SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : 4th-Graders Join Dig of School’s Big ‘Find’

What began as a construction project turned into an impromptu history lesson when workers unearthed an assortment of Indian artifacts on the playground of San Juan Elementary School.

An assortment of 50 to 75 items, including shells, tile, fragments of bone and stone tools, were dug out of 20 holes about four feet deep, said Nick Magalousis, director of the nearby Mission San Juan Capistrano Museum, who was called to the school to help.

The artifacts were found by Capistrano Unified School District maintenance workers who were installing a patio cover last week.

“It appears to be a pretty large find,” Magalousis said. “There is a chance it could be prehistoric, meaning prior to European contact or settlement. I can’t really tell. We were just bagging things as quickly as we could.”

Magalousis, Principal Michael Hoy, a teacher and about 16 fourth-graders formed an impromptu archeological team using shovels and screens.

“It was a marvelous opportunity for the kids to see something so relevant to what they are studying,” said Jacqueline Cerra, a spokeswoman for the district. “Fourth-graders study California history so we figured this was appropriate for them.”

The students will clean, bag and label the artifacts, which will then be transported to UCLA for evaluation, Cerra said.

While some of the tools appear to be primitive enough to predate the arrival of European settlers in this historic city more than 200 years ago, it is difficult to guess just how old they are, Magalousis said.

“They can fool you,” he said. “While some of the tools were obviously used for such things as grinding corn, those tools were used by the Native Americans for a long time after the arrival of the Europeans with their metal tools because they just worked very well.”

San Juan Elementary School, which dates back to the early 1900s, is across the street from the rear entrance to the mission.