#History #Anthropology Where I live was once under the San Diego Bay! Part 1

 This is the story of a discovery I made. While not earth-shattering, what I found is significant. I encourage you to imagine as you read through this. You can read what I imagined next Tuesday in Part 2 of this series. 

This is a picture of part of the bank behind my house. If you look carefully, you can see clay peeking out of the leaf litter in the center of the photo. To give you some perspective,

The fountain in the lower right corner is 3-feet tall.

There used to be a pond where the fountain is. While digging the hole, I came across this

It's a collection of clay, sandstone, bone fragments, cut bones, eggshells, and charcoal. Try your hand at labeling the numbered artifacts. The cut bone ends and the charcoal indicate humans were at the site, most probably cooking dinner!

The bank containing the artifacts when the I dug the pond.

The bank continues beyond the back fence. It crests between 40-50 feet above my house.

All the above is evidence that my yard was a tidal flat at some time--several hundred years ago. Over the centuries, silt covered the tidal flat. Some geologic uplift or a drop in sea level exposed the bank. 

So what?

Let's go back to the first photo and walk closer to the bank.

Left to Right: Top Row. Clay layer at the upper right corner. Shells in layer visible in the middle right.
Left to Right: Second Row.  A clearer view of a layer in the bank. Close up of the photo directly above it.

I think it's cool that I found evidence of the people we know as Kumeyaay in my yard.

I gave the artifacts to the fourth-grade teachers. California History is part of the grade 4 curriculum. I wrote a story as a scenario for context for the artifacts.

"On the Estuary" is the name of the story. But, that's for next week.

SEO: nostalgia, Native Americans, family, Kumeyaay, anthropology

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