some 10 times greater than the proportion of Europeans and North Americans killed by war-related causes during the cataclysmic 20th century.

Pinker identified several possible reasons for this trend. First, our increased life expectancies make us less willing to risk our lives by engaging in violence. Second, the creation of stable governments with effective legal systems and police forces has eliminated what British philosopher Thomas Hobbes called the “war of all against all” among pre-state humans. Third, mass media and travel have boosted understanding of, and empathy toward, those beyond our immediate family and even nation. This may be the best news of all: civilization, which has often been blamed for war, is actually helping us achieve peace.

This story was originally published with the title "Taming the Urge to War"

City of Lubbock, why do you destroy history?

I am a bit aggravated . . . in my work this week, I was suppose to survey an area for the City of Lubbock before they constructed a new shelter to be used as an adoption center by, at least but not limited to, the Humane Society of West Texas (that's another blog I manage on so check it out). So I go out to the property already knowing that there is a swimming pool and other structures built by the Civil Conservation Corps, dating to the 1930s and 1940s. But when I get there, what do I find? Nothing! All of the structures have been leveled and the pool filled in. Outrageous. The structures and pool may have been protected and the City may not have been able to construct their shelter their, but whether or not the city personnel who made that fateful decision knew that or not is uncertain. What is certain is the City of Lubbock does not care about its own history. I hate for things like this happen. It is a cultural resource and now it is lost. I am very happy for the city to build the animal shelter which will also include a dog park. This is a great thing and is desperately needed. But it would be nice if we didn't sacrifice history in the unnecessarily.

The Secret in the Cellar

This is kind of cool. It is a webcomic that is based on an actual excavation, their analysis, and their conclusions. It is a nifty way to portray what we do, although finding that much evidence is not too common in prehistoric archaeology. I only wish. Those historic archaeolgists have a lot more data to work with, but that's what makes prehistory so much more exciting . . . right? :)

The Secret in the Cellar

Call an Archaeologist, STAT!

Archaeologists have been working like crazy to excavate sites in an area where the border fence will go up between the United States and Mexico. Read below

Hush-hush archaeology
How scientists and Native Americans pulled off a major dig before the feds triple border fence destroyed everything

By Gayle Early

During the past year, archaeologists have been digging like mad to preserve one of the last remaining ancient Indian village sites in coastal Southern California, racing against the claw of the bulldozers and massive grind of the steam rollers to get the work done before the federal government erases in one year what had managed to survive for millennia.

And they did it in almost complete secrecy.

By April 2008, then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had waived 36 environmental and cultural laws that could otherwise block completion of a triple border fence. Congress granted him this authority in 2005, with the passage of the so-called REAL ID Act.

That amounted to an end run around the National Environmental Policy Act, Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, Indian Religious Freedom Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Archaeological Resources Protection Act and so on, down to the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act—laws protecting communities, farms, forests, watersheds, wildlife, antiquities, habitats, migration corridors and cultural resources.

In the interest of national security, the feds claimed eminent domain over state, county, and private lands along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. That also nullified California’s laws, like the landmark California Environmental Quality Act, which makes disrupting ancient burials or antiquities a criminal act.

Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Save Our Heritage Organization, and other groups sued the federal government, arguing that the move was unconstitutional—and lost, meaning that the Army Corps of Engineers, which managed fence construction for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), could have obliterated at least two archaeological sites eligible for the U.S. National Register of Historic Places lying among three mesas around Border Field State Park.
But they didn’t, and no one knows about this act of grace—not to mention a nail-biting archaeological coup—because of the politicized nature and urgency of the fence project.

So, how did archaeologists snag a $3-million contract with an otherwise implacable post-9-11 defense machine?
Quietly. Behind the scenes. In secret. With the helpful hand of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other key players, none of whom was required to care.

Chertoff did say he wanted to honor the spirit of the laws he waived. And that’s the chink in the wall where Therese Muranaka, associate archaeologist for California State Parks’ San Diego Coast District, struck her wedge. She couldn’t bear to see bulldozers wipe out prehistory.

