Ring Mountain kitchen rockOne bedrock mortar, one anvil, and middenElevation 23 ft.This is another one of Joel’s discoveries. It’s a beautiful streamside site not far from the bay. The mortar is on mica schist. Look for small garnets and larger amphibolite crystals embedded in the rock. These are unusual high pressure, low temperature minerals.The kitchen […]
Duncan’s Point CaveRockshelters and extensive midden deposits.Elevation 98 ft.CA-SON-348/HJoel led us out here on a North Coast expedition. This is one of the oldest archaeological sites on the California coast. Charcoal and marine shell radiocarbon dates indicate this site was more-or-less continuously occupied for the last 9,000 years.Duncan’s point was a territorial boundary marker between […]
Suisun Creek Village Suisun City300 yard kitchen middenElevation 146 ft.Bay Area Rock Art Research Association (BARARA) members fan out looking for artifacts. Every time the farmer plows the field more artifacts turn up.This site is on private property. One should secure permission before visiting it.
El Sobrante La HondaMidden and probable village site.Elevation 134 ft.Joel strikes again.The house probably sits on top of a village site, perhaps one those along San Pablo Creek marked on Sherburne Cook’s map of East Bay Indian villages.Midden soil.
Whittell Marsh ShellmoundNear the tip of Point Pinole.Elevation 7 ft.N. C. Nelson counted 425 shellmounds in his seminal article “Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region,” University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 7, No. 4, Putnam and Kroeber editors, The University Press, 1909. Very few can be seen today. This is […]
El Sobrante LibraryVillage site and shellmoundElevation 95 ft.Another one of Joel’s discoveries.The library was constructed right on top of a major village site, but you’d never know it.Midden soil.
Glen Cove Park, aka Sogorea Te3,500 year old village site, shell midden, and burial ground.20+ bedrock mortars visible at low tide on wave-cut benchs.Elevation 10 ft.Thanks to Joel for leading us here.Inhabitants of this village crossed the Carquinez Strait in tule balsas to greet the Fages expedition in 1772. Fages noted in his diary that […]
Goat Rock Beach middenElevation 23 ft.Joel, who we now call “midden man,” led us here on a tour of his recent North Bay discoveries. Shell and bone fragments litter this mound of dark sandy soil. This is not a natural deposit.When we visited this site in December of 2011 a sand bar blocked the mouth […]
Keller RanchTwo portable stone mortars incorporated into the ranch house foundation, which was constructed on an extensive midden deposit.Elevation 393 ft.A major Chupcan village occupied this area at the confluence of Donner, Mitchell, and Diablo Creeks.One of the portable mortars in the ranch house foundation.Obsidian debitage picked up from the ground surface around the ranch […]
Mare Island shell middenDeteriorating shell middenElevation 23 ft.Joel seems to have a nose for midden. Keep sniffing ’em out Joel!This is probably one of the two “shell heaps” on Mare Island marked on N. C. Nelson’s 1909 map. Note the contrast between dark midden and tan soil.Joel thinks the shell fragments and midden soil are […]
