SAS Seminar/Webinar
“Born with a Lead Spoon in their Mouth: Life History & Health in 19th Century San Francisco” by
Diana Malarchik
and
“Canid Analysis”
by
Jessica Morales
Saturday April 8, 2023
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. PT

On December 3, 2022 at our annual meeting Jelmer Eerkens gave a fascinating presentation, “Can we identify these 150 year-old remains? Recent archaeoforensic research in San Francisco”. Diana Malarchik participated in this research and will give additional information on this topic from her perspective.

Diana Malarchik is a graduate student at University of California Davis. She received a BA, Secondary Education and MA, Biological Anthropology from the University of Nevada, Reno. She worked as an associate archaeologist for ECORP Environmental Consultants and as an associate bioarchaeologist for PAE Environmental Services from 2018 to 2019. She has a professional publication in Dental Anthropology Journal and has given multiple professional presentations. In addition, she was a 7th Grade instructor in Reno, NV.

Jessica Morales. On April 10, 2021 she gave a presentation on her dissertation topic: “the potential use of dogs for hunting”. Since then, she has refined her research. She is striving to identify domestic dogs from other canids by examining their diets through stable isotope analysis. She received a scholarship from SAS to use stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and bone apatite canid remains to do this analysis.

Jessica is a PhD candidate at University of California Davis She received her B.A. and M.A. from California State University, Los Angeles, CA. She has developed laboratory skills in California Coastal Archaeology Lab, California State University Los Angeles and University of California Davis Archaeolmetry Laboratory. She was crew chief for University of California, Davis field school “Poryecto Arcaico Cuenca de Titicaca in 2019’ and for California State University, Los Angeles field school at Point Mugu State Park, Ventura, CA in 2014, As an archaeologist she worked for Duke CRM and John Minch and Associates for New Hall, Chino Hills and Riete-Aid Phelan projects. Between 2014 and 2018 she worked as an archaeological Field Technician for SWCA Environmental Consultants. She also has a lengthy list of professional presentations.

SAS Webinar
“Analyzing Upper Paleolithic blank cutting edge efficiency at Tolbor, Mongolia”
by
Corey Johnson
Monday, March 13, 2023
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. PT

Overview of presentation: The appearance of Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) technology in northern East Asia ca. 45 kya marks a significant change in the lithic archaeological record of the region. Understanding the economic trade-offs within IUP tool kits can help reveal important information regarding how those systems operated, and how they compare to later Upper Paleolithic (UP) technologies that developed thereafter. Corey will address the IUP record from Tolbor Valley, Mongolia by investigating a key techno-economic aspect of the lithic tool kit: blank cutting-edge length. To this end, Corey analyzed and compared data from four different lithic assemblages dating between ca. 45-20 kya including IUP and later UP variants. The results of the diachronic analysis of cutting-edge efficiency suggest that, in the Tolbor Valley, larger IUP blanks were made relatively more efficiently than smaller ones, and that during the later stages of the UP there was a gradual shift toward the economization of smaller blanks, particularly with the introduction of pressure microblades during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Corey Johnson is a PhD candidate at University of California Davis. His dissertation research consists of using a techno-economic approach for understanding how Paleolithic technological efficiency changed over time in East Asia (specifically in what is today Mongolia and northern China). Following this approach, he reconstructs stone artifact production systems preserved within archaeological sites, then measures and compares the efficiency of the different systems both within and between sites. The results will contribute to our understanding of the tempo and mode of technological change during the Paleolithic in East Asia, and their relationship to human evolutionary history in the region.
Friends are welcome and also invited to join our organization. There is no participation fee.

SAS Webinar
“All bones great, small, and unidentifiable: analysis of faunal remains from Wallace Great House, Colorado”
by
Lucy Maun
Saturday, March 11, 2023
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PT
As an outlier from Chaco Great House, Wallace Great House (5MT6970) in Cortez, Colorado has been excavated intermittently by the Wallace Ruin Project since 1969, and consistently since 2008. Dr. Bruce Bradley is the primary investigator. Recent excavations have uncovered a deposit of faunal remains and pottery in Room 62. These remains include large mammal bones, cervids, lagomorphs, and exotic species such as raptors and canines. Preliminary examination suggests that a large proportion of the bones were intentionally fractured. The unusual representation of species and butchery evidence may imply the deposit had a ritual use. This also coincides with site’s reuse for ritual purposes from AD 1180, after a period of disuse AD 1140-1180. Activity from this period, including Kiva 56 and Room 62, centered around a large Chaco kiva. Establishing a connection between the faunal deposit and the kivas could illuminate cultural aspects of Puebloan ritual life, such as feasting practices.

Lucy Maun is a graduate student at London’s Global University, UCL. She received her undergraduate degree at University of Exeter, UK. After graduation she worked with Exeter’s archaeology department as a research assistant and worked on assemblage material. She led a research project on the changing role of goats in the UK since their introduction in the Neolithic period. As part of this project she evaluated goat isotope data to test a hypothesis about whether carbon and nitrogen isotopes could show a geographical partition between populations. Lucy engaged in a research project to analyze the faunal remains from the Wallace Great House. SAS supported her research through a scholarship.

