Month: March 2014

Hidden Cave Vandalized

Guided Tour of Hidden Cave archaeological site, Nevada. Source: BLM

Spray paint and bullets were used to deface Hidden Cave, a major archaeological site on BLM land in Nevada. A $1,000 reward is being offered, and public tours of the site have been suspended while officials investigate.  According to the official press release, this is the first incidence of vandalism at the site.

Hidden Cave was most extensively excavated by David Hurst Thomas and the American Museum of Natural History and provided valuable information on Late Archaic hunter-gatherers. The Museum has a nice post on the history of the cave, (conditions in the cave during excavation sound horrid) and they also make the full site report freely available.

There’s a Lamoka connection, too: Mark R. Harrington, the first archaeologist to explore Hidden Cave, was married to the sister of Arthur Parker, head of the Rochester Museum while Lamoka Lake was being excavated in the 1920s.

Race Horse to be Excavated, Reburied, by Archaeologists

Thoroughbred racehorse Native Diver, who was buried at the Hollywood Park racetrack in California after his death in 1967, is being excavated by archaeologists from the University of Southern California.  Hollywood Park closed for good at the end of 2013, and the horse’s owners wanted to ensure that all the remains were recovered safely so that Native Diver could be reburied at the Del Mar racetrack.

USC archaeology students excavate remains of thoroughbred ‘Native Diver’ at Hollywood Park

 

“Fountain of Youth” Site Artifacts to be Curated by U. Florida

Shell tools from Spanish St. Augustine, Florida

Artifacts from the early Spanish site in St. Augustine, Florida (associated with Pedro Menendez de Aviles, not Ponce de Leon) are being donated to the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.  U. Florida archaeologists have been excavating the site, and storing the artifacts, for many years, so it appears this will make the curatorial arrangement permanent, and perhaps provide a tax break for the owners of the site.

Article in the Gainesville Sun.