As the ancestors were laid to rest: preliminary results from the archaeobotanical analysis of burial soils from the Yukisma Site (CA-SCL-38)

Summary

This paper will be presenting the preliminary results of analyses of archaeological soils collected from within burial contexts at the Yukisma Site between 1993 and 1994. The Yukisma Site is a mounded cemetery site located in what is now Milpitas California, and was used as a burial ground from AD 540-1687. This cemetery was disturbed by construction in 1993. Over 243 individuals were recovered, and later reburied by the Muwekma Ohlone Indian Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. While the Yukisma Site was excavated as a salvage project over twenty years ago, continued analyses of site materials has yielded rich data, including isotopic and aDNA results from the ancestral remains, as well as faunal remains on site. Select samples were collected during the excavation and despite the soils having been archived for twenty years, the botanical remains have preliminarily proven to be rich and diverse. Contextual analyses of these botanical remains allow us the potential to humanize these burial events and present a possible picture of what it was like when the ancestors were laid to rest.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage