Ron,
If I recall, Davie published the China Lake data in her book called "Ancient Californians: Rancholabrean Hunters of the Mojave Lakes Country." It was published by the Los Angeles Natural History Museum in 1978. It has been a few years since I have read it, and certainly more years since Judy and I edited her galley proofs, so I could be mistaken about the data presented in that publication. I do remember the worn flakes we found during that excavation, the result of sandblasting. I recently found a few photos from that project, amazing how neither of us had gray hair back then.
Stan Berryman
MCB Camp Pendleton
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ron
May
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 1:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: da vinci code & archaeology
Tim,
The case to which I referred in the discussion of old academics squashing new
ideas had to do with Emma Lou Davis's investigation of China Lake (Mohave
Desert, California) between 1970 and 1979. I believe the year we dug the trench
through the mound would have been 1973. I personally used a rock hammer and
marlin spike to chip through the cemented lacustrine layers that sealed the camel
bones. My recollection is the femurs exhibited spiral breakage and that we
kept finding small, chalky white, marble-like balls that Emma Lou had us put in
a coffee can. We also found some water-worn obsidian flakes (could have been
basalt, it was a while ago ye know). We carefully mapped, photographed, and
recovered those pieces that were not embedded in the sidewalls. We then reburied
the trench (dropping shiny 1973 U.S. cent pennies to mark our visit). Emma Lou
packed us out around 5:00 pm (we had been there since 5:00 am) and we drove
home (a 5-hour trip to San Diego).
Emma Lou had a Werner Gren grant and matched it with her own money. She first
tried to radiocarbon date the camel bone, but no organics survived (ancient
marrow extraction did not help). When I visited her lab, she would show letters
from Werner Gren and, I think SAA, who expressed interest in publishing her
data. When the C14 failed, she sent camel bone and the coffee can of chalky
white balls to a lab for Uranium Thorium dating. I was there when the guy
telephoned to say, "Davy (her nick-name), we ran UT dates on the calcium carbonate
that formed on those little rocks. What should we do with the rocks?" Emma Lou
replied, "Rocks...what rocks?" To which the fellow replied, "tiny flat rocks
with sharp edges that were inside the chalky white balls." A few weeks later,
she received a package and inside that a box of tiny stone flakes (from the UT
job). For all the world, they looked (to me) just like small percussion flakes.
I recall Emma Lou had a number of telephone calls from the Friends of the
Pliestocene, Scotty McNeish, for example. When she got a letter with the UT date
of about 20,000 years, she put a field report together and shipped it off to
Werner Gren. They refused to publish it, as did SAA. Emma Lou expressed
anguish, frustration, and anger, but it was to no avail.
I am assuming all her artifacts, field notes, photographs, and other data are
reposing in the Matarango Museum in the Mohave Desert. She died in 1988
without ever publishing that field report. Of course, it was not Werner Gren who
squashed her publication. I expect you know the folks who decided what could be
published back in those days.
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
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