Carmen Lucas, a tribal elder and one of the last surviving members of the Laguna band of Indians, who strongly feels that these villages represent her ancestors, asked Muranaka for help. Lucas wrote a detailed letter in December 2005 to the archaeologist who conducted initial studies at Border Field, copying Muranaka and the Native American Heritage Commission. In it, she urged protection of the sites in and around Border Field and requested that Native Americans and State Parks “monitor all earth-moving activity if and when construction of the border fence begins.” Lucas also filed a legal protest with Homeland Security over the waivers.

“Number one, it’s a spiritual violation to destroy those sites. And if we waive all of our environmental laws we are setting a precedent for other projects,” Lucas, a 20-year Marine Corps Veteran, told CityBeat. “You can see the systematic destruction of America’s history and prehistory all across this country.”

A coalition of environmentalists, Native Americans and government agencies huddled together—it’s unclear exactly when, perhaps around March 2006—knowing they could not stop the fence.

“It is what it is,” Muranaka had said. “So, what are we going to do?”

Clint Linton, of the Santa Ysabel Band of Diegueño Indians and owner of Red Tail Monitoring and Research Inc., was at the early meetings. “Therese rallied the troops,” he said. “She made it happen.” Linton’s company provides Native American archaeological monitors for construction sites subject to city and county environmental review.

At first, Linton said, the archaeological reviewer with the Army Corps “shut the door on us, wouldn’t talk, just said, ‘It’s waived—you guys can’t do anything about it. Just go home.’”

Linton said the reviewer “made the mistake of telling Therese Muranaka that they’re going to destroy her park and there’s nothing she can do about it. Therese is extremely smart, very savvy, very tough, and got everyone together, got tribal involvement and kept pushing it and fighting it.”

About a year ago, Muranaka gave a talk to the San Diego County Archaeology Society at Rancho Penasquitos Community Park, prompted, she said, by the Indian community.

Unaware that a reporter was in the room, Muranaka and State Parks’ Historian Victor Walsh spoke—not of ancient ollas and grinding stones, but of the proposed triple-layer border fence, with its 150-foot-wide all-terrain road, automatic gates, vehicle and pedestrian barriers, a fourth virtual fence armed with spy drones, Klieg lights and electronic surveillance. And of their efforts to build in-roads with the powers that be.

In her soft voice, Muranaka insisted her talk was not about politics. But, she said, the Border Patrol was concerned with someone coming into the U.S. and destroying “civilization” as it exists. “We archaeologists are concerned that they will destroy the record of all civilizations so there is no hope understanding its nature at all.”

Muranaka grew up in San Diego in a family of divers. When she was a kid, they would catch abalone and walk along the beach south of the border to find a kitchen to cook them. There was no fence.

Muranaka spoke of the thousands of years of footprints crisscrossing the region. The aboriginal territory of San Diego’s Native Americans, largely Kumeyaay, extends from the desert to the ocean, from Carlsbad to Ensenada.

Tracing her finger around a projected image of Monument Mesa, the heart of the village sites, Muranaka spoke of spear points and handstones, of shell middens eroding out of cliff faces and ancient villages buried underwater, out toward the Coronado Islands, when sea levels were much lower.

What laypeople see as a dark line in the soil is a outdoor kitchen to an archaeologist, where thousands of years ago

Indians prized shellfish and relished all-you-can-eat clambakes on the sea cliff (judging by the piles), leaving behind their beveled stone clam-openers for others to discover.

The estuary was a lagoon chock full of fish and mollusks. Generations upon generations tossed their shells and bones into the same piles, and the earth slowly swallowed them.

The site on Monument Mesa extends clear under the Tijuana bull ring, but heavy development in Mexico right up to the fence crunched potsherds to splinters long ago, leaving San Diego with the only real access to the region’s prehistory.

