11. ATJ THE BEDROCK OF HrISTORY

Recent Remarkable Discovery of Human Remains Over Three Hundred Years Old

in the San Joaquin Valley of California

A. L. Kroeber

[The following article first appeared in Sunset giagazmne, Vol. 25, no, 3,

pp. 255-260, September, 1910. Because of its unusual interest and imort-
ance and general lack of availability, the UCAS feels that the article

deserves reprinting. This same lot of Kern County material is described by
E. W. Gifford and W. E. Schenck, "Archaeology of the Southern San Joaquin

Valley," U.C.P.A.A.E., vol. 23, no. 2, 1926 from their site 15. The material,
now in the UC Museu-mL of Anthropology, is to be found under Accession No. 361
and is catalogued as nos. 1-14570 to 1-11598 and 12-1731 to 12-1752. Ed.]

Recently, the Department of Anthropology of the University of California
was able to secure, with the courteous assistance of the b-iller and Lux

Company, a collection of remains, left by a prehistoric California people,
which are so unique as to be of unusual historical importance and general
interest.

At some time in the past, a tribe in what is now Kern county buried

a number of its dead with their belongings near the edge of a flat-topped hill
cut by an arroyo draining into Buena Vista lake, now more properly Buena Vista
reservoir. In the course of time the intermittent stream widened its canfon,
until in the winter of 1908-09 that part of the upper surface of the mesa in

which the burials had been made, slide down into the bottom of the gulch. Here

part of the bones were uncovered and this led to the discovery of the collection.

These ancient people, whoever they were, cremated or at least partly

cremated their dead, a custom which was also followed by the Indians living
in the Tulare Valley within the historic period. The burnt or lhalf-burnt.

remains were subsequently buried.  Other individuals, for some reason, seem
to have been buried without being previously placed on the funeral pyre.

According to the habit of almost all Indians and prehistoric peo-poles, the

principal belongings of the dead were consigned to the earth with them. The

objects which were buried in this instance comprise articles of basketry, netting,
string and rope, matting and wood. Implements of this sort that have- been made

and used by the modern Indians of the state are well klnown, and large collections
of them repose in the University Museum for permanent preservation and the

enlightelnment of the future. The objects found in this discovery are remarkable
in being of a perishable nature and yet by some fortunate chance preserved from
a prehistoric period. The aboriginal inhabitant has left behind him innumerable

remains of his work in hard or indestructible materials, so that mortars, pestles,
arrow-points, flint-knives, pipes, charm-stones, sinkers, bone-awls, and shell-
beads have been found in abundance in almost all parts of the state. But it is
only once in a thousand times that articles made of fragile and delicate sub-

stances, such as vegetable fibers arid hair, are preserved in the ground intact

for centuries. When such are discovered they are consequently of special import-
ance, because of the information they give as to those sides of the life of

ancient people of which the material evidences are usually destroyed by the

lapse of time and the elements, so that the archaeologist is compelled to con-
tent himself with inere guesses.

In another respect this collection is unique. Almost every piece in it

tells a story. This, however, is best made clear by an account of the actual
objects. Probably the most interesting specimen is the human skull which is

here illustrated (P1. 2D). An arrow has penetrated clear through the head. The
point entered the eye, destroying it, and piercing the thin socket of bone in
which the eye rests. The arrow then continued downward and somewhat to the

rear, through the interior of the nose and upper part of the mouth, striking no
bones except some Qf the thin plates of the inner air-chamber of the nose.

The point then passed below the joint of the left jaw, either coming to rest

against the bone of the lower jaw, or perhaps piercing the softer tissues and
emerging.

It is clear that the wound was inflicted at close range. The force of a
good arrow is tremendous when it leaves the bow, but quickly diminishes in its
flight on account of the resistance of the air. In this case only the thinnest
walls of bone intercepted its progress; nevertheless, a considerable body of
muscle and tissue was penetrated, so that the man behind the bow could not

have been more than a few yards from the one he shot. Then the direction of the
shot was downward and nearly from the side. The Indian habit in battle was to
watch for the arrows and either receive them on a shield or avoid them by dodg-

ing, at which the warriors by long training were very expert. In the excitement
of a fight all possible positions are likely to be taken and a lucky shot may
catch a man in almost any attitude. The arrow must, however, have had a

practically horizontal flight. If shot upward into the air and again descend-
ing, it would no longer possess the momentum to pass entirely through a manis
head. The victim, dodging to the side to avoid one arrow, might have been

caught by another; but if so, the part of the shaft that remains imbedded shows

that he must also have been inclining his head, which seems an unlikely thing to
do in battle,

