A first session explores the basic reasons for why people live at any given place, in the
context of a student's own experience. Students are introduced to
the Emeryville Shellmound through discussion of a reconstructed
illustration of how the mound looked before it was leveled. Students learn about the
prehistory and history of Emeryville by the teacher's or class' reading of "The Story of the
Emeryville Shellmound". Students then make time lines of Emeryville history,
either as sequenced drawings of text or labeled points on a line.
In an optional second session, students brainstorm ideas about what they might like to
know about the people who created the Emeryville Shellmound, and
how archaeologists might find out more. Working individually or in small groups, students then research
what archaeologists have discovered about one or two questions. Results may be shared among the class in a mock
archaeological conference, a "poster session", or in writing.
Introduction
What do people need to live?
Elicit from students that there are several basic human
needs: food, water, shelter. Depending on the
sophistication of the students, a fourth category could be added: space in a
suitable arrangement. This would include more abstract needs, such as enough
space for houses to be adequately separated so that people are not
crowded, presence of a supportive community,
convenient access to resources, pleasant surroundings.
How does the place where you live provide these basic needs? (student brainstorm).
On the blackboard, draw columns with headings for each of the basic needs of
living
things: food, water, shelter. With students as a class, brainstorm how these
basic needs
can be met in different settings (e.g. people may get water from a creek
or from
plumbing; shelter can be a log cabin or an apartment building; food may
come from a
grocery store or through hunting). If "space" is added as a category, listings could include
love, friends, people to help you, a community, freedom from warfare, etc.)
All people throughout time have had these same basic needs. People choose places
to live and make their villages or town because those are places where they can meet
their basic needs. Often the places where modern people have chosen to live are
places that also were chosen by people long ago, for many of the same reasons.
People have lived in Emeryville for over 2800 years.
To convey a concept of 2800 years, tell students that their parents might have been born 30
years ago, their grandparents 60 years ago, great grandparents 90 years ago.
That is less than 100 years. Now imagine another 80 generations stretching back in
time: that would be about 2800 years.
Show drawing of reconstruction of Emeryville Shellmound
and explain that it this was the site of the first settlement in Emeryville, a
Native American village. Explain that people lived in one spot for so long that
their village made a little hill. Graphic 2 shows the location
of the bayshore in 1924. Later, part of the bay was
filled. Now the bayshore is much further east than it
was in 1924. You may want to show students a
map of the site
location and relate the location to other natural features
of the Bay Area (the Bay, hills, Pacific Ocean, Temescal Creek).
I am going to read you a story about the Emeryville Shellmound, a place where people
lived long ago. As I read, think about what Emeryville was like long ago and how it
has changed over time.
The Story of
Emeryville
3000 years ago, the San Francisco Bay Area was a very quiet
place. There were no cars, roads or big buildings.
There were no grocery stores, telephones, TVs or electric
lights. In many places, you might go for many days
without ever seeing another human being, but there were many
animals, and lots of open space
One day, a small group of people came down to the bay to
gather oysters and mussels to eat. These were easy to
collect from the marsh along the shore of the bay. At the
place that one-day would be Emeryville, there was a large
creek where the people could get fresh water, so they decided
to camp there for awhile. At that time, no one else lived
there. There were no buildings or anything else there,
just open countryside. Thousands of ducks and geese flew
over the bay, sometimes so many that they almost darkened the
sky. At the edge of the bay was a huge, wet marsh. It
was full of frogs and fish and the noise of red-winged
blackbirds. Huge elk and many deer browsed among the tule
reeds and brush.