SAS Webinar
“Finding Solace in the Soil: The Archaeology of Gardens and Gardeners at Colorado’s Japanese American Incarceration Camp”
by
Dr. Bonnie J. Clark, University of Denver
Monday, February 13, 2023
5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. PDT
During World War II, Americans of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes and placed into confinement camps throughout the western US. This presentation overviews the methods and results of six seasons of landscape archaeology at one of those sites—Amache—located in southeastern Colorado. The site contains an incredibly well-preserved record of how the people incarcerated there transformed a hostile landscape through strategy and skill. By integrating a program of historical research, community engagement, and intensive garden archaeology, the University of Denver Amache project is expanding the view of what incarceree gardens are, how they were created, and their import, both to those who made them and us today.

Bonnie J. Clark, Ph.D. University of Denver is committed to using tangible history–objects, sites, and landscapes—to broaden understanding of our diverse past. She began her career as a professional archaeologist and now serves as a Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Denver (DU), as well as the Curator for Archaeology of the DU Museum of Anthropology. She is the author or editor of numerous publications including “Finding Solace in the Soil: An Archaeology of Gardens and Gardeners” at Amache and “On the Edge of Purgatory: An Archaeology of Place in Hispanic Colorado”. Dr. Clark leads the DU Amache Project, a community collaboration committed to researching, preserving, and interpreting the physical history of Amache, Colorado’s WWII-era Japanese American internment camp. That work has been highlighted innumerous venues including Archaeology and American Archaeology magazines.

SAS Webinar
“Using ZooMS to understand osseous technology debris: A case study from NW Greenland”
by
Erika Ebel, Graduate Student at University of California Davis
Saturday, February 11, 2023
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. PST

The site of Iita in northwestern Greenland has had human occupation for the past 1000 years. Two distinct groups have foraged in the area at different times. Materials such as bone, antler and ivory were used for several purposes by these groups, including tool production. As skeletal material is formed into a tool, pieces are discarded, often with characteristics indicative of the method used to create the final product. Data regarding the manufacture, use and discard of the materials has been collected by analyzing the bone materials with a digital microscope. However, many of these small debris have been modified to an extent that few anatomically diagnostic features remain. Such fragments can be identified via Peptide Mass Fingerprinting (PMF), a method for identifying collagen peptides within bone materials to the genus or species level. In this talk Erika will provide background into the history of occupation and discuss her use of PMF to analyze artifacts from the area.

Erika is a graduate student at University of California Davis majoring in Anthropology. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Humboldt State University and Master of Arts in Anthropology from UCD and had advanced to PhD candidacy. She has field experience in Poland, Alaska, and California. Her PhD research is an analysis of faunal materials excavated in 2012 and 2016 at the Iita site.

“Finds and Methods at the University of Wyoming Field School 2022”
by
Haley Bjorklund, Student at University of California Davis
and
“Pont de Bonn Field School”
by
Marlena Billings, University of California Davis Student

Saturday, January 14, 2023
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. PST

“Finds and Methods at the University of Wyoming Field School 2022”
by
Haley Bjorklund, Student at University of California Davis

The La Prele Mammoth site, dating to about 13,000 cal BP is being excavated through the University of Wyoming. It was briefly excavated in the 1980s and then field schools were organized beginning in 2014. Haley attended this field school during 2022 and will discuss her field school experience at La Prele. She will also relate it to Clovis big game hunting.
Haley Bjorklund is an undergraduate student at University of California Davis majoring in Anthropology. She has interned in the Arctic Archaeology lab at UC Davis, working on collections from Greenland and Alaska.

“Pont de Bonn Field School”
by
Marlena Billings, University of California Davis Student

Pont de Bonn (Commune de Modave) is an excavation site in Belgium. The site of ‘Le vieux chateau’ is located on a cliff and shows evidence of pre-Roman occupation that could correspond to the mysterious oppidum of tribe Condruze (which gave their name to the region, ‘le Condroz’) described by Julius Cesar. The site also show later phase of medieval occupations on the defense wall and on the plateau, with a chapel dating back to the Merovingian dynasties. Marlena will talk about the history of the area and discuss her experience at the Pont de Bonn field school.
Marlena is an undergraduate in Anthropology at University of California Davis. She has been an intern at the UCD Center for Experimental Archaeology and focused on experimenting with the production process for rondelles. This research took her to France where she had access to museum artifacts and collected high resolution images of rondelles to continue her research. Sacramental Archeological Society, Inc. provided her with a scholarship in 2021 to support this work. Attendance at the Pont de Bonn field school expands her archaeological experiences.

“Disert Ireland Archaeological Field School- Excavations at an early ecclesiastical site in Co. Donegal, Ireland”
by
Megan Donham, Cal State LA Graduate Student
Monday, January 9, 2023
5:00 – 6:00 PM PST
Disert is a ritual pilgrim landscape in Co. Donegal that includes a series of early ecclesiastical enclosures, penitential carns, a holy well dedicated to St Colmcille (also known as St Columba), a post-medieval altar and a chillín (children’s graveyard). It may date to as early as the sixth century AD when it was reputedly founded by St Colmcille or may even extend back into prehistory. Disert is still important today for religious devotion and for pilgrims seeking miraculous cures for medical conditions. Excavation at the Disert site began in 2019. Megan will talk about the excavation and her experiences at this field school and her post excavation laboratory work.

