| The Magazine of the CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES |
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Habitats Emeryville Shell Game
In February, the city of Emeryville tore down the Sherwin-Williams pigment plant (long famous for its huge neon sign depicting the Earth being covered with paint) and an adjoining pesticide factory to make room for a new mall. But 75 years of manufacturing had left the soil permeated with lead, arsenic, DDT, and other poisons, so before the site could be handed over to the developer it needed to be detoxified. When heavy rains came a month later, and the toxins began to run off the site toward San Francisco Bay, the city's clean-up contractor, prompted by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, dug a four-foot-deep ditch about the size of an Olympic pool to catch the runoff. What the contractor didn't know was that he was digging directly into undisturbed portions of the deepest, or basal, layers of the Emeryville Shellmound, one of California's largest and most important archeological sites. Sometime around 2,800 years ago the Bay Area's original inhabitants settled in Emeryville. They found fish, shellfish, and game enough to stay for about 2,500 years. The Emeryville Shellmound, at the foot of Temescal Creek, is the most complete known record of their occupation and it has been the "type specimen" of California shellmound sites in general, says Allen Pastron, a former University of California at Berkeley anthropology professor and the consultant called in to advise Emeryville on their development predicament. The mound, which was originally about 270 feet long at its base and about 30 feet high, had been thoroughly studied with available technologies and methods-in 1902 and again in 1924-before being bulldozed and built on. The periods associated with its various strata remain the standard classifications for the archeology of California shellmounds. After a couple of days of sifting, Pastron recognized human remains on the site, and whenever human bones are found, even if they are thousands of years old, the coroner must be alerted. In the case of native graves in California, the coroner then contacts the Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC), in Sacramento, which in turn calls the Most Likely Descendant (MLD) of those who once animated the remains. Since the Native Americans who occupied the Emeryville site had left it before Europeans arrived in the Bay Area, the "most likely" here is probably pretty unlikely indeed. In fact, the NAHC assigned an MLD with Bay Miwok, North Yokut, and Ohlone affiliation. The MLD, along with the archeological consultant and the landowner, must put together a proposal for the proper treatment of the burial site. Though the city must consider the MLD's recommendation, it is not required to follow it. In this case, it wants to. At least so far. The MLD, Catherine Perez of Stockton, said she wants the human remains and artifacts that have been removed by Pastron to be reinterred and the excavation brought to a halt. "I need to approach this in a spiritual way," Perez says. "I'd like it to be preserved. I really don't want the grave sites disturbed." But to Pastron the discovery represents a unique chance to apply modern archeological techniques to intact portions of a site anthropologists had never expected to see again. "The Emeryville Mound is the taproot of our knowledge of Bay Area prehistory," he says. At his Oakland lab, Pastron shows me the artifacts he and his associates discovered in their few days at the site. Three beautifully polished bone awls-tools used by Native Americans for sewing skins-are in such good condition it is hard to believe that they were in use when Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great at the Macedonian court. Pastron also found 300-400 lovely split-drilled beads made of Olivella shells, two huge and handsome mortars (one of which, at least, was used as a cremation vessel), and the human skeletal remains of at least 23 individuals. All of these objects have since been taken into custody by the Emeryville Police Department. Andrew Galvan, an archeologist of Ohlone descent, agrees with Pastron. "My ancestors did not leave a written language. Now, we can study these sites and tell their story. It's as if we found new library books that were saved with the burning of the library of Alexandria. We're not saying we want to keep the books. We're just saying we want to read them once and then return them to the ground with dignity." Although shellmounds were once thought to be native garbage dumps, current theory looks at them much differently. "I think they are very complex structures," says anthropologist Kent Lightfoot, curator at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. "I suspect there were structures placed atop the mounds with human burial sites and other things buried underneath. They may have been a way of remaining connected to the ancestors. There are still a lot of questions about what these mounds were used for and how they were made." Could studying the newly discovered portions of undisturbed Emeryville shellmounds shed light on those questions? "Absolutely," says Galvan. "This is the shellmound of all shellmounds." When Pastron told Emeryville that he thought it would take many months and a million dollars to properly study the site, the city balked, especially since much of Pastron's proposal seemed at odds with Perez's preferences. "I wasn't just going to stand by and chronicle the destruction of the site," Pastron says. "We may never have a chance to bite from this apple again." In frustration and protest, Pastron quit his consulting role with the city of Emeryville. In justifying its inclination not to study the site to the degree Pastron suggests, Emeryville leans heavily on Perez's recommendation. "We have a moral obligation to respect the Native American community's wishes," says John Flores, Emeryville's city manager. "She [Perez] doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for archeologists. She wants us to leave the graves alone. I was surprised at first, but then, when I thought about it, it made sense. I wouldn't want someone digging up my ancestor's bones to study them, either." "But is building a mall atop the graves of ancestors dignified?" I asked. No comment. Lightfoot agrees with Pastron that the discovery of undisturbed portions of the shellmound presents a golden opportunity. But Lightfoot doesn't think the development needs to be stopped, nor does he think the site needs to be thoroughly studied now. He recommends limiting excavations to determining the location and extent of the undisturbed shellmound. This could be done, he says, without much disruption of the shellmound itself. A lot would be learned by simply doing that much, Lightfoot says. But the real benefit would come later, if, as he recommends, the development were designed around the shellmound. "It could be covered with grass, providing both open space and protection to the site." Making the site an open space would be more than just a symbolic acknowledgement of its importance. It would also be a dignified treatment of a human burial site and would allow for the possibility of future study. That would be good for Native Americans and archeologists. And everyone could use a little sacred ground in their shopping centers, says Lightfoot. "We're developing techniques all the time," he says, "including non-invasive ones that will eventually allow the close study of sites without excavation." It would be a felicitous irony if not fully excavating the site now maximized the knowledge that came from it in the long run. But that can only happen if Emeryville keeps the buildings off. With the need to dig substantial foundations for seismically sound structures, Lightfoot fears that "if they build over it, that would probably mean the end of the site forever." The debate over how much archeology can be done may become moot if the mound itself is found to be drenched in arsenic or other toxins. "The main shellmound appears to be outside of the area that is most toxic, but if it is hot with arsenic, then it [the artifacts, human remains, and surrounding soil] will have to be carted off or incinerated," says Flores. Neither of those options would particularly please anyone, although they would allow the development to proceed uninhibited. The State Environmental Protection Agency has taken an interest in the case and is reportedly investigating possible California Environmental Quality Act violations. Would the city of Emeryville consider building around the shellmound? Flores says he would have to follow the lead of the MLD, Perez, who, he says, "is not very favorable toward that. She is mostly concerned about diminishing the chance of human contact." However, asked directly about Lightfoot's suggestion of marking the site with open space, Perez said: "If we can do that [bury the site under open space] it would be wonderful." The city says it does want to somehow weave the shellmound into the design of the mall, however. "We want to draw people's attention to the history of the place," says Flores. "I don't know what that will mean yet. Maybe a kiosk or signs describing the history and significance of the site." Emeryville has formed a community committee to recommend a proper memorial for the site, but has limited participation to Emeryville citizens (and the MLD), a move hushing participation from Native Americans and archeologists from farther afield. I can just imagine the bronze plaque on the front of one of the mall's fast food restaurants: "As a demonstration of respect, the city of Emeryville dedicates this plaque to the original Coastanoan inhabitants of this creekside site, whose 3,000-year occupation left the marshes intact, the air and water unsullied, and the real estate invaluable." Gordy Slack is an Associate Editor of California Wild. |
Summer 1999
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