The edge of creek was a great place to camp. Children waded
there and caught frogs and turtles. They used tightly
woven baskets to carry water to their mothers in the camp. The
men speared salmon and captured ducks and geese with woven
nets. When the people of the camp wanted meat, the men
speared a deer or elk with wooden spears tipped with stone
points. Back at the bay, the men could fish for gigantic
sturgeons up to seven feet long, or hunt for otters, with
their warm sort furs. They built a weir--a kind of brush
dam--in the shallow water beside the beach. When the
tide was low, they could wade out and easily capture large
tasty bat rays. When the tide was low, anyone in the
village could gather oysters from the gravely bottom of the
bay or use a stick to dig clams out of the mud of the tide
flat. It was easy to get shellfish and they probably were
eaten at almost every meal. This was a really good place to
live, with plenty of everything people might need; water,
food, space, and the materials to make shelters. The
people decided to stay in Emeryville.
The people of the Emeryville village knew how to use hundreds
of different plants that they could find in the marsh and on
the nearby flats and hills. One family cut down willow
trees to make a frame for a house. They tied the willow poles
together to make a small round dome. Then they made mats
of tule reeds to cover the willow frame. Women collected
green plants and dug roots to eat. In the summer, the
children picked berries along the creek. In the fall,
the people in the village worked together to gather ripe grass
seeds. These could be stored and eaten all year long.
People built shelters and campfires, where they cooked every
day. They made baskets, clothes and tools. Every day people
also threw away trash, especially food garbage. Think about
what you throw away every day: food waste, wrappers, worn out
clothes and broken toys, crumbled school papers. In the
same way, every day the first people of Emeryville used up,
lost, or threw things away. What really mounted up was
the ash and charcoal from fires. Since fires were used
for cooking and heat, most of the time there would be at least
one campfire burning in the village. The hundreds of shells
from the oysters, mussels and clams they ate every day also
added a lot to the trash pile. There were also tools
that were broken or lost, and bones from animals the
Emeryville people had killed and butchered. All these
things piled up on the ground where the people worked and
lived. In the winter, the creek sometimes flooded and
covered some of the ground in the village with a layer of new
mud and gravel. Plants grew and decomposed and made more new
soil, which blended into the garbage and trash as they
decomposed.
As time went on, the soil with shells and bones and broken
tools--soil that archaeologists call midden--began to pile up
in Emeryville. People at that time did not have garbage
trucks to haul the garbage away, like we do today. Every year,
for generation after generation, more and more midden soil
piled up. People continued to live at Emeryville, because they
could get all they needed from the natural environment there.
By the time people had been living at Emeryville for 800 or
900 years, the pile of midden soil was eight feet deep!
Of course, this happened slowly. Also, while this pile
was building up and turning into soil, natural processes like
floods kept building up more soil around the pile, so it was
not obvious that it was growing higher. It probably was awhile
before people really began to notice that the soil they had
created had begun to form a mound, a rise a little higher than
the bay. After awhile, maybe someone noticed that you had a
better view of the surrounding countryside if you stood on top
of the mound. It might be a good place to scout for game
before you went hunting. Maybe you could see the smoke
from the campfires of other villages.
Whatever the reason, by about 1,800 years ago the Emeryville
people may have had the idea that it would be good to build
the mound higher. Not only would a high mound provide a good
view, it also would make a marker on the shore to let other
groups know that this was Emeryville territory. A high mound
might show the people's respect for their ancestors who were
buried there. Some archaeologists and Native Americans believe
that people began to hold special feasts and ceremonies at the
site, and make offerings of shellfish and meat for the
ancestors who were buried there. Whatever the reasons, over
time the mound began to grow higher and steeper. Over
the next 1000 years or so, as well as getting larger in
overall size, the mound grew into a
small steep hill, almost as high as a three or four-story
building.
Meanwhile, life went on at Emeryville. The children of
Emeryville did not go to school as you do, but they still
needed to be educated so that they would have the skills they
needed to live. The Emeryville people did not read or
write, but they knew all about the plants and animals in their
environment. Children had to learn how to recognize
which plants could be eaten or used for medicine, and when and
where they could be found. They had to know how to wade
safely out into the marsh to collect shellfish and plants.
