humandoodad: face (daisy daisy give me your answer do)
[personal profile] humandoodad
OH MY GOSH, YOU GUYS. OH MY GOSH. *_____* I just got back from THE COOLEST TALK EVER by Dr. Jon Erlandson (director of my museum and West Coast and Ancient Maritime Archaeology GOD). OH MY GOSH.

So, Dr. Erlandson's primary area of study is in the Channel Islands off the coast of California. The furthest west of these islands is San Nicolas Island, which is the island where Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell took place. Island of the Blue Dolphins was one of my FAVORITE, FAVORITE books as a kid. I read it, oh, a trillion times.

ANYWAY, he doesn't usually work on San Nicholas, but he and some archaeologists were called in to do a brief survey for shell middens by the Navy (who runs the island now) last year and while there, he found THE MOST AMAZING THING. LIKE SERIOUSLY.

He was surveying a likely cliff face and spotted a whale bone sticking out of an eroded area that was older than where they were focusing their search (deeper in the stratigraphy). But, being a nerd like we all are, he went OOH NEAT MAYBE IT'S A FOSSIL (possibly with the fact that the museum was going to do an exhibit about the evolution of whales in mind) and went to check it out.

Under the whale bone was two mostly still buried redwood boxes, as well as a few basket water jugs. Artifacts. And he was all !!! and he called everybody over and they were all !!! and they all decided to drop what they were doing and start working on preserving these boxes because they were in danger of being damaged by erosion or looted now they'd been exposed (which could have only been very recently because they were amazingly intact and erosional forces are super fierce in the area).

They had very little time because their flight left at 2pm the next day. But they are archaeology rock stars! And they got the boxes out! And then got on their plane and left them with the Navy archaeologists that worked on site.

And guys, guys. Not only is the stuff they found in these boxes super awesome in its own right (stuff that is rarely found in archaeological sites and stuff that Dr. E had never seen before and he's been AROUND), but there's some very tantalizing evidence that it belonged to the actualfax lady that Island of the Blue Dolphins is based off of.

If you didn't know, Island of the Blue Dolphins was inspired by a Native American woman called (by the people who found her) Juana Maria. Historical records report that when the missionaries came to San Nicolas to round up the last of the NicoleƱo from the island, she got left behind (either just flat out or by jumping overboard like in the book). She lived on the island all alone from 1835 to 1853 and when someone finally tracked her down (she had evaded several attempts to collect her), no one could understand her language and she died shortly after. All the stuff she brought with her from the island was either destroyed in the big San Francisco earthquake or lost by the Pope (srsly).

So the boxes seem to be a buried cache of materials and tools scavenged from around the island (because of various different eras of projectile points and technology). The people who were trying to capture Juana Maria reported that she had stashed things in trees and in caves, so burying a cache like this may not have been out of character. Also, there are harpoon toggles in the boxes that are distinctly Northwest Coast hunting technology, not Channel Island. This suggests the stuff in the boxes was collected after some Aleut hunters came down and massacred the hell out of the local population in 1815. The number of people on the island by the time the missionaries came to round them up in 1835 was between 7 and 20. Dr. Erlandson says this kind of narrows the suspect pool a bit.

There's a lot of work to do since the find got kind of tied up in a government snafu, but there's potential for finding DNA on a pipe in the collection and all sorts of analysis yet to be done. But I'm going to (and I think Dr. Erlandson is at least inclined to) at least pretend that it's hers. Because how cool is that?

And hopefully someday soon, pictures of the artifacts will be posted on the web because there are some seriously gorgeous decorative abalone shell fish hooks that I would love to show you all.

Date: 2010-10-23 02:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cool-rain-kiss.livejournal.com
DUDE DUDE THAT IS ALL SO AMAZING OMG *________________________*

Date: 2010-10-23 03:02 am (UTC)

Date: 2010-10-23 03:40 am (UTC)

Date: 2010-10-23 06:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] roadmarks.livejournal.com
ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS OH MY GOODNESS that was my favourite book of life! I used to pretend to be her and that my back patio was an island and I would gather useful things and it was pretty much the best game ever. :D Also, I am SO JEALOUS that you got to go to that talk! It sounds like it was amazing.

Date: 2010-10-23 07:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] speshope.livejournal.com
I was absolutely obsessed with any story that involved girls fending for themselves (another example: Julie of the Wolves) and spent hours upon hours "scavenging" huckleberries and creeping around the woods surround our property pretending to be on my own and hiding from my mom (she wasn't looking for me, but I was pretending that she was someone I needed to hide from. lol tiny wild child).

Date: 2010-10-24 01:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pearllessoyster.livejournal.com
HOOOOOOOLY SHIT YES! that is the best story ever!!!


Also, I used to go to dinner parties with Dr. Erlandson when I was five years old.

Date: 2010-10-25 08:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] speshope.livejournal.com
Right???

I used to see your dad on campus a lot and I was always tempted to say hi, except he wouldn't know me and it would be awkward.

Date: 2010-10-27 02:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pearllessoyster.livejournal.com
Aw, no! My dad would get a kick out of that! My dad totally gets a kick out of things like "My daughters met you at girl scout camp who knows how many years ago and then had x many friends in common and now you study anthropology.ish." he would LOVE that! Right now he doesn't have an office because they didn't have enough space so he is at home a lot more but if you see him again (try Roma at approximately 10 am on any given weekday, drinking black coffee, reading the paper/anthro journals, having a muffin or if you're quick, 3:30 for his coffee to go. seriously. they pretty much pour his coffee because they know he'll be in) you should so say hi! :D

Date: 2010-10-25 03:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magentatulip.livejournal.com
I, too, loved that book. Whenever I fly to southern California, I try to see if I can tell which island is San Nicolas from the airplane window, but I never can.

Date: 2010-10-25 08:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] speshope.livejournal.com
It's the west-est one!

Date: 2010-10-28 12:22 pm (UTC)
ext_1541: (Default)
From: [identity profile] summertea.livejournal.com
OK SO FUNNY STORY ABOUT ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS AND SCOTT O'DELL: when I was in 5th grade, there was a project to write to authors we liked. Another girl and I wrote to Scott O'Dell, not knowing of course that he uh. Had long since passed, as this was the days before Wikipedia

And then his wife wrote us back.

I really can't remember what she wrote since it's now like 15 years ago, but it was REALLY REALLY COOL for 10 yr old me. :D

Date: 2010-10-28 07:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] speshope.livejournal.com
Awww, that's so sweet!
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