Megan Donham is a graduate student at California State University, Los Angles. She received her B.A. at University of Nevada, Reno majoring in Anthropology. She gained experience for artifact processing with the Great Basin Consulting Group in Reno, Nevada. In 2018 she attended a University of Oregon Archaeology Field School at the Connley Caves supervised by Dr. Dennis Jenkins and Katelyn McDonough. Her publication in 2020 was Donham, Megan, Richard Rosencrance, Katelyn McDonough, Haden Kingrey and Dennis L. Jenkins, “Debitage Analysis of Younger Dryas Occupations at the Connley Caves and the Identification of New Toolstone in the Fort Rock Basin, Oregon” in Current Archaeological Happenings in Oregon 43(3):17-13.

SAS Webinar
“Water and Wind: Paleoenvironmental and Archaeological Correlations at Rimrock Draw Rockshelter”
by
Pat O’Grady, Archaeologist for University of Oregon
Monday, December 12, 2022
5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. PDT

Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in Harney County, Oregon, has produced a number of artifacts, botanical remains, and sedimentary deposits indicative of both a nearby marsh and substantial stream. Crescentic stone tools are frequently associated with shallow desert lakes and plants like wapato, bulrush, and wada, are also found in similar settings. Massive rounded boulders in the channel adjacent to the rockshelter attest to long term and high energy stream flow. This presentation will focus on how the archaeology and sedimentology at the rockshelter guided us to search for and discover the ancient hydrologic system that made the site attractive between ca. 18,000 to 7,000 years ago.

Pat O’Grady is a staff archaeologist for the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History. He has taught classes at the University of Oregon campuses in Bend and Eugene, and summer field schools in Harney County for twenty years. O’Grady has been involved with SAS since 2016 when the Society first visited Rimrock Draw Rockshelter.

Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc.’s
Annual Meeting features a presentation by Jelmer Eerkens, Professor of Anthropology at University of California Davis
“Can we identify these 150 year-old remains? Recent archaeoforensic research in San Francisco, CA”
Saturday, December 3, 2022
1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

At our annual meeting in addition to a review of the year, a peek into 2023 and our election of officers for 2023, we are pleased to feature a talk by Jelmer Eerkens on archaeoforensic research. The program will be in person at the University of California Davis Campus, Young Hall Room 224.

The schedule for the event is as follows:
1:30 – Meet and Greet
2:00 – SAS Annual Meeting with election of officers for 2023
3:00 – Recent archaeoforensic research in San Francisco by Jelmer Eerkens
4:30 – Socialize at restaurant
At the SAS Annual Meeting President, Tom Johansen will review SAS events for 2022, highlight expectations for 2023, and conduct an election of officers.

Following the annual meeting Jelmer Eerkens will present archaeoforensic research on bones from a woman from San Francisco.

“Digging Olompali”
by
E. Breck Parkman
Monday, November 14, 2022
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. PDT

Breck Parkman’s first assignment as a State Archaeologist was to inventory the cultural resources of Olompali, a brand, new 760-acre State Park in Marin County. According to Breck, one of his most important discoveries was a cultural deposit consisting of artifact-rich fire debris inside the ruins of the former Burdell Mansion. It was here that he found a virtual time capsule of hippie material culture, items that once belonged to the Grateful Dead-affiliated, Chosen Family commune, the residents of the mansion when it was destroyed by fire on February 2, 1969. This presentation describes the importance of that discovery and how, forty years later, it’s still informing our knowledge of the Recent Past.

Breck Parkman was born and raised in Georgia but has made California his home since 1971. He lives in Sonoma with his teenage son. Breck retired from State service in 2017, after four decades as a State Archaeologist. His work took him to all corners of the state, and to places like Kodiak Island, Alaska; the Canadian Plains; the South Coast of Peru; and Central Siberia. He has worked on five continents. Breck earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Anthropology at California State University, Hayward. He was the founding Director of the UNESCO-sponsored Fort Ross ~ Global Village Project (1996-2000), is a Research Affiliate at the University of California at Berkeley, and a Past President of the Society for California Archaeology. Currently, Breck sits on the Board of Directors of the Sonoma Ecology Center. His research interests are broad and range from Ice Age megafauna to the archaeology of the Recent Past. Breck’s many publications address these and related topics. His work has been featured in hundreds of newspaper, radio, and television interviews and he has appeared in various films and documentaries that have aired on PBS, BBC, and the History and Discovery Channels. Breck is perhaps best known for his work at Olompali, where he has helped develop the field of Contemporary Archaeology through his archaeological study of the Grateful Dead and the Chosen Family commune.
In addition, he has been part of an international project focused on the Upper Paleolithic archaeology and paleoenvironments of southwestern Russia and central Ukraine.