Primary Investigator: Lynn Ferris

Faculty Sponsor: Alan Leventhal

Background: On August 27, 2002 the California Fox Theatre located on First Street in downtown San Jose was undergoing massive renovations when a construction crew working on the trenching of a new water main pipe encountered human remains.  The City of San Jose Redevelopment Agency contracted with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe’s cultural resource management firm Ohlone Families Consulting Services for the archaeological data and burial recovery program.  SJSU Anthropology Department alumna Susan Morley (who has since been teaching at CSU Monterey Bay) served as co-principal archaeologist along with Alan Leventhal on this project for the Tribe.  Susan Morley and Muwekma Tribal Chairwoman Rosemary Cambra wrote a preliminary report for the Redevelopment Agency on the skeletal biology and associated artifacts.  Without benefit of sufficient funds for radiometric dating, the burial was considered an outlier and further assumed to be part of the nearby CA-SCL-128 (Holiday Inn Site) burial population which dated from ca. AD 700 to AD 1550.

From 2010 to 2011 Anthropology student Lynn Ferris enrolled in Leventhal’s Anthropology 195 classes.  Lynn conducted the reanalysis of the burial and artifacts and she graduated in June 2011.  Lynn co-authored sections of the 2012 archaeological report titled Report on the Reanalysis and AMS Dating of the Burial Recovered from the Tupiun Táareštak [Place of the Fox Man] Site (CA-SCL-894/Fox Theatre) Located in the City of San Jose, Santa Clara County, California.  Other analyses that were conducted include results from the stable isotope study and chronological placement of the site through AMS dating.  Permission was granted by the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe for Lynn to conduct the radiocarbon (AMS) dating. 

College of Social Sciences Foundation Research Grant: In order to date this site Lynn applied for a grant from the College of Social Sciences Research Foundation and was awarded $685.00 for AMS dating.  On February 3, 2011 Beta labs issued a mid-range date of AD 320, thus demonstrating that this burial was indeed older than the Holiday Inn Site burial population.  As a result a decision was made to record this location as a distinct archaeological site and Lynn coauthored the archaeological site record.  Anthropology alumna Lynn Ferris is currently working as a Clinical Data Associate at Gilead Sciences, Inc. in Foster City.

Investigator/Master’s Project: Elisabeth Mabie

Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Marco Meniketti and Alan Leventhal

Background: Sometime between 1972 and 1973 the construction of residential homes adjacent to the Santa Teresa Hills in South San Jose yielded evidence of a prehistoric ancestral Ohlone mortuary site later identified as CA-SCL-125.  Volunteers from the local community along with archaeologists from West Valley College and San Jose State University conducted a series of salvage excavations culminating in the recovery of approximately 32 burials along with the associated archaeological assemblage consisting of flaked and ground stone tools.

Due to the nature of the salvage recovery program, limited field notes were taken, and haphazard excavations proceeded without the benefit of any controls.  The recovered burials and the archaeological assemblage were taken to the SJSU Department of Anthropology’s fledgling curation/lab facility where these materials were washed and partially catalogued.  Under the direction of Physical Anthropologist Dr. Robert Jurmain, his advanced osteology students conducted a preliminary skeletal inventory of these human remains.  Since the time of the final excavations, no comprehensive analysis of the skeletal population or the associated archaeological assemblage has occurred, nor has any radiocarbon dating been conducted on materials from this site.  Permission was granted by the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe to pursue radiocarbon dating of the human remains recovered from the site and also gave permission to conduct Stable Isotope and ancient DNA studies.  Work commenced on the analysis of this archaeological assemblage in 2010 under the direction of Alan Leventhal as part of his Anthropology 195 class.  These aforementioned studies will contribute to the writing of a final archaeological report on the CA-SCL-125 excavations, analysis of the burial population, and temporal placement of the site in a regional context as part of Elisabeth’s Master’s Project.

College of Social Sciences Foundation Research Grant: In order to conduct the dating of CA-SCL-125, during the Fall 2011 semester, Beth applied for a grant from the College of Social Sciences Research Foundation and was awarded $1370.00 for AMS dating.  On November 9, 2011 Beta Analytic radiocarbon lab reported the results of two dates with mid-ranges of AD 1420 for Burial #1 and 200 BC associated with Burial 6.  As a result these dates demonstrate the presence of at least two distinct temporal components within this site: Phase 1C of the Late Period (AD 1300 – 1500) and Early Middle Period (200 BC – AD 100).