From their mothers, girls learned to collect special plants
and to weave baskets so tight that they could hold water. They
learned to make animal hides and furs soft, and to sew them
into clothing. Fathers taught their sons how to track animals,
make traps, and to chip spear or arrow points for hunting.
Children learned, as they worked side by side with the adults
of the village, how to make and use all the tools that they
needed. Maybe they learned about how the adults traded
with other groups for things that they could not get near
Emeryville. They might learn the value of abalone
shells, which were used to make special ornaments, and of
obsidian, which made the best arrow points. During all these
day to day activities, the Emeryville Shellmound continued to
grow larger.
During all this long time, the people of Emeryville continued
to live by hunting, fishing, and gathering plants and
shellfish, as they had for hundreds of years. But over time,
the ways in which they lived changed in many ways. One
important change was that the people learned about the bow and
arrow, and began to make small arrow points instead of big
spear points. When a man hunted with a spear, he had to
get close enough to an animal to stab it. This might be
very dangerous. With a bow and arrow, men could shoot
from further away, and maybe it was easier to stalk the game.
Some people began to make new kinds of bone tools. There
were even changes in the types of shell ornaments the
Emeryville people got by trading. These changes in the way
people lived made changes in what they threw away and what
ended up in the midden.
By 700 years ago (about the year 1300 AD), the mound had
become a tall, steep hill. It must have provided a great
view of the bay. At about this time, people stopped
adding material to the top of the Emeryville Shellmound.
No one knows why. Maybe there was a long drought and
Temescal Creek dried up, so that people had to move away to
find water. Maybe they simply started another village
nearby. Archaeologists know that some people continued to live
in Emeryville for another 400 years, or until about 1600 AD.
After that time, we think that Emeryville was abandoned.
The first people of Emeryville must have moved to other
villages.
Then, about 250 years ago, new people
came to the Bay Area. The bay and its shores still
looked much as they had 3000 years before. There still
were no highways, big buildings, cars or bridges, but there
were many small villages of tule houses where Native Americans
lived along the bay shores. Spanish explorers noticed
many grizzly bears along the shore, herds of deer and elk, and
thousands of ducks and geese. Huge marshy areas along
the shoreline made travel difficult. Often the explorers had
to go far out of their way to stay out of the marshes.
Like the Native Americans before, the Spanish realized that
the Bay Area would be a great place to settle, because it had
a good climate, plentiful game, the bay for travel, and lots
of timber for firewood and buildings. The Spanish established
forts, towns and missions. They wanted to convince the Native
Americans to become Christians and to teach them to be
farmers.
Sadly, without knowing it, the Spanish
brought many new diseases like measles and small pox to
California. The Native Americans had not had these
diseases before. Many of them died of these diseases in a very
short time. The Spanish forced the Native Americans to live at
the missions and did not allow them to leave. They
usually were not allowed to hunt and gather foods as they had
before, because the Spanish wanted them to learn to grow crops
and live as the Spanish did. Another problem for the local
Native Americans was that at the missions they had to live
with other people from far away groups, who were strangers or
even enemies.
The Spanish plan was not successful. They never really felt
that the Native Americans were ready to farm on their own, so
they did not give them their own land and tools. By the time
the Spanish missions stopped working in the 1830s, most of the
Native Americans of the Bay Area had died or were scattered. A
few tried to gather into communities again, and go back to
living by hunting and gathering wild foods, but it was very
hard for them to make a living. By this time most of the
land had been claimed by Spanish or American ranchers.
No Native Americans ever lived at the Emeryville Shellmound
again.
Even so, the Emeryville Shellmound still stood as a landmark
on the bayshore. In 1876 an American settler decided that he
would build an amusement park at
Shellmound. He flattened the top of the mound,
constructed a stairway up one side, and built a pavilion
(little shelter) so that people could dance there. He also
built a racetrack, shooting galleries and rifle ranges, a
photo gallery and places to eat and drink. Shell Mound Park
became a great place for picnics for groups and families. You
could ride the ferryboat from San Francisco and then take a
special train to the park. Children could ride the carousel
and buy a bottle of ginger ale. Families could get their
pictures taken, and join in funny foot races at the race
track. Adults could dance, buy drinks, or stroll in the
grounds. People came from all around the bay, and even from
other places in the country, to participate in shooting
competitions.
