Point Reyes Light - November 18, 1999
Miwok bones poke up alongside Highway 1
Archaeologists from Caltrans last week finished excavating a prehistoric Native American skeleton from a roadside bank along Highway 1 north of Point Reyes Station.
The four-day project recovered the fractured remains of a single Coast Miwok adult estimated to be hundreds of years old. Along with several artifacts also found at the site near Bivalve, the bones were immediately turned over to a member of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria for reburial at an undisclosed location.
Caltrans archaeologist Mick Hayes said a road inspection party first discovered the bones in late September as they were surveying the land for signs of prehistoric use.
"Through the poison oak they noticed some bones sticking out of the bank where it had eroded," he said. "They first saw the end of a femur and part of a cheekbone."
Once the survey of the area was completed, Hayes was called out to the site two weeks ago to meet with fellow Caltrans archaeologist Kathleen McBride and Miwok representative Tim Campbell.
"We talked about shoring it up and trying to leave it in place," he recalled. "But decided to remove it because of the way the land was slumping and its potential for erosion."
Because the site showed evidence of only a single burial, Hayes explained, the team decided to perform a less detailed and scientific excavation of the site to speed up the process of relocating the remains.
"Still, we found an interesting array of things," he said. "We recovered two hammer stones that are reminiscent of what a doctor uses to test the reflexes on your knee. We also found a couple of net sinkers, which are these flat stones with notches on both margins, and some obsidian point tips."
The remains themselves, Hayes said, were of "a robust adult" that was bound in a flexed-over fetal position. The bones were not date-tested out of respect for the Miwok, though several obsidian flakes were retained for a hydration date test.
While it would be uncommon for Coast Miwok to bury a single corpse by itself, Hayes said that he believes that the site is not a part of a significant burial ground.
Archaeologist McBride said that discoveries of Miwok sites in West Marin are very common. In fact, a full inventory of sites in the county has never been completed. It is estimated that some 2,500 Coast Miwok once inhabited West Marin, and evidence suggests their presence in the area as long as 3,500 ago.
"There are a lot of sites along Highway 1 in Marin and Sonoma," McBride said. "And especially along Tomales Bay. It was just an ideal location for them."