The mesa top itself took a big hit in World Wars I and II, with gun emplacements, encampments and war games, and later a park, but it still yields its earlier story.

Two bluffs beyond, ancient sand dunes remained relatively untouched, archaeologically pristine—no small feat in real-estate happy Southern California.

Mark Becker, of ASM Affiliates, conducted the preliminary tests at these sites four years ago, in State Parks’ anticipation of CEQA and NEPA environmental-impact reviews, just before Congress enacted the 2005 Real ID Act, which contained the environmental waivers.

“From my perspective,” he said, “there are sites all over the place, when you get a rich environment like the estuary.”

One bluff yielded occupation dates around 7,600 years ago, another 5,000 years ago.

“Any driving will destroy it,” said Walsh, at the Archaeology Society meeting in Rancho Penasquitos. “The archaeology is ephemeral, close to the surface.”

The Border Patrol, in pursuit of crossers day and night, unwittingly damages sites along the fence, making sharp turns in the soil that leave artifacts broken in the dirt and carbon-filled hearths exposed to the elements.
It’s still a felony, of course, to desecrate ancient sites. It’s a felony to make off with so much as an arrowhead on protected lands. It’s a felony to disturb Native American human remains and burial objects under any circumstances.

Muranaka nearly gushed about negotiations and cooperation among federal and state agencies, as well as Native Americans, to protect three major sites the fence would hit. No archaeological contracts were signed yet, but it looked promising.

Walsh was less sanguine. “Congress gave Homeland Security arbitrary, unprecedented, discretionary power to waive every hard-fought law. We’re living in a closed society here,” he said. “Questions need to be asked, and they’re not being asked. We’re trying to protect land you own. All people’s histories matter and should be protected.”

Asked for an interview after her presentation in Rancho Penasquitos, Muranaka blanched. “No! Oh no! No. We’re not allowed to talk. You can’t interview me. I have a family, children, a job to protect!” She wanted to take back her entire presentation. She offered a local archaeology book. “Here, write about this!”

Throughout the year, Muranaka refused every e-mail and phone request for an interview. “Please be assured we’re doing everything we can to protect vital cultural resources,” she said.

Hailing from the Laguna Mountains, Carmen Lucas lives in her father’s old cabin 5,500 feet above sea level. She monitors archaeological excavations across the county. “If you’re digging in the ground, our number one concern and priority is the discovery of human remains,” she said.

Lucas, 74, stands taller than 6 feet, has striking white hair and penetrating blue eyes. When she caught wind of a project brewing at Border Field, she insisted she be allowed in as Native American monitor.

“As monitors, we do our best to represent the ancestors who cannot speak for themselves,” she said. “I will go to my grave believing I have a right to look after my ancestors, to respect them and make sure that they’ve been respected.”
Lucas has been criticized by fellow elders for being involved with excavations. “Indians will say ‘leave that stuff alone, it belongs to the dead,’” she said. “I agree with them and I respect that.

“I hate to say this,” she added, “but it’s unrealistic for us to believe people will respect our things and leave them alone. So, if a site is going to be destroyed and we have to dig, we must do the best job possible.”
Lucas emphasized that she doesn’t speak for the tribes, “just what is in my heart.”

In any construction project, if human bones turn up, it becomes a forensic case; when the medical examiner or coroner determines bones are prehistoric, all work stops and the Native American Heritage Commission is notified. The project’s design can be altered; the site is explored wide and deep for any further remains.

But with the feds’ waivers and eminent domain, the Heritage Commission wondered what would happen if, besides irreplaceable antiquities, Homeland Security’s bulldozers churned up ancient bones. Would the feds violate state law? Could they be prosecuted?

Lucas’ plea to Becker and State Parks enabled Muranaka to call the Heritage Commission, State Parks’ sister agency.

