Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 2 Reflection By Max V

Field school student Max looking stoic on survey

The sun’s rise replaced the twilight of last night, and with it we were early to rise and prepared for a long day’s work. We hiked out of the campsite at Plaskett Creek into dense brush and leagues of poison oak. Our task was to first survey an area north of Plaskett Creek, a powerful sight as we stood on castles of rock overlooking the turquoise Pacific Ocean.

It is no surprise that indigenous people occupied the site west of high coastal hills where ancient people would cross to the coastline, because of both the resource potential including plentiful shellfish and some mammals, and the pristine location at the edge of the continent where the Earth’s jagged edge meets the waves crashing against the rock wall, one cannot help but feel a sense of spirituality and connection to something bigger than one’s ego.

On our survey we encountered a variety of shellfish including abalone, mussels, chiton, and limpets, as well as occasional instances of marine mammal bones. We also recovered objects once in the hands of another human being thousands of years ago, someone who is not altogether dissimilar to our own selves. Two bifaces, the tip of a projectile point, and Monterey chert flakes: remains of the past.

After being introduced to mapping yesterday we got a chance to hone our skills, and as soon as I got the hang of it the process became immensely entertaining, and not to mention useful. I would take the bearing of a site boundary or a marked flag, and then walk in a straight line not matter shrub, chapparel,or poison oak, charging at everything in my way, counting my steps knowing my pace is 0.8 meter. Then return to my hand drawn map and mark the angle of the bearing, declination of course set 14 degrees NE, at the appropriate distance marked by the scale.

Crew breaking to look over site records

As that fun ended we took our lunch then hiked a mile to a new system of sites, watching the surfers while I walked down the path to the cliff, white rocks standing massive in the ocean just off the shore.

Split into two groups and conducted survey at our group’s site, dense grass coverage with no ground visibility, site constituents did not at all match report in 1970s, reports of archaeological acid trips, found three (3) flakes (Monterey chert) and that classified as a new site.

I’ve been making discoveries, only one today -  a flaked piece of chert and shellfish remains in a full day’s work.

Gary, a giant in California archaeology came to speak to us today. He told us we are working on sites that some of which may be 5 to 6 thousand year old cultural resources. I had no idea these sites existed here.

I came here wanting to pursue a focus on cultural anthropology. Only two days into this field school I’ve been converted to archaeology.  Tomorrow we will do more science. In fact, it is late and it is already that tomorrow I’m speaking of.