Primary Investigators:
Jasmin Alexander and Alan Leventhal

Faculty Sponsors:
Dr. Charlotte Sunseri and Alan Leventhal

Project Background:

In 1974 a San Jose State University and West Valley
College team of archaeological volunteers salvaged
approximately five burials from a site located in south
San Jose along Coyote Creek that had been designated CA-SCL-204. Since their recovery this small population of ancestral Muwekma Ohlone Indians had been inventoried by several people at SJSU however no comprehensive skeletal analysis had ever been conducted. As a result two students Jasmin Alexander and Colin Jaramillo 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 were 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 publish the results on the skeletal analysis/inventory, stable isotope, ancient DNA, Strontium, C-14 (AMS) dating of these burials. This report will also include an ethnohistory of about the tribe’s relationship to the Santa Clara Valley region written by the Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Leadership.

College of Social Sciences Foundation Research Grant:
In order to temporally date the site Jasmin Alexander applied for a grant from the College of Social Sciences Research Foundation during the Spring 2015 semester. She was awarded $2000.00 for her research proposal and the resulting AMS dates will be posted here on this profile. 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. She plans on going to graduate school for a Master’s degree in either Forensic Anthropology or Bioarchaeology. Towards the end of September/Early October, 2015 she plans on heading to Spain to attend a bio-archaeology field school addressing Roman Period occupation.

Deniz Enverova graduated SJSU in Anthropology (2008), completed her Master’s degree in archaeology at Bilkent University in Turkey, and recently excavated at Provadiya-Solnitsata in Bulgaria. Recently Deniz was accepted into the PhD Archaeology program at University of Notre Dame in Indiana. She will be focusing in on early old world Neolithic sites and skeletal biology.