During this time, archaeologists began to get interested in
the Emeryville Shellmound. They thought the tools and
human remains in the mound could tell them a lot about how
people lived long ago in the Bay Area. One archaeologist, Max
Uhle (pronounced: oo-luh), got permission from the owner of
the park to conduct an archaeological excavation. Using
only a shovel, he dug a
huge trench and tunnel into the mound. Searching
carefully through the soil, he collected bone and stone tools,
and the bones and shells from the food the Native Americans
had eaten. Dr. Uhle believed that native people had lived at
Emeryville for at least 1000 years. Based on the kinds of
tools he found in different layers of the mound, he concluded
that the ways people had lived had changed gradually over
time, as they invented better tools and discovered new
technologies.
Fifty years passed, and in 1924 Shell Mound Park closed down.
Industrial developers were attracted to Emeryville around this
time because the marshy land near the bay was cheap. In
those days there were few good highways, and most businesses
shipped their products by railroad. Businesses would use
the railroad next to the shellmound site to carry their
products to market. Developers needed a flat place to
build a paint and pesticide factory, so they decided to level
the Emeryville Shellmound. They
used steam shovels to excavate away the mound.
Archaeologist, Egbert Schenck (pronounced Skaynk) watched as
the mound was leveled. He took careful notes about the layers
of the mound and the many artifacts and human skeletons that
he saw. Later, Dr. Schenck carried out archaeological
excavations in the lower part of the deposit, that was still
buried underground. Dr. Schenck did not agree with Dr. Uhle's
conclusion that the lives of the people of Emeryville had
changed over time. He believed that the people had lived
in the same simple ways throughout the time they lived at the
site.
In 1924, factories were built on the Emeryville Shellmound
site. These factories operated for almost 75 years.
Although many archaeologists knew that the very base of the
shellmound still lay under the factories, most people assumed
that the archaeological site had been destroyed.
As time passed, the factory equipment on the shellmound site
got old and worn out. Tanks rusted and paint and
pesticides leaked into the ground. In 1998, the City of
Emeryville Redevelopment Agency decided that the factories should be closed. The
Agency wanted to clean up the land and build something else
there. But when they started to demolish the old
buildings and clean up the soil, workers noticed that the soil
was full of shell and bone: the Emeryville Shellmound had
been rediscovered! Archaeologists and a Native American
representative were called to the site.
To clean up and develop the site as the Agency planned, a lot of
soil would have to be excavated and hauled away. This work
would disturb human burials and destroy the archaeological
deposit. Both archaeologists and Native Americans were
very concerned about this. Archaeologists believed that the
remains of the site held important information about
Emeryville's past. Native Americans did not want the
graves of their ancestors to be disturbed. However, the paint
and pesticides in the soil had to be cleaned up because they
were hazardous to humans and animals. After many discussions
and public meetings, the Agency decided that it would sponsor a
large archaeological excavation. This would save some of
the archaeological information. At the same time,
burials could be found and removed from the site.
The human remains and the things buried with them would be
buried again in a safe place.
The City also decided that the new development on the site
should include some kind of memorial to the native people of
Emeryville and the Emeryville Shellmound. A fourth grade
student participated in the committee that made these
recommendations. She attended many meetings and shared her
ideas about what could be done.
In 1999, archaeologists returned to the remains of the
Emeryville Shellmound. Working with hand tools as well as
mechanical equipment, they excavated many trenches
and test pits. This work took several months.
The archaeologists were wet and muddy most of the time.
