Miwok Meadows #2Shellmound midden at the head of Miwok Meadows in China Camp State ParkElevation 43 ft.Looking over the mound with San Pablo Bay and the Napa Hills in the background. There was a Miwok village at this site. The map accompanying N. C. Nelson’s Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region showed eleven shellmounds […]
Parkman’s middenElevation 88 ft.We named this site after E. Breck Parkman, Senior State Archaeologist for California State Parks.We got to see Joel in action here. After locating a jasper boulder mentioned in one of Parkman’s reports, Joel paced out the distance to this midden, which was also mentioned in the report. He walked right to […]
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 […]
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.
Albany Hill4 bedrock mortars and rich midden on the northeast side of Albany Hill near Cerrito Creek.Elevation 24 ft.There was an Ohlone settlement here. In addition to the shell middens at this site (Nelson’s 1909 map shows four), there were two on Point Isabel, which was once just offshore of Albany Hill.One of Nelson’s four […]
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 […]
Alvarado Park2 bedrock mortars, 275+ cupules, 2 PCNs, and midden behind gazebo.This chlorite blueschist outcropping on Wildcat Creek has more cupules on it than any other we know of in the Bay Area. Was it just the blueschist found here and on Baxter Creek that attracted cuple-makers, or was something else at work?Jim and Heather […]
Buckeye Canyon MoundShellmound in a beautiful canyon settingElevation 242 ft.Thanks to midden man for directing us here.The map accompanying N. C. Nelson’s Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region showed six shellmounds clustered along the south shore of the now-filled Brisbane lagoon. Undoubtedly this was one of them.Looking out over the mound. We estimate its […]
Canada del Cierbo28 bedrock mortars, cupules/anvils, and middenLess than 1/2 mile from Interstate 80 off Cummings SkywayElevation 208 ft.Thanks to Joel for leading us here.Archaeological analysis of this site recovered charcoal and bone more than 4,000 years old. Midden at this site may be from N. C. Nelsons Crockett Mound (No. 254).The expedition heads toward […]
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 […]
