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Newspaper Page Text
The San Francisco Sunday Call. TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS AGO AT SHELL MOUND Jack Jungmeyer \u25a0 —OH years pleasure seekers of San 1 Francisco and the bay cities I ' have taken their recreation on ~ those peculiar shell mounds at 51: ell "3lou2*d park, Emervvllie,' In the edge cf .Oakland, 'without suspecting that beneath their feet, wrapped in the dhn Eiystery a£d stillness, of vanished egea, lie the kings and princes "of a race cf men. so ancient that they had begun burying: their dead In this spot thou sands of years before Columbus -had even planned his first western voyage cf discovery. A millennium ago, when Ehs^ta in all probability still smoldered ominously end reddened the northern sky v.-ith its sulphurous dimes, and when the tin cased and uncharted western sea chafed .the chores of an unbounded \u25a0wilderness of whose existence the white man had as -yet not even ireaned. a primitive, dusky peopl* were working out their tribal destiny In labor and play, battle and council, after the manner 1 of our aboriginal kind, along the shores of what is now £an Francisco bay. Like the early llongols and Egyptians, who con etructed their great wall and their pyramids to arouse the wonder and rpeculation cf their far posterity, these western aborigines also bullded them selves monuments that have lasted throughout a thousand generations of • their desky descendants and that haws been h«id Intact where the white man's more characterless monument h»* long since -fallen into the unrecognixablo mold cf decay. In those immense shell mounds of^ their building which still etandniore' or less well preserved after all the Intervening aeons as "evidence cf this younger, more barbaric na tion's thought and . handiwork, • they pave expression to their Srct <rude conception cf percnanetscy and concur rence cf effort. as prompted of tribal consciousness and pride. Unlike those other ancieats, being -more primitive, tha mound builder left no written book or chiseled tablet for posterity's en ll^ttennient as to the travails and Jojs^ cf their* dally existence cr as to the-' 1 ©oxspiexitj; ef concept to which their awaJcenlns Intellect - had groped /its* %ray ; they wera too little concerned with * tha coming of future generations ' to realize of what Value such' life "record, wtmld be to those descendants or to In- ' terest thersselves' in keeping a chron- , Ida cf e-renta. Traditions of a slgnia cant character, were handed down from ceaeraticn to generation by< word' -of r taouth, ' were weakened and finally lost ; altogether in the repeated telling. . JLeice frosa that record of tribal affairs i was kept only inasmuch as evidence characteristic of -the life they, led-7 cf such nature . that :it outlasted that life— was preserved unconsciously ' In the ltp of the centuries which have; «g«?n lifted it-to the l£tter' man's jrleTT, together with the ,-wiiftYned" tones _n that earlier human near whose body \\X "lies. .';"'""..... V. "' ' * -'. / However, spch record as he. did un consciously leave,, well, guarded and conserved since " that . dim past \of the' stone age in the kitchen, iniddcns pt his own construction, is. an attestation' of .the early mound builders' -eststenca' which . is far more .valuable 'and ,con vincing than, written or "graven ac-. counts could\ 'possibly?* be;' to .find .a^ man's bones ; is far more .convincing of his death than. written. account of tha 1 event could be*. and," to \u25a0''unearth and' carefully examine ~,'the ; . stone ; harnmpr' which that;man,had .'with- infinite labor' and . patience- chipped^ from a and with which" he^has sahsequently crushed "the \ skull ' of "his V h'uaian ., and carnivorous." enemies,. appealV.'zaor.e <di-~ rectly and' eincere'ly thin 'could , "all" manner of speculation. "\u25a0conccrnliig ; f his" implementsof the-' kitchen or the chaae. i Excavations Scientists 5 V' \u25a0]' ', • Each direct .Bubetanttatlon rof » the; mound' buildeVs; ejrfstende! aa; it. ha 3 been heretofore" generWly-^conceived*by | anthropoloelsts : has*, been A recently 'ad- < duced' by \u25a0' two '.eminent^ Berkeleyj: scien- ; tlsts, Profeesor. TJcrhn 'C^Merriam ;" and i Dr.ilaxi.Uhle, worklri^-inithe/interesta of the ,' of ' Calif ornla.v since k1902 "Professor. 