Primary Investigators: Colin Jaramillo, Jasmin Alexander, Deniz Enverova and Alan Leventhal.
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Marco Meniketti and Mr. Alan Leventhal
Background: In 1961 a San Jose State University field school class uncovered approximately nine burials from a site located in Milpitas that had been designated CA-SCL-2A. Over the years this small population of ancestral Muwekma Ohlone Indians had been inventoried by several people however no comprehensive skeletal analysis had ever been conducted. As a result two students Colin Jaramillo and Jasmin Alexander enrolled in Leventhal’s Spring 2015 Anthropology 195 class along with one of our alumna Deniz Enverova have decided to undertake the skeletal biological analysis of this population. With permission from the Muwekma Ohlone Tribal leadership small samples from this population was sent to Dr. Eric Bartelink (CSU, Chico) for Stable Isotope, to Drs. Brian Kemp and Cara Monroe from Washington State University for Ancient DNA, and to Dr. Jelmer Eerkens at U.C. Davis for Strontium studies. A co-authored final report will present the results on the skeletal analysis/inventory, stable isotope, ancient DNA, Strontium, C-14 (AMS) dating, as well an ethnohistory written by the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe.
College of Social Sciences Foundation Research Grant:
In order to temporally date the site Colin Jaramillo applied for a grant from the College of Social Sciences Research Foundation this past Fall 2014 semester. He was awarded $2000.00 for his research proposal and the resulting AMS dates will be updated here. The results from this collaborative study will also be presented at future professional conferences.
Information on Jasmin Alexander and Deniz Enverova
Jasmin Alexander is a graduating senior in Anthropology with interest in skeletal biology.
Deniz Enverova graduated SJSU in Anthropology (2008), completed her Master’s degree in archaeology at Bilkent University, Turkey, excavated at Provadiya-Solnitsata in Bulgaria, and recently accepted to the PhD program in Archaeology at University of Notre Dame in Indiana.