Considering everything, it therefore seems probable that the wound was not
inflicted in open fight but upon an unsuspecting victim.  It has been an im-

memorial habit of the California Indians to kill such of their medicine-men as
lost several patients in succession. Their faith in the powers of the shaman
was so implicit that they endowed him with almost absolute power of curing

disease, If a sick person died, they therefore argued that it must be through
the neglect or malevolence of the medicine-man, and if illbfortune brought

him two or three fatal cases within a short period, suspicion became a certainty.
tThe first opportunity was then sought by the relatives of those who had died
under his care to destroy him. This custom is so deeply implanted that even

to-day Indian medicine-men ae sometimes killed, and there is little doubt that
the majority of unexplained murders of Indians which are constantly occurring
in all parts of the state are from the same motive, though fear of the white
p5ts law prevents its public acknowledgement.

A favorite method of disposing of the marked medicine-man is to ambush

him outdoors. At other times he is attacked while asleep. The direction which
the arrow took through this skull favors the latter supposition. The position
of the arrow and its penetrating power are explained perfectly if we imagine

the murderer to have stood a few feet from the head of his unconscious victim,

who was sleeping on his side. Very likely he approached so near that the point

of the arrow almost tounched the head, and then shot downward at an angle.

The fact that the arrow first struck the eye also favors this supposition, for
the chance is but slight of this organ being struck in a fight, whereas, as

everyone knows, it is the part that is instinctively and most naturally aimed at
when there is opportunity for aim.

In any case, there is no question that the shot accomplished its purpose.

Death was not instanteous. The victim may have been dispatched by other wounds,
or his friends may have had opportunity to try to remove the arrow. The barb
of the point would, however, have prevented its being extracted by the way

it entered, while if the point rested against the bone of the jaw, there was

no possibility of pushing it through and out. Death certainly resulted soon.
The body was then placed on a pile 'of wood for cremation, with the shaft, or
part of it, still imbedded. The workl of cremation was, however, hastily or

imperfectly done, perhaps because suitable firewood was scarce. The charred

portions of the skull, as visible in the photograph, show where the flame con-
suined the tissues and blackened and calcined the bone. The ends of the arrow
were also burned off, as the blackened stubs prove. The section of the shaft

which was most deeply imbedded, however, was so well protected by the surrounding
tissues that the flame did not reach it, and it is not even charred. After the
attempt at cremation, the remains were buried. The flesh and skin decayred, but
the wooden arrowshaft offered more resistance to the elements and was preserved
just as it had rested in the face.

Indian bones with stone arrow-heads imbedded have sometimes been found,

and a greater number have been forged, but there is probably no case on record
of part of an actual arrow remaining in position in a skull for centuries after
decomposition of the flesh.

Another skull (Pl. 2C) in the collection gives evidence of a different

sort of death. There is' nothing to show that this individual, who was also an
adult male, came to a violent end. In his case preliminary cremation for some
reason was not attempted. The eyes were covered with two square plates of

abalone-shell. Into each nostril was inserted a long curved piece of shell

taken from the lip of the abalone. Such curved pieces have been found in great
numbers in the graves of the ancient California Indians, but usually as orna-
ments, and so far as known, they have never been observed used in this way.

Finally, the head was wrapped in a beaver-skin. Time has also dealt leniently
with this remnant of what was once a man. Part of the scalp and hair are pre-

served. The larger portion of the beaver-fur remains, pressed by the weight of
the adjacent earth closely on the scalp and bone, so as to resemble a matting
of felt. Tightly fitted' in this matting are small shell-beads of the wampum
type.

Several other human remains show remarkable features. The most interesting
of these consists of the complete leg and foot-bones of an adult, apparently a
man. The flesh has almost entirely passed away, but considerable portions of

the skin remain, shrunk fast to the bone by the decomposition of the intervening
tissues. Both limbs seem to have been entirely wrapped with string. In part the
string enclosed masses of tule fiber, which were first laid along the lea. The
photograph shows what remains of this string, and how about the feet and ankles,
where the fleshy parts form but a thin covering over the bone, it was wrapped
most closely and has best preserved its original position.