The Santa Ysabel band also submitted a resolution to the commission, which in turn wrote a strong letter to the Army Corps in September 2007. That letter exhorted the Corps to allow full recovery of artifacts, have Native American monitors onsite, and adhere to state law if remains were found.

By October 2007, Nancy Parrish stepped in as archaeological reviewer at the Army Corps headquarters in Texas. She notified the Heritage Commission that she was now assigned to the project and apologized to the tribes. By May 2008, she awarded an archaeological contract for excavation of 174 archaeological test units, a massive dig by usual standards. Muranaka was ready with State Parks’ permits.

Asked about the project and how it came to fruition in spite of the waivers, Parrish e-mailed back, “I need to get clearance from [Customs and Border Protection] before I can speak with you.” That never happened.

Sandy Schneeberger, owner of Golden State Environmental of Orange County, won the archaeological bid. She was in charge of the nuts and bolts of the excavation and subcontracted pieces of the puzzle. She wouldn’t discuss the project.

Since when did digging in the dirt with public funds become such a dirty secret?

“When we were out there, they locked us down. They kind of said, ‘Don’t talk to anyone about it,’” said Linton, whose company, along with Carmen Lucas, monitored the digs. Linton said State Parks’ archaeologists “were afraid they were going to pull the plug at any time.”

Linton hypothesized that they were under some sort of gag order because “they didn’t want us on the news. Filming and protests. They don’t want a thousand Indians out there screaming and yelling. They want to sell it as Homeland Security, and you’ve got to do it.”

Specific archaeological sites aren’t typically disclosed to the public, Lucas said, because of pothunters, “people just human-natured curious, wanting to pilfer what they can—they have no idea how offensive that might be to an Indian who understands [those things] belonged to the ancestors.” Still, she found it puzzling that agencies and the firm wouldn’t even speak in generalities.

By summer, contract archaeologists had dug more than 100 so-called test units on the three bluffs leading to the beach, each a meter square going down 10 centimeters at a time.

They were under the gun to work quickly. Extra hands had to be hired. Kiewit Corp., fence builders for the San Diego sector, told them which hill they needed their trucks on and by what day. Kiewit would start on county lands and work west toward Border Field, giving the archaeologists just enough time to get things done.

In haste or oversight, the Native monitors claim, two critically important artifacts were discarded in the dirt backfill after screening. One was a tiny, elegantly worked iridescent disc, the other a 5,000-year-old bead manufactured off an island in central California, the only one ever seen in San Diego County. The pace and circumstances of the work left them uncomfortable and with a lot of questions. “Still,” said Lucas, “I got to see things I’ve never seen before. I’m delighted that I, as an Indian, was able to be there.”

Jackson Underwood, of RECON Environmental, is one of the principal investigators Golden State contracted to manage the report after the lab analyses: all the nitty-gritties like radiocarbon dates, carbon-14 dates, pollen samples, trace protein analyses, relationships among artifacts in the deposits—things that tell us who was doing what, when and where. He designed the research plan after Becker’s earlier findings.

The shroud of secrecy continued with Underwood. He said he would like to talk about “this very important site that will help our understanding of San Diego Holocene [the last 10,000 years] occupation,” but he would need permission from Golden State, State Parks, Army Corps, and clear on up the chain into Homeland Security.

“There’s a lot of political controversy surrounding that project,” he acknowledged. “It’s sensitive, and we have to be careful. A little bit later, I think, all this stuff will be relaxed, after they get the darn fence built.

“All the citizens of the U.S. are funding this,” he conceded, “and yet they’re not allowed to know about it. But we’re winding down now, and everybody’s relieved there weren’t any big problems.”

Linton asked Nancy Parrish, to go-to person with the Army Corps, what would happen if they found human remains.

He said she told him: “It stops everything”—meaning the fence.

Lucas said she requested that Golden State and the Corps hire forensic dogs that could sniff through rubble for human bones like after 9/11, like the ones that, in 2007, sniffed out a 2,500-year-old inhumation in Prague.

