1999 Excavation in Progress

Image showing four archaeologists at the Emeryville Shellmound

Archaeologists were called in to assess the integrity of the site. Here, archaeologist clean the wall of the water retention basin to determine if the layers of the site are still intact.

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Photo with close-up of the Emeryville Shellmound excavation site. A black and white meter scale shows the height.

After the excavated face had been cleaned, ash and charcoal lenses indicative cooking areas, and discarded animal bone and shell were visible in an exposure of the east profile of the stormwater retention basin.

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Close-up photo of the Emeryville Shellmound excavation site. A hole is cut around a clump of ash, with a scale shown to the side.

Shown here is an ash lens. Deposits like this one are formed when the remains of a cooking fire or hearth are covered up over time.

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Photo of Emeryville Shellmound excavation site. A worker wearing yellow leans over trays of excavated soil sit in the foreground. In the background, five workers, in white, sit at a table under a white tent.

The soil matrix is removed from the excavated materials by shaking or washing the soil through a fine screen. The material that remains in the screen is sent to the sorting table where archaeologists collect the artifacts, shells, and other evidence of cultural activity.

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Two archaeologists sit crouched in an excavated hole. They are wearing white, with orange safety vests.

Archaeologists excavating a series of units, using the tools of the trade -- trowels and buckets.

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Two archaeologists work in an excavated hole. They are wearing white, with orange safety vests. The worker on the right is digging a hole with a shovel

Archaeologists excavating a series of units, using the tools of the trade -- trowels and buckets.

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Photo of the Emeryville Shellmound excavation. A worker uses a backhoe while two other workers look on. An industrial building is visible in the background

Archaeologist and Native Americans carefully observed any work done by machine, to ensure that human remains and important cultural features were identified and recorded.

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Close up photo of the Emeryville Shellmound excavation site. The wall of the site shows lumber and bricks embedded in the walls.

The top layers of the site had been distributed by past construction. Not the lumber and bricks in the sidewall.

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Photo of the Emeryville Shellmound excavation site showing a large, rectangular trench dug into the ground.

A backhoe was used to excavate trenches through the deposit. Examination of the exposed layers provided information about how the deposit was formed and how it had subsequently been distributed.

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Photo showing excavation of the Emeryville Shellmound. Five people are working over blue wheelbarrows filled with material from the site. An office trailer sits in the background.

Facilities for the excavation included an on-site laboratory and office (trailer in background) as well as a wet screening station (in foreground) and a mechanical screen (to the left of the trailer).

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