Emeryville Shellmound

The Emeryville Shellmound, in Emeryville, California, is a once-massive archaeological shell midden deposit (dark, highly organic soil containing a high concentration of human food waste remains, including shellfish). It was one of a complex of five or six mounds along the mouth of the perennial Temescal Creek, on the east shore of San Francisco Bay between Oakland and Berkeley.

From a time long before the arrival of the Europeans in 1769, groups of Native Americans lived at this spot by the Bay. Originally reported as over convert|60|ft|m high and some convert|350|ft|m in diameter, the mound constituted a small hill, and was physically linked to several adjacent mounds by extensive lower-lying midden deposits. Its peak likely provided sweeping views of the Bay and the Golden Gate.

The Native Americans constructed the Shellmound and it is comprised largely of shellfish and animal remains, the remnants of millions of meals consumed at the site by the prehistoric residents. The shells they threw aside from their catches of shellfish eventually covered some hundreds of thousands of square feet, marked by several cones. Evidence indicates that the site was a large village, occupied from at least 2800 years ago to 400 years ago. It was also used by Native Americans as a resting-place for their dead. The site was recognized as an archaeological deposit from the time of the first historically recorded settlement of the East Bay, and was subjected to some of the earliest archaeological excavations in the United States. When the University of California excavated this site in the 1920s, they found that the mound consisted mostly of clam, mussel, and oyster (predominantly Olympia Oyster) shells, with a plentiful mixture of cockleshells.

The site of the shellmound contained a large industrial plant site from 1924 through 1999, which was demolished by the City of Emeryville Redevelopment Agency in 1999. During the course of demolition, workers at the site rediscovered remnants of the Emeryville Shellmound, a prehistoric Ohlone Indian habitation site, long thought destroyed by the building of the industrial plant in 1924. Despite protest, construction continued, and the artifacts and remains were covered over once again.

Photos of the leveling of the Emeryville Shellmound in 1924 certainly suggest this destruction. However, the small size of construction equipment in the 1920s and the different construction techniques used at that time meant that there was far less destruction of the native ground surface than modern construction methods typically inflict. In fact, the disturbance of underlying soils was far less extensive and complete than might have been expected. In 1999, during the removal of the industrial plant, archaeologists were called to the site and it was determined portions of the Emeryville Shellmound still were intact there. The site is currently occupied by the Bay Street Shopping Center along with a small park in memorial to the shellmound.

Prior to the industrial plant, a large amusement park operated on the site from the 1870s through 1924. The park contained a racetrack, two dance halls, bars, a carousel, bowling alley, and a world class shooting range where national competitions were regularly held. One of the dance pavilions was actually located atop the shellmound, providing a fantastic view of the bay for partygoers. At the time, Shellmound Park was quite an attraction, and was a popular destination for many people from all over the San Francisco Bay Area. With the passage of prohibition in the 1920s, visitation fell off dramatically and the park fell into decline and was sold.

The site of the Shellmound is now a California Historical Landmark (#335).

Nineteenth and twentieth century disturbance

Beginning in the mid to late 1800s, fill material was deposited over and in the vicinity of the Emeryville Shellmound. [City of Emeryville, "Environmental Impact Report, Shellmound Park", April 24, 1989 ] The purpose of this deposition was to facilitate industrial development of this locale. By the early to middle 1900s substantial heavy industry was in place principally in the form of the Judson Steel company manufacturing facility and P.I.E. trucking terminals. [Alton Geoscience, "Report on Additional Site Characterization Studies at P.I.E. Nationwide Property: 5500 Eastshore Freeway, Emeryville, California", April 28, 1988] These developed uses were atop a layer of fill material measuring three to eight feet in depth above the native soil, shellmound and bay mud; the fill itself derived from construction wastes from San Francisco including debris from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Some of the wastes also included waste paints, numerous heavy metals and certain petroleum hydrocarbons.

By the 1980s redevelopment planning for the Emeryville Shellmound vicinity was underway, consisting of planning by private interests and the city of Emeryville. In 1989 Earth Metrics prepared a remedial action plan to assess and remediate soil and groundwater contamination in the vicinity of the Emeryville Shellmound. [C.Michael Hogan and Marc Papineau, "Plan of Remediation for the development of the Chiron site and Emeryville Marketplace, Emeryville, California", Earth Metrics Inc., Report 10042, published by the Alameda County Health Agency, Department of Environmental Health, Division of Hazardous Materials, Oakland, California, 1989 ] These studies found elevated concentrations of lead, zinc and certain other heavy metals as well as petroleum hydrocarbons such as benzene and toluene. Most of the contamination was found in the upper fill layers and did not penetrate into the shellmound itself. Substantial amounts of contaminant removal was conducted prior to area redevelopment.

References

External links

* [http://emeryville.wli.net/index.htm City of Emeryville South Bayfront Archaeology Project Homepage]
* [http://www.sacred-sites.org/preservation/shell.html Sacred Sites International page on the shellmound]