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A similar set of limnb-bones (Pl. 23), lacking however, the feet, was found
wrapped in masses of tule and tule fiber.  These bones are from a youth or a
young girl but yet fully grown. Of special significance is a mass of human

hair, consisting of a dozen strands or locks, around which is wrapped one end of
a long, fine net (P1. 2A). Nets of this type were used by the recent Indians

of the Tulare valley. They were made of very fine string. Either the net was

twisted or folded into a sort of band or more frequently spread over the head and
the long hair confined within it. The locks to which this net is attached are,
however, identical with the coiffure of certain tribes of southern California,

such as the Yuma and Mohave, who practice a peculiar style not followed among the

Indians north of Tehachaoi.  The hair is allowed to grow full length, and is then
rolled, plastered, and twisted, but without actual braiding, into from twenty
to fifty or more long, slender, straight cylinders of about the thickness of a

lead-pencil. The ends of these are trimmed off evenly at the waist-line or even
lower. The fragment preserved shows that just such locks were worn by the
people who made this burial.

Five basketry pouches or bags were found. In weave these are identical

with the baskets of the modern Indians, but are entirely distinct in two respects.
In the first place, the materials used are all soft, so that while the technique
is strictly one of basket weaving, the product is as soft and flexible as thick
cloth. All the modern basketry from California is quite stiff and hard in com-
parison, the only exception being certain large wallets or pouches among the

Indians about San Diego. The photograph (not reproduced in this reprinting] shows
the circular bottom of one of the five pouches found in the present discovery
and part of the side. The remainder has been torn away or has rotted off and
been lost.

The second distinctive feature of this work is that the ornamentation is
practically all confined to patterns made by weaving in strands or strings of
human hair, black, of course, as the Indian's always is. This is quite

unexampled and unexplained. We know that all the California Indians, when in
mourning, cut their hair short, and the hair that was cut off was sometimes

preserved and made into belts or other objects of ceremonial or sacred use. There
is no previous case on record of human hair having been employed for any such

utilitarian purpose as ornamenting basketry. These ancient people, however, made
an extensive use of hair, as is also evidenced by the finding of fragments of
string of this material.

Other objects bearing a fascinating significance to the archaeologist,
but which must be passed over here, comprise a sack of network with a draw-
string to close it; fish-nets of various sizes and strength; a fragment of

aboriginally hewn plank painted red, of which the ends and one side are charred
by fire, and of which the purpose is entirely conjectural; string and rope of
various thicknesses, made chiefly of shredded tule and of the fiber of the

mescal plant of southern California; and finally, fragments of tule matting,
some of them woven and some sewn through, of the same type that the Yokuts

Indians of the Tulare valley used as bedding and for the walls of their huts

until a few years ago. There are only two objects that it will be possible to
describe separately.

One of these is the skull of an eagle, evidently carefully prepared. Both
eyes were covered with circular disks of abalone shell nearly two inches in

diameter, fastened in place with some sort of gum. Such treatment of the dead
was usually accorded by the Indians only to human beings, and when applied to

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an animal is therefore clear evidence of religious worship. A parallel comes

from southern California. The Dieguenio and Luisefio Indians of San Diego county
practise what is called the Eagle Ceremony, which is a form of mourning ritual
held in honor of a chief'. The principal act of the worship is singing over a

captive eagle, which is finally killed by pressure upon its heart. The feathers
are then carefully kept for dancing regalia, to be used in future repetitions
of the ceremony, while the body of the eagle is buried as carefully as if it
were a man. Evidently this sane ceremony, or something very like it, was

anciently part of the religious worship of the Indians inhabiting the Tulare
valley.

