Just a Bead

You probably wouldn’t expect something as small as the bead pictured above to be so interesting from an archaeological standpoint. The bead is a Spanish trade bead, roughly 300 years old, and it comes from a Chumash site in Rancho Sierra Vista, California:

Two tiny glass beads came as a bit of a surprise.

The National Park Service staff and volunteers excavating a small site in Rancho Sierra Vista this week expected some finds — an earth oven, cooking tools, maybe some beads to help date the site to when Chumash lived in the area.

Beads were important to the Chumash, but most were made from shell, not glass. The glass showed up when the Spanish first came to the area.

“At this point, we’re fairly confident that the site will date to the late 1700s during the initial period of Spanish colonial occupation in the area,” said Gary Brown, cultural resource program manager for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. He was three days into the weeklong dig near Newbury Park.

Finds from the period of initial contact between the Spanish and indigenous people are quite rare.

5 comments… add one
  • ... Link

    You’re really burned out on current affairs, aren’t you?

  • It’s not worth arguing about the PPACA any more. Que sera sera. I’ve already repeated my point of view on stimulating the economy, jobs, and so on so often I’m sure everybody is tired of hearing about it.

    Neither Illinois’s nor Chicago’s finances will improve on their own and the alleged political leaders certainly aren’t going to do anything about it. The hazunga will hit the fan eventually and when it does I’ll say “I told you so”.

    Syrians, Iraqis, and Afghans are still being killed in their dozens, hundreds, thousands. Nobody really cares.

    And so on. In my own defense two of my five posts today were current affairs: poll results on the generic House ballot and Comcast’s acquisition of Time-Warner. The former supports the position I’ve been taking for a while and as far as the latter goes, I’m ag’in it.

  • ... Link

    Oh, you’ve done some current affairs stuff, but there’s been a sudden explosion of archaeology posts, and you’re clearly more enthused by that than anything else.

    It’s all perfectly understandable, and please know that I’m not complaining. I’m just noting the change.

  • PD Shaw Link

    Dave shied away from the most explosive recent news in Illinois, a lawsuit was filed against one of the leading Republican challengers to the Governor six weeks before the primaries, accusing him of sexual harassment. The plaintiff is a male. The candidate is one of the few Republicans to win statewide office in recent memory. Many angles:

    Classic Illinois dirty trick (the kind that Obama benefited from, though not necessarily caused), but who is behind it? The plaintiff is a Democrat with connections, but the accused is fingering his leading opponent, a self-proclaimed outsider with connections to Rahm.

    Is it possible for a liberal newspaper to draw attention to the obvious, though theoretically irrelevant, homosexual aspect of this story without embracing the hypocrisy?

    Is it medically possible for a man to be hit on so hard by another man that spinal fluid leaks from the brain? (from the complaint) Is this caused by the plaintiff’s homophobia? Or is the candidate’s passion so intense that the objects of affection will leak brain goo?

    If a person blows the statute of limitations to bring a federal or state lawsuit for sexual harassment, can a legal team cobble together a First Amendment claim that will survive through the election? And who pays?

    Is the Republican candidate disqualified simply for hiring a Democrat in the first place? And how are Republicans officeholders expected to find non-Democrats to work in Chicago anyway?

    Does the sex scandal cloud over more serious accusations of forcing state workers to “volunteer” for their boss’s campaign? Or does everybody do it?

  • jan Link

    PD, sexual innuendos and accusations are always fertile ground for slimming or even destroying the character of a candidate. And, as you already pointed out, this was the path opened up for Obama’s political start, not once but twice.

    Coincidence?

    I don’t think so, as the democratic play book uses character assassination and personal attacks as one of it’s primary tools — something used abundantly, and with success against Romney in the 2012 election. Unfortunately, he was too much of a straight arrow for them to dig up sexual skeletons in his closet. Instead, they uncovered an old adolescent prank, exploited it, and were able to turn it into some kind of questionable homophobic act.

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