Bones unearthed in S.J. appear to be from ancient burial site
Written by Xiuhcoatl
Jun 29, 2006 at 03:43 PM
Bones unearthed in S.J. appear to be from ancient burial site
By Jessie Mangaliman Source: Mercury News
A construction site where a San Jose city crew unearthed human bones early this week appears to be an ancient American Indian burial site, according to police and a local archaelogist.
Workers were digging Tuesday morning to install a culvert on Sanborn Avenue near Alma Avenue when they struck what appeared to be human bones.
Construction has been temporarily stopped on the site until the city negotiates disposition of the ancient remains with the Native American Heritage Commission, a California body that ensures protection of such sites.
Daniel Cearley, an archaeologist who teaches at San Jose City College, was called on by the Santa Clara County coroner to identify the remains. He has notified the state commission.
``There's a high probability that the remains are in a Native American burial site'' from pre-San Jose history, Cearley said. Unless carbon testing is done on the bones, it's hard to say how old they are, he said.
The site is a few blocks from the Caltrain Tamien Station, where in the 1990s, archaeologists dug and investigated an American Indian site.
The bones found in the Sanborn Avenue site were in layers of gravel and alluvial flow, Cearley said, indicating that like many cemetery and village sites linked to the Muwekma and Ohlone tribes, they followed the path of the Guadalupe River.
When workers encountered the bones, they called crime scene investigators from the San Jose Police, the coroner and the archaeologist, according to SJPD spokesman, Sgt. Nick Muyo. Contact Jessie Mangaliman at
or (408) 920-5794.
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