To find and collect artifacts and samples, they put the soil
in large screen boxes, and then ran a hose over it to wash
away the soil. The water from the screening filled up a
pond! Archaeologists had to wear special suits, gloves and
boots to keep the poisons in the soil off their clothes and
skin. During this work, the archaeologists collected and
recorded over 2,500
artifacts and samples.
It took three years for dozens of
scientists to study these materials. The Emeryville
Shellmound Kid's Page will help
you learn more about what they found out.
In 1999, archaeologists excavated many trenches and test pits
in the deposit and recorded and collected over 2,500 artifacts and samples. Several universities and many specialists participated in
the analysis of these materials. Later, we will do some research to learn about what the
archaeologists found out though these studies.
In 2002, a new town center will open at the former site of
the
Emeryville Shellmound. People still live in Emeryville because it supplies all their
basic needs.
Activity
Provide each student with a copy of Handout 1. Have students
work independently or brainstorm as a group to identify
significant events or to characterize periods in Emeryville
history. Students
should note events that interest them from on Handout 1.
When each student has identified at least four events,
have him arrange these events in chronological order.
Prompt students as needed by mentioning events on the
time line on the following page.
Students will use the events they have listed to create
their own time lines.
Emeryville Time (for teacher reference)
Some Important Events in the History of Emeryville
|
| 2800 years ago |
2000 years ago |
|
700 years ago |
present |
|
| 800 BC |
O BC |
|
1300 AD |
2002 AD |
|
| . |
|
. |
| years ago |
date |
event |
|
|
2800 |
800 BC |
First people settle at Emeryville |
| 2000 |
0 BC |
Emeryville Shellmound is a large mound of midden |
| 1800 |
200 AD |
People may begin to intentionally build mound
higher |
| 1500 |
500 AD |
Bow and arrow appear at Emeryville |
| 700 |
1300 AD |
People stop building the big mound |
| 600 |
1400 AD |
People settle a new village close to the big
mound |
| 400 |
1600 AD |
People stop living at the Emeryville site |
| 233 |
1769 AD |
First Spanish expedition explores the East Bay
shore |
| 226 |
1776 AD |
Presidio and Mission established in San Francisco |
| 192 |
1810 AD |
All Native Americans in the East Bay have been
taken away to the Missions |
| 126 |
1876 AD |
Shellmound Park established; dance pavilion on
top of mound |
| 100 |
1902 AD |
Archaeologist Max Uhle conducts first
archaeological excavation at the Emeryville Shellmound |
| 78 |
1924 AD |
Paint company levels the Emeryville Shellmound as
archaeologist Egbert Schenck observes.
Factories are built at the site. |
| 3 |
1999 AD |
City of Emeryville decides to demolish factories
and clean up the soil underneath.
They discover buried remains of the Emeryville
Shellmound. Archaeologists conduct an excavation at
what is left of the mound. |
| 0 |
2002 AD |
New town center built on the Emeryville
Shellmound site. |
Now, put the four events in chronological order (the order in
which they happened):
Introduction
Show the illustrations of the Emeryville Shellmound from The Story
of Emeryville to students and remind them that large mound was an
archaeological site. A lot of what we know about how people lived
in Emeryville in the past comes from archaeological investigations.
An archaeologist is a scientist who studies the objects and materials
left behind in the ground at places where people have lived and worked. Archaeologists, like other scientists, work by asking
questions, and then looking at the data to try to answer their questions. The data archaeologists
examine are artifacts and the layers of soil and debris as they are found in the
ground. Although often the artifacts are beautiful items, for archaeologists, "It is
not what you find, but what you find out". What is most important
to archaeologists is not
the things they find, but what can be learned from the things they
find. Figuring out what the artifacts and soils can tell us about how
people lived is one of the most important things an archaeologist
does. Today we will practice thinking like archaeologists.
Archaeologists learn by studying the physical remains in the
ground;
tools, shells and bones from meals, human remains, cooking hearths.