“We knew from the beginning there was a high probability of human remains there,” she said. Her request was denied.
Bone experts Rose Tyson, of the San Diego Museum of Man, and Arion Mayes, from San Diego State University, visited the field and lab to examine any questionable bones.

The Heritage Commission got a letter in November from the San Diego Medical Examiner’s office. A fragmented skull bone from Lichty Mesa turned up in the lab. The rest of that skeleton is now buried deep under the fence, and there is no retrieving it, or any others. It’s too late.

The Army Corps of Engineers has committed to return the remains to the Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee for burial on a reservation, honoring the spirit of the waived law. The Kumeyaay have no tradition or ceremony for repatriation—digging up and reburying their ancestors’ bones is something they, as a people, never had to do before.

“Disturbing a burial is a violation of the highest order,” Linton said.

A federal spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said Homeland Security spent $40 million on “under the radar” environmental mitigation, including, she noted, a complete archaeological survey of the border.

She also said, “I didn’t give any clearance for anyone to write an article.”

Homeland Security / Customs and Border Protection also granted the Department of the Interior an additional $50 million to mitigate “adverse effects on natural and cultural resources.” *Muranaka said the San Diego Natural History Museum got some work done at the border, too.

Standing on Monument Mesa, Linton looked out over the Pacific. “I feel totally connected to the past,” he said. “To come down here and think, Ten thousand years ago Indians were here doing their thing, and I might be related to them.”

Told by higher-ups in Sacramento to speak to a reporter, Muranaka finally picked up the phone, a different person from a year ago.

“This is a win,” she exulted. “Because—prior to the elections, you know—how are we going to do this? All the players came together and they were all committed to saving something.”

Who was responsible?

“I don’t think it was me,” she said. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know how all this happened. I still need to be negotiating with [Army Corps] on last-minute things,” she said, “so it makes me shy about speaking publicly too much.

“So to stick to those bullet points: It was a lucky break. It was a cooperative venture. We did what we were supposed to do. We got, basically, 98 to 100 percent of all the sites—a definite win.”

Why did the Army Corps do what it didn’t have to do?

“That’s the question,” Muranaka said. “Isn’t that an interesting question?”

The Mountaineer Site

There is a really neat Folsom site that sits atop a mountain called W Mountain, called the Mountaineer Site, situated at 8600 feet above sea level. I have had a hard time finding any information on this site which Mark Stiger is excavating, but it is starting to trickle out now more and more. Stiger is a professor at Western State College, in Gunnison, Colorado. He was apparently examining the area for the construction of a radio tower and found a site that dates to the Folsom period (around 11,000 years ago). The Folsom people made exquisitely thin points for their hunting spears weapons. They hunted bison with proficiency but they also ate fish and turtles and other critters. They were first discovered at the Folsom site, from where it got its name. The discovery of that site is an interesting story, but I will save that for another time.

The Mountaineer Site is really interesting because they found the rock foundation of a house, which is the first house ever associated with people from this time period. Most of the sites discovered have been sites where large mammals were killed, usually bison or where stone tools were being made. Only ephemeral evidence for structures have ever been documented and usually just by association with the chipped stone debris. So this site is remarkable first--the definitive evidence for a Folsom dwelling and a definite settlement.

This Folsom settlement will add brand new information to this time period about which we know a lot about their technology involving stones chipped into tools, some about what and how they hunted, but otherwise very little else. I hope they will find more beads, of which only one has ever been recovered from a Folsom aged site, in this case the Shifting Sands site in West Texas and this little bone bead was found stuck to the dirt on the underside of another artifact. Hopefully, with careful excavating, we will learn a lot more about these ancient peoples.

Oldest Stone Blades

Ok this is one I happen to like because I am interested in "blade" technology. This article talks about recently discovered blade technology dating to 500,000 years ago. The blade technology has been considered, up until the last 10 years or so, to be the hallmark of modern humans making their way into Europe AND part of the reason why modern humans defeated (or out competed) Neandertals. Now these same "hallmarks of humanity" have been discovered prior to modern humans arrival on the seen. Or at least when we think they emerged. That may change too, with new discoveries. These tools were not used by Neandertals but by Homo heidelbergensis.