Primary Investigator: Emily McDaniel

Faculty Sponsors: Alan Leventhal

Background: In Fall of 1964 the SJSU Department of Anthropology conducted an archaeological field school on a portion of prehistoric site CA-ALA-329, under the direction of Dr. Joseph Hester and Mr. Dean Pritchett located in the East Bay by the Coyote Hills.  One week in November the students shifted their work to a site in the Evergreen area in the east foothills of San Jose and they recovered two burials and a few artifacts.  Only a preliminary skeletal inventory of the elements was made in 1985 and updated in 1986, however no comprehensive analysis was ever conducted on either the burials or the archaeological assemblage.  Beginning in 2010 Anthropology student Emily McDaniel enrolled in Leventhal’s Anthro. 195 class.  Emily helped record the location of the site and she worked on the analysis of the two burials and artifacts.  Although she graduated in 2011, she completed her sections of the analysis and is the lead author of the 2012 final report titled Final Report on the Archaeological Field Work Conducted on a Portion of the Kiriṭ-smin ’ayye Sokṓte Tápporikmatka [Place of Yerba Buena and Laurel Trees Site] CA-SCL-895 (Blauer Ranch) Located within the Evergreen Valley District, San Jose, Santa Clara County, Ca.  Part of the analysis also included results from the stable isotope study and chronological placement through AMS dating.  Permission was granted by the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe to conduct the radiocarbon (AMS) dating.

College of Social Sciences Foundation Research Grant:

In order to accomplish the dating of this site Emily applied for a grant from the College of Social Sciences Foundation Research and was awarded $1370.00 for her research.  In June 2010 and March 2011, Beta labs reported upon the results of the two AMS dates with mid-range dates of AD 340 and AD 1460.  These results indict that the site was occupied and used as a cemetery for a period that spans 1100 years.  After graduating SJSU Emily spent a year in Peru working on Peruvian burials and is presently attending Exeter University in England studying for her Master’s degree in bio-archaeology (with an emphasis on Peruvian prehistory).

Primary Investigators: Elizabeth Becker and Alan Leventhal.

Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Marco Meniketti and Alan Leventhal.

Background: CA-SCL-623/H is a prehistoric ancestral Ohlone cemetery site located on the northern end of Stanford University campus.  The site was excavated by The Muwekma Tribe’s CRM firm Ohlone Families Consulting Services between 2003 and 2004 in order to make way of the newly planned campus Classic Residence Complex.  A total of 23 primary inhumations were recovered at a depth of over 8 feet deep thus suggesting fairly old antiquity.  A preliminary skeletal inventory was conducted by SJSU Anthropology alumna Susan Morley, however, due to a rushed deadline, no comprehensive study was conducted on these human remains or organic material submitted for radio carbon dating.  Under the direction of Alan Leventhal as part of his Anthropology 195 class, San Jose Alumna Emily McDaniel (graduated 2011) and Anthropology senior Elizabeth Becker proceeded to conduct a comprehensive study of these burials with the intention of eventually publishing the results.  The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe issued a letter of support for the team to conduct AMS dating, Stable Isotope and Ancient DNA studies on these ancestral remains.  Other nearby sites (e.g., CA-SCL-287) that SJSU Anthropology students and alumni have worked on and published have yielded dates spanning 2000 to 4000 years old. 

College of Social Sciences Foundation Research Grant:

In order to accomplish the AMS dating stated above Elizabeth Becker applied for a grant from the College of Social Sciences Foundation Research this past Fall 2012 semester.  She was awarded $1370.00 for this research project which resulted in mid-range dates of 2085 BC and 2746 BC.

In order to step into the realm of affordable, digital publishing, physical anthropology professor Elizabeth Weiss decided to put a revised version of her Bioarchaeological Science up as a Kindle (It has been re-titled: Old Bones: A Brief Introduction to Bioarchaeology)!  Students and others interested can see a preview or purchase the book (for just $2.99). Follow the link below for more details:

http://tinyurl.com/6pd24gs