Many things rot away in the ground and rarely are found in archaeological sites. For instance, it is rare to
find remains of hides, baskets, meat, plants, wood or anything soft. We do find bone,
shell, chipped and ground stone tools, charcoal, and ash. The way
these things are arranged in the ground--the patterns among them
also provide information. For instance, we can see how rocks were
arranged around a hearth; we can identify a cooking area by the burnt bones and ash and
charcoal; we can identify a tool
making area by finding the tools and the little pieces that are broken off as
the raw material is shaped. We can learn about how the environment changed, by studying
changes in the kinds and numbers of animal bones we find and differences in the
types and amounts of different pollen and seeds found in the soil. However,
archaeology cannot provide direct evidence about how people think, why they
did what they did, and what they believed. We can only
speculate (guess) about this.
What are some of the questions you might want to ask about how
people have lived in Emeryville in the past? What questions did you
think of as we read The Story of Emeryville? What do you think are
some of the questions archaeologists might ask?
Activity
Students brainstorm questions about the shellmound and archaeological work. List these
on the blackboard. Try to encourage specific questions. For example, formulate the
question "What animal species did they use for food" rather than "What did
they eat?" As a teacher-led group, examine each question and discuss whether and how it might be
researched. For instance: "What ceremonies did people conduct at the mound?" probably
cannot be answered, because we can only see the physical remains; we cannot
know what people were thinking. "How did
they bury their dead" is a question that could be addressed through
archaeological research or by reading archaeological reports. Help
students differentiate between data (information) and speculation
(guesses).
Some questions you might use to get started:
- When did people first come to Emeryville? How long did they live there?
- What animals did they hunt? What hunting tools did they use?
- What plants did they use?
- How did they cook their food?
- Where did they get the materials for tools?
- How did they make their tools?
- How did they bury their dead?
- Over time, what new tools were invented?
- How has the Emeryville environment changed over time?
- How big was the site? How deep under ground did it go?
- How do sites get buried?
- What happens to archaeological collections after the work is
finished?
- Were any Native Americans involved in the archaeological project? How?
After questions have been developed, students may be divided into
groups or pairs to do research. Students with special interests could
pursue them individually. It may be advisable to assign topics or
questions to ensure that a range of subjects is addressed. Each group or individual will conduct independent research on the
selected question. Limited English speakers could work with
another student who is a fluent speaker. Based on topic area, refer
student to appropriate part of kids page or public report, depending
on reading level. Suggest other sources, such as the links on the
kids' page.
Handout 2 may be used as recording tool, or you may wish to have
more advanced students take notes on the form and use these
notes to write about the results of their research. Remind students
that it is important to give credit to the sources they use, and explain how to record a
bibliographic citation and an internet citation.
Results may be reported at an "archaeological conference" (oral
presentation), a poster session, as brief write-ups assembled as a
class report, or as a question and answer bulletin board.
STUDENT HANDOUT 2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Name_________________________________
INVESTIGATING AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL QUESTION
Question I want to
investigate________________________________________
Example: What kinds of plants and animals were present when
the Emeryville site was first occupied?
What kinds of materials can help answer this
question?______________________
Example: animal bones, and plant seeds and pollen in the base
of the midden deposit
Where should I look for information to answer this
question?___________________
What have archaeologists found out about this
question?______________________
Example: Archaeologists have found that that many animals
lived in the area that are no longer present today, such as
elk, grizzly bears and black bears. They also have learned that
there was a large marsh at the shoreline, and that many
willows grew along Temescal Creek.
Where did I get this information?___________________
book title, author, date or web site address
What other questions on this topic could be researched?
_______________________
Example: Why did the plants and animals change? Where did
they go? Did Native American hunting contribute to changes
in animal populations at Emeryville?
Where could I go to find out
more?____________________________________
Example: other Internet sites about Bay Region environment;
reports on endangered species, other archaeological
reports, natural history museums
[ Background for Teachers ] [ Lesson Plan ] [ Correlations with California curriculum standards ] [ Glossary ]