'ilerrlam ! and'.isr. *Uhle , have been, conducting:; extensive .'and' systematic; excavations In* the^ Emery- ; yllle- shell i mound '-which; \u25a0 lies ? not* far, from ; the 'outskirts '.of /Oakland.^ This . familikr . .knoll.. ihe.'dlstinguis|iips^f eat- : ore : of ; Shell "\u25a0 ilousd was \u25a0 selected I for, study and research 6ecaus«k lt;ls t one - of : the>larsest.l£nown3lshißilfmoundsi'and t ; • becaiuse : It \u25a0• is , the , best ' preservedVmound "• * on:the"coaat-' : Thejtwo)Berkeley sden- -. r tlsts have succeed^ajn pryfngff rbm* v tbe'« » anclentitcrabjtha •'Becrets^bf ; a'-f oik ; ov«r^ % 10.COO • years-^-posslbly l twice; that inum-f: i ber;Of[yearsT-nearer thei_ beginnings J Ilf a^,than Ja'rei,we «"who"i ! eazaTesribusiy j. v v upon. their, bones..;,; j^rvj >-.i^\.' ":* "' H' -\ J From | evidence ." gained ; In > these i local * .J. J eica va tf o as, ; as .vcell \\ as % from Tsimilar/ t one 3'; carried jon • the iwhole f i worldi^rlthln ; recent ; y.ears.^. science j has i i beea, abler to -restore- the clast^llnkslin v *thatj-RU2ZItnS; chain.* of ticontlau^ty £of j | human.! evolut^n^wblchjblidsjtSe^prei-^ 3 : V'€nt''perlod';with^its pTOUdienlish'tenmejiTi : ' ':' --"- " '\u25a0• "- X\ -\u25a0\u25a0--.\u25a0..•*"—"- .'\u25a0:\u25a0'-' if-s,^'M!. r ,-.»\u25a0•-.;\u25a0\u25a0, A • to' that v^othar .^ r etaoto as* r-tsfhan^tflia > • y o tin ger *\u25a0 man *no t : - aa i y « t \ reaa on i& • •or \u2666 dreamed 5 past *Btaxi*~{maA '- bbiii *»Vui * • brassi ead ? lron.V'' \u25a0;[ <'.'!•'••»?. U "^iWhatf a* wildj \u25a0'\u25a0? rinrestraiaia I age^ wk« J ; that Jblder| dnV'of ; itoael eartt'a I fires 1 were * not \u25a0 as ? deep * banked . J as \ they * & now i ara and * tti6 * kip* ioti tha * horisoa '« .w'tfrJe .*> coi"stantiy^.\tuasv.-^Tri th v'Tthosa • iomlnous.rblaelc^oad^BerpJentsl'fredlod-^ \ Ued J-at%iight »which>riataryiheW Jas-al •' cona \u25a0 tant i i menace i o verJ pygnjyCTmaii. ( the^ ; iaSiiy I frightened ; iwhen '.theVpro wlins I beasts/that ; sooight; -\ tozsl pju '/a 1 morsel *• , were i monstrous^ and% hldeocsj- and '~ara&- j; erallyJprotected^by^BklDs iofjsuctf.thlck-V, nessTtliatf the 'little .*s^Klh!u^an»"{wlth';' : his {stone J inaccv'^could » not cut?a* vital* >. wo un<l i tliougli* Ufern : »,wicti \ man\ b!ra-* fßelf'was iSKrcaiaadiniitaineilraad-'w allied • twl_^thejcn^«^f/^?r<£B^repo"u]lz^fc!i? « «p toe . e»d h Isi he ad t'iho t mrer?; t orWaird i fon >*tha i *ale3-t.| batUlsffTajad^ hnatlwff *nd i 1i 1 C^ttegglnYa^fMMcm^ljinieataKdurliig' fth«rKtoeid^"day^SaCtt^i^ht!«OTa^i^ ; ; dii« t^lxad Vnot /yety entltely -lost^ bls"tfeir aatawe^lMirins^oct'lieyoiid^tbe'clrrle • o*j Its {ciier* Into; the > primeVai* 1 nlgfe t ;hen*l<mlai^Jtl^*[pathetlc>WiaeiilnV»of ,thej'ayea-rwlileh,ltold' r of ith<*tfc'«»gfr>T»fwg^ foi f ;con.c«ni?rekafaiasP tbofetersal, ' : US'* : solved i <iuestlon3 — waa: s a barbaric ass * that! -Mankind :.was * ioi .the. -vloleat i. tiroes-; of .jjaasJas.v hat .and. asitat^d . wl;h. rhe heritage of Ceroa desires and v pas« lons T-rr-hleh. iltr was t trying to adapt , andtre^ulate- to the;new* social schema .of, co-operatiGa, .v^osa -need; it: began .<iimly ,to feel-aßd:h3sltatl2ff!y to<prac \ll&-,f '-\u25a0 i^..^ \u25a0:-\u25a0\u25a0>\u25a0 •.-;\u25a0: 1- v :\u25a0 /t J/i&e ; uewvereti 'records of j this abor - 4 i^irai ,'race speik elonuently. of a Ufa \unrurbed- and • turbulent r taplenteats «of iwarfar*- l!e scattered ia profusion ; every strauin or tha mounds. \ althoush tha inatrnd ,buiitler was not so , warlika as his coosin* of* the interior; s charred, bones raL the ilarser- mammals >arV;foond. telllns oXgrim battta fa th« i depths :of ttha forest. o:> tizelesa. pa. , tlant tracking through sloosxy } wastes. • and- of internrtnaMa waiiins bsaWs tha ijfCbntlaned ea - Next ; Fase-i