Archaeological investigations at Mission San José in Fremont, California, have revealed large areas of the mission landscape. Of particular importance are several projects conducted in the mission’s Native American neighborhood, where archaeologists have documented the remnants of two adobe dwellings and other features. Continue reading →

California State Parks, in collaboration with Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, is currently restoring the Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe, Watsonville, California. Because preservation in place was not feasible as mitigation for the impacts to this significant historical resource, Albion Environmental, Inc. designed and executed a plan for data recovery. These recent excavations suggest that the Castro Adobe represents Mexican Period rancho architecture, with cobble foundations, adobe walls, and a prepared adobe floor. In particular, the assemblage included artifacts likely related to indigenous practices, providing a lens into understanding the often undocumented experiences of indigenous rancho laborers. This research highlights that the Castro Adobe was used by the diverse community living and working at Rancho San Andrés, illustrating the very public nature of adobe structures during the Mexican Rancho Period.

Continue reading →

The Levuka Cultural Landscape Project was designed to support the Fiji National Trust’s efforts to nominate the colonial capitol site of Levuka to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It ran from 2002 to 2010, with the nomination succeeding in 2013. Designed as a community-based participatory geographic information systems (GIS) project, this collaborative project recorded a wide variety of sites, structures, and places important to local residents. Conventional archaeological sites formed only one component of this larger cultural landscape. Continue reading →

Dr. Pryor will discuss a new type of archeology that he has been developing over the last several years through insights from CSU-Fresno’s Archaeological Field School at the Grandad site in the central Sierra Nevada. In 2016, the insight was that the archaeology he had practiced for 45 years was no longer working for him, and that it was time to create a whole new archaeology that blended the best of Western Science with Native American perspectives and traditions. Continue reading →

Three consecutive shipwrecks occurring along the rocky coast of Año Nuevo State Park between 1865 and 1867 resulted in the loss of many passengers and sailors as their sailing ships miscalculated their positions and “struck the rocks.” Many of the victims were buried in a small area of sand dunes at Franklin Point that has since been designated as archaeological site SMA-307/H. In response to these maritime tragedies, Pigeon Point Lighthouse was built in 1871. This presentation focuses on the histories of the wrecks, the archaeological investigations and findings from the analytical studies, and the methods used to stabilize the cemetery. Continue reading →

All too often in cultural resource management, we follow the old methodology – sometimes for no better reason than to do what everyone has done before us. While this sets good standards, sometimes we forget our main goal as archaeologists – to tell the story of what the past evidence has left us. Sometimes, in order to tell this story thoroughly, we need to look at the material in new and creative ways. Have you ever wondered if that faunal element you were holding was food? Or maybe part of something bigger? This talk explores the idea that some of our common finds, especially bone tools, are more than they appear. Continue reading →

This lecture explores the historic and bioarchaeological evidence of females as combatants during times of trouble. This topic is discussed in relation to the historic, ethnographic and archaeological record of central California foraging societies. In previously published research, Schwitalla and colleagues have evaluated spatial and temporal patterns of skeletal evidence for violence from a bioarchaeological database of 16,820 individuals represented by people that lived in central California from 3050 B.C. to A.D. 1899. Schwitalla and colleagues demonstrated that sharp-force trauma wounds were more common among males. However, eyewitness accounts of women combatants during the historic era (A.D. 1720 – 1860) clearly indicate that indigenous females were active participants during colonial era conflicts. Some researchers have proffered that female involvement as combatants during historic times was a direct result of colonial intrusion and the desperation experienced by Native Californian groups. The evidence presented demonstrates that Native Americans in central California were egalitarians to the last arrow and those women warriors existed during all of prehistory. Continue reading →

A prehistoric, Middle-Archaic archaeological site in the Sierra Foothills, comprised of two bedrock milling stations and an extensive midden deposit, is situated in the middle of a planned housing development. It was identified in January 2015, tested in July 2015, and its eligibility was concurred upon by the Army Corps of Engineers and the State Historic Preservation Officer in July 2016. Preliminary obsidian hydration testing dates the site to circa 1,250 BP (Before Present). This talk describes the efforts made concerning avoidance, minimization, and mitigation of adverse effects to this site, and specifically touches on the extensive efforts employed by archaeologists and government agencies to finally decide on measures for a Historic Property Treatment Plan, Come hear the saga of how this came to pass, and hear the most recent updates on progress at this site! Continue reading →

Having worked in professional archaeology for 10 years, the past 3 years have been spent as lead archaeology monitor for a large ongoing construction project. You might think, no big deal, an archaeology monitor. Well, for this project, it is a big deal. There is a lot more to the role of an archaeology monitor on a large construction project than just watching heavy equipment digging holes. Read more. Continue reading →

Join SCAS for “The Use of Trained Canines to Detect Historical and Prehistoric Burials,” a talk by Adela Morris and Lynne Engelbert, of the Institute for Canine Forensics. The talk will be held on April 13, 2017, at 7:30 pm at … Continue reading →