Welcome to the City of Emeryville
South Bayfront Archaeology Project
Homepage.
The South Bayfront Archaeology Project was conducted by archaeologists at URS
Corporation, under contract to the City of Emeryville Redevelopment
Agency. The South Bayfront
Project is an
ambitious redevelopment project in the heart of Emeryville. The redevelopment program
removed a polluting industrial site, cleaned up toxic materials, and prepared the parcel for
redevelopment as a commercial/residential complex.
The South Bayfront project site contained a large industrial plant site from 1924 through
1999, which was demolished by the Agency in 1999. During the course of demolition,
workers at the site rediscovered remnants of the Emeryville Shellmound, a prehistoric
Ohlone Indian habitation site, long thought destroyed by the building of the industrial
plant in 1924.
Photos of the leveling of the Emeryville Shellmound in 1924 certainly suggest this
destruction. However, the small size of construction equipment in the 1920s and the
different construction techniques used at that time meant that there was far less
destruction of the native ground surface than modern construction methods typically
inflict. In fact, the disturbance of underlying soils was far less extensive and complete
than might have been expected. In 1999, during the removal of the industrial plant,
archaeologists were called to the site and it was determined portions of the Emeryville
Shellmound still were intact there.
The Emeryville Shellmound, a massive archaeological shell midden deposit
(dark, highly
organic soil containing a high concentration of human food waste remains, including
shellfish) was one of a complex of five or six mounds along the mouth of the perennial
Temescal Creek, on the east shore of San Francisco Bay between Oakland and Berkeley.
From a time long before the arrival of the Europeans in the 1700s, groups of Native
Americans lived at this spot by the Bay. Originally reported as over 60 feet high and
some 350 feet in diameter, the mound constituted a small hill, and was physically linked
to several adjacent mounds by extensive lower-lying midden deposits. Its peak
undoubtedly provided sweeping views of the Bay and the Golden Gate. The Native
Americans constructed the Shellmound and it is comprised largely of shellfish and animal
remains, the remnants of millions of meals consumed at the site by the prehistoric
residents. Evidence indicates that the site was a large village, occupied from at least
2800 years ago to 400 years ago. It was also used by Native Americans as a resting-place for their dead. The site was
recognized as an archaeological deposit from the time of the first historically recorded settlement of the East Bay, and was
subjected to some of the earliest archaeological excavations in the United States.
Also the location of the once famous Shellmound
Park. A large amusement area
that operated from the 1870s though 1924. The park contained a racetrack, two dance
halls, bars, a carousel, bowling alley, and a world class shooting range where national
competitions were regularly held. At the time, Shellmound Park was quite an attraction,
and was a popular destination for many people from all over the San Francisco Bay Area.
With the passage of prohibition in the 1920s, visitation fell off dramatically and the park
fell into decline and was sold.
The demolition of the industrial site and hazardous material remediation phases of the
South Bayfront Project were completed in 1999, and at the time these activities were
viewed likely to result in extensive impacts to the archaeological site. Cleanup of the
hazardous materials and future development at the site would result in the probable
destruction of much of the deposit. The City of Emeryville
Redevelopment Agency therefore sponsored an
archaeological excavation (data recovery) of a sample of the deposit, including
mechanical trenching to recover data on site formation, geomorphology and stratigraphy.
This data recovery program was carried out during the summer and fall of
1999. Related
analyses are currently underway. Final results will be posted to this web page in the near
future.
This web page will provide the public a window into the past of the City of Emeryville; a
window overlooking the early beginnings of the City, and two thousand years further into
the past.