A Temple in the Garden of Eden

Since I am not in the field for the next month or so and especially since my stories aren't that interesting anyway, I thought I would start sharing some about discoveries and field work that are interesting - such as the discovery of a temple in the Garden of Eden - or a very likely location for it. This is an extraordinary find in so many ways. It is essentially a megalithic site, like Avebury or Stonehenge in England, but much much earlier, dating to 10,000BC (as opposed to 3000BC for Stonehenge), and the imagery depicts images from a hunter/gather world, like the paintings of Lascaux or Chauvet, which are older than this site. Although, I am annoyed by some of the incorrect assumptions-such as the people 10,000 BC were living in caves, especially out in the plains of Turkey (where the site was found) and the idea that these people were not clever or capable of making homes. They were more capable than we often realize and they probably only worked 20 hours a week on the high end which means they had a lot of time to do other things. This article does illustrate the transition to agriculture was not a smooth one and involved initially a poorer standard of living which Jared Diamond pointed out may have been the world's worst mistake.

Where am I going?

It's rough to be working for a biggish company with two people who do all the bidding and project getting and then they tell the rest of us where to go and when. It makes it hard to schedule ones own destiny. When I am working on a major excavation, that last several months, with several months of write up after words, it is ok, but the little jobs and constant changes in schedules make life unpredictable. I was suppose to be in east Texas this week but that project is on hold because the water level is too high and the sites to be excavated are under water. So I am helping write up the last project, the survey from the Lake Alan Henry Dam to Lubbock for the waterline. Always nice to do write up since I work from my house and get to spend more time with the SU . . .still, I love field work and look forward to my next task . . . where ever that may be . . .

The Llano Estacado

We finally finished our 50 mile survey from the Lake Alan Henry Dam to Lubbock. It was a lot of fun off the caprock - with brush, cacti, cattle and an occasional horse, even if my comrade was struck in the calf by some cholla. Once we got onto the high plains, also know as the Llano Estacado (stake plains), it was not so easy. I really thought we would have it easy up on the flat lands because all of the land we would walk across was under cultivation. But that is what made it hard. The width and depth of the furrows were wide and deep resepctively, and our survey line was never in alignment with the rows, so we had to either make really large steps, or step on the high part then the low part (like a stair stepping machine), or take a big step then a tiny step then a big step . . . .it is hard to explain how difficult it was but for the first time since we started this project, over a month ago, I was out of breath within 200 meters of the truck. It was just sad! So, not very easy. We did find a few sites, scattered debris from making chipped stone tools, along side of three playas (small indentions in the plains that hold water and were semi-reliable water sources) but nothing too exciting.

I am now waiting to see what my next field project will be . . .

The Perils of Cholla

I can not emphasize how sneaky and painful the cholla cactus can be. Yesterday, on our survey, while we were walking along looking for archaeological sites, my co-working was impaled by some kind of cholla--maybe a pencil cholla or stick cholla with longer spines. It had 1-1.5 inch spines and was easily 1 inch into his calf muscle. He yelped quite loudly and then cursed for quite awhile. It took the pliers on his multitool (like a leatherman) to remove the spine from his leg. He then looked at his calf and it looked like a big bruise with swelling was forming around the puncture. He limped back the rest of the transect to the truck and we had to make it a short day.