The last piece which can be mentioned consists of a blanket. This fact

is in itself remarkable, for no Indians within California have ever been found to
possess the knowledge of weaving cloth, nor have even fragments of cloth of
any sort been discovered in their graves or among their remains. This piece

is of plain white cotton, about six feet square, and preserved almost completely.
Its last possessor, however, had strange notions of the purpose of a blanket,

for he cut or tore in it two large holes, through which he could pass his arms,

and then wore the blanket as a cape or coat, The piece was clearly not made for
such a purpose, for in that case it would have been woven of the proper shape,
or the armholes would have been smoothly cut out and edged, instead of being

frayed., A comparison of this blanket shows it to be identical in material and

appearance with the textile goods manufactured by the cliff dwellers and ancient

Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. The Pueblo Indians as known in historic times
have made no cloth of this nature, preferring instead heavy goods of a very

different texture. There can be no question but that this piece was made by an
ancient cliff-dweller or Pueblo of New ?exico or perhaps eastern Arizona, was
carried in the course of trade as far as central California, and there fell

into the hands of some less civilized aborigine and was converted by him into
a garment by the rude process of punching out two armholes. This is the first

clear evidence of prehistoric communication between the Southwest and that part
of California which lies north of Tehachapi.

Who were the people that left these remarkable remains, what were their

affiliations, and how long did they roam over the plains and hills of the southern
San Joaquin valley? The age of the objects can only be estimated. A prematurely
hasty supposition, based only on the perishable nature of many of the materials,
might put the age at only a century or less. It must be remembered, however,
that much of the west side of this valley, especially at the upper end of the
San Joaquin-Tulare valley, is exceedingly arid. The burials were made on an

elevation, in firm yet porous soil, so that the drainage conditions as regards
rainfall were almost ideally perfect. It is doubtful if the objects were even

damp more than a few days in the year. As articles of hair, wool, cotton, fibers,
and wood have been found well preserved after thousands of years' burial in

Egypt and Peru and other desert regions, there is no reason against the assump-
tion of a high antiquity for this discovery, if other circumstances so demand.
And such circumstances there are.

In the first place, no article of European manufacture, or made from a

substance imported by Europeans, or showing the influence of European civiliza-
tion, occurs in the collection. Alh. the twine and rope, with the exception of

one extra-heavy fragment, is two-ply. The rope and string of civilized peoples
is almost always three-ply; but it is regularly two-ply if of aboriginal

Indian manufacture. Then, most of the objects are in a fragmentary condition,

and this in spite of the favorable situation and protection. The basketry pouches

the string made of mescal fiber, the decorated eagle skull., the style of wearing
the hair, are all unexampled in the interior of the state and find parallels

only in southernmost California.   It is therefore necessary to suppose either

that a people allied to the Indians of southern California, or perhaps their very
progenitors, lived in the Tulare valley at the time these articles were made;

or at any rate, that the customs and habits which are now characteristic only of
southern California extended at the time in question much farther north.

In either case a long period of time must have elapsed. The California
Indians are noted for being vehemently attached to the particular locality

where they have been born. They can be induced only with difficulty to remove

from their homes, and ethnology, history, and the evidences of language show that
they have all. been for a very long' time sedentary and stationary. Movements

of population undoubtedly must have occurred, as they have taken place everywhere
else, but they were slow and gradual shiftings of bodies of people, not true
migrations. Such a gradual shifting from Buena Vista lake to southernmost
California would have occupied at least centuries.

On the other hand, if the people themselves did not move, but if the cus-
toms which were once widespread died out in the north through the importation

of new habits and manners of life and became gradually restricted to the southern
area, a long period must also have been requisite to bring about such a changes
Indians, like all uncivilized races, are notoriously conservative when left to

follow their own inclinations. Their father's way is good enough for them. That
customs and fashions alter among them as well as among ourselves is of course

not to be doubted, but it is necessary to assume at least several centuries as

the shortest period within which so many characteristics of the life still found
in the south could have been completely obliterated in the north by mere
evolution and gradual change of habits.

Finally the character of the cloth blanket shows clearly that it must have
been carried from the Southwest prior to the historic period. As the Pueblo
Indians have been under Spanish influence for more than three centuries,

it is necessary to assign at least this age to the bones and objects in the

burials. How much older they are, it is only possible to conjecture by judging
of their state of preservation. In any event, it is clear that we have in this
discovery, which will remain permanently preserved for the people of California
in the Museum of their State University, the concrete evidence that at some

period going back into the centuries there lived in the great central valley of
the state an aboriginal people, differing from those found there is historic

times, in some way connected or affiliated with the ancestors of the more recent

tribes of the southern part of California, and maintaining communication with the
ancient Pueblo Indians of the Southwest.

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PLATE 2. BUENA VISTA LAKE REMAINS.