Abstract
MOUND EXPLORATION IN CALIFORNIA.—Observations made in the course of levelling two mounds for city improvements at Richmond, Ca., have afforded several additions of interest to the accumulating evidence relating to the early culture and history of man on the American continent; which is being obtained from archaeological investigations in California. The two mounds in question, the Stege mounds, are situated on the Oakland-Richmond beach immediately opposite the outlet of San Francisco Bay in an area about 6 miles long and $1 miles wide, which includes some of the largest shell mounds of the region, and where the shallow waters provided a favourable ground for fishing in primitive times. The objects found in the course of the demolition of the mounds are described by Mr. LI. L. Loud in vol. 17, No. 6, of the University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology. They included human remains, some showing signs of incineration, implements of bone and stone, net sinkers, pestles and mortars, the former of several types, hammer stones, and charms tones. The larger of the two mounds afforded abundant evidence that it had been the site of manufacture of objects made of greenstone schist, for which no doubt it had acquired a reputation, and had become a manufacturing and distributing centre according to what appears to have been Indian custom. Of greater interest, however, is the distinction in culture to be drawn between the two mounds, which distinctly points to somewhat different modes of subsistence and may indicate a difference in date.
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Research Items. Nature 114, 729–731 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114729a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/114729a0