This is not the first time I have seen someone traumatized by cholla. In Arizona, while hiking with friends, I told my firends about the infamous Jumping Cholla, also known as Teddy Bear Cholla, which has the reputation of actually jumping on you. In fact, it does not take much for it to attach, very slight contact will allow it to grab on to you, so it seems to jump on you. I never found this out for myself, knowing that names like this have roots in reality, but one of the guys I told this too just had to test this idea out. He didn't believe it. He went over to closely examine one, reached out to touch the something, and a cholla plant jumped on his hand. Actually it came from below his hand where it had been cleverly disguised, and he touched it. Their spines are even worse than the spines on the cholla that attacked my co-worker above. The Jumping Cholla has slightly curled thorns that go in every which direction making them very difficult to remove. Once again the leatherman was used to remove it. But it was not pretty.

So remember, keep away from cholla!

The Rolling Plains of West Texas

I am currently surveying (looking for archeological sites) in West Texas on a line where they will put in a water pipe and pumps to get water from Lake Alan Henry to Lubbock - about 50 miles. We are walking through some rough rangeland with mesquite shrubs, prickly pear and cholla cacti and other rangey plants grasses and forbs. I love it. No trees, nothing but sky and red dirt -well mostly red dirt. We have to walk the whole distance with an occasional shovel test. This will take us 1000 feet up in altitude over that distance (from ca 2300 feet above sea level to 3300 feet above sea level). So far we have only found places where people were looking for good rocks from which to make tools. Not too exciting, but I really enjoy working out in the plains again. I have spent the last few years in wooded areas and I am relieved to be away from all those god-awful trees. :)

However, my feet hurt!

Still, we see rabbits and deer skitter off away from us, every so often, and hawks flying over head. Many other song birds sing to us as we pass by. And yesterday we had four or five horses run over to greet us (probably assuming we had treats for them). Quite a treat for us, although we had nothing for them.

Brazoria

I am currently working in Brazoria, Texas on removing African-American burials that fall underneath a road in the city. It is a fun project with good co-workers and it is sunny and warm. It may sound gruesome or weird to excavate burials but it is pretty interesting. These burials date to the 19th and early 20th century and have to be moved so they won't be destroyed. MOre are probably under the houses in the area, but we may never know. A cemetery is just east of the road and was established in the mid 20th century, but more than likely burials in this area date much much earlier. A plantation is nearby and it may be this first started out as a slave cemetery.

Each coffin is different - some are shaped like count dracula's, an irregular diamond shape others taper toward the feet or are rectangular. Some coffins were placed within outer boxes but some just had planks across the top. When we remove the wood we find screws that held the lid down - these are sometimes ornate and sometimes very plain caps. We also find handles associated with the coffins. Within the coffins we find the human remains, in varying degrees of decomposition but only consisting of bones - some bones are severly fragmented, some are fairly well intact. All of them have been disturbed by the ground water and the natural forces of the earth - sometimes leg bones are under the head or vertebrae are down by the feet.

It is interesting work.

Winter Holiday

This was really fun holiday for me.

I had a really great time at our office party in Austin on the 19th - we had secret santa presents and Threadgills catered turkey and stuffing and all the works lunch and lots of wine and beer. Afterwards, a few of us sat around at a bar that had just about everything to drink (Opal Devines) and had a delightful time talking and drinking.

Shortly thereafter I was back in Lubbock and my parents, my husband, and I celebrated the Winter Solstice with a pork crown roast (a wonderful invention) which was really tasty and opened our presents to each other.

Then my husband and I flew up to Boise Idaho and celebrate Christmas with his sister Bridgette, her husband and son and with Sean and Bridgette's mom, Michele. We stayed there for six days. We had many wonderful meals with leftovers that lasted for days. Opened many presents (although the ones we had shipped to them were stuck in Portland due to the crazy weather they had there) and played rummikub, uno, scrabble, "left, right, center" and Route 66 games. It was also very snowy there and very beautiful since they live on the outskirts, in the foothills, with their backdoor to the hills leading up to the mountains. Our travel was uneventful, which was unexpected.

For New Years eve, my husband andI were back in Lubbock recovered from the trip and enjoyed each others company with a bit of champagne and tapneades and bruschetes followed by steaks on New Years day.

I am really not ready to go back to work.