Loss of Prehistoric Burial Site ‘a Shame,’ Experts Say

News that prehistoric bones of 600 or more burials were unearthed and then reburied during an Irvine Co. project near Newport Bay is provoking surprise and concern among anthropologists and other experts.

Some call the number of burials remarkable. And some say the fact that bones were reburied without radiocarbon dating or DNA testing constitutes a loss of scientific information that could have advanced knowledge about genetics and the relationships between California’s earliest inhabitants.

“It must have been a significant site. It’s a shame it’s destroyed, and it’s even more a shame that it was destroyed without the benefit of full analysis,” Dennis Stanford, chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington said Tuesday.

“We certainly would have put our word in on preserving the site,” Stanford said.

An estimated 600 human burials and thousands of artifacts were unearthed on a 30-acre site in 1995 and 1996 during an Irvine Co. archeological excavation. The dig, which the company said cost more than $2 million, was done prior to the building of 149 luxury homes in the gated Harbor Cove community just off Jamboree Road.

Testing of shell showed that the site, known in archeological circles as ORA-64, was 4,000 to 9,500 years old, Irvine Co. archeologist Michael E. Macko said. Those dates rank the site as being among the oldest known areas of human habitation on the California coast, experts say.

“I don’t think we have any sites that have been excavated in California where 600 or more burials have been found and are of such antiquity,” said Lynn Gamble, president of the Society for California Archeology and an assistant professor of anthropology at San Diego State University. “The fact that they excavated so much yields this incredible information. But at the same time, we shouldn’t be destroying these sites.”

The state Native American Heritage Commission, which oversees the discovery of Indian remains, says that the Irvine Co. followed state law in excavating the site. Commission executive secretary Larry Myers said last week that in his experience, the Irvine Co. has involved the Native American community in such excavations, adding, “I think they’re better than most.”

But news that the dig uncovered as many as 600 burials of partial skeletons and bone fragments has created a stir among Native Americans and scientists alike. Some Native Americans say they only heard recently about the burials, while some scientists believe more testing should have been done.

The project was monitored by two Native Americans--Jim Velasques and David Belardes--who were appointed by the state commission as “most likely descendants.” The two men requested that no destructive testing of the bones be done, which ruled out radiocarbon testing and DNA testing. The bones were reburied with Native Americans officiating, the Irvine Co. said.

“We chose to honor the wishes of the Native Americans,” said Larry Thomas, Irvine Co. senior vice president for communications. Thomas added that the Harbor Cove project was reviewed by the city of Newport Beach and the state Coastal Commission, which required the Irvine Co. to conduct an excavation and issue public reports of the findings.

Sonia Johnston, a tribal leader of the Juaneno band of Mission Indians, who has spoken out against the excavation of ORA-64, said she too would not have allowed the destructive testing of bones: “These are our ancestors. These were human beings. It’s not something that I’m in favor of.”

Several experts expressed surprise at the number of burials found at ORA-64, the name bestowed on the site because it was the 64th in Orange County added to a national list of archeological sites.

“Six hundred burials from one site, if we’re talking about one site, is indeed very unusual,” said Michael A. Glassow, professor of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and an expert in California archeology.

“I would think anywhere in North America where you had 600 burials in that time frame would be incredibly important,” added Thomas R. Hester, professor of anthropology and director of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. He called the lack of DNA testing or radiocarbon dating “a tremendous loss.”

Native Americans often forbid such testing of bone, saying it is disrespectful of their ancestors. Some scientists are comparing the ORA-64 dilemma to the nationally publicized dispute over a 9,200-year-old skeleton named Kennewick Man found in 1996 along the Columbia River in Washington. Native Americans and the Army Corps of Engineers sought its reburial without extensive study, while a group of internationally known scientists--including the Smithsonian’s Stanford--have sued, seeking the rights to study the remains.

Thousands of ORA-64 artifacts are still under study, and L. Mark Raab, a professor of anthropology at Cal State Northridge, said he is intrigued by reports of round stone balls and other artifacts that appear to have links to eastern Oregon and other parts of the Great Basin.

“You put this whole thing together, and it looks like an extraordinary package of scientific information,” Raab said.

Raab said he was not aware of the extent of the ORA-64 discoveries. “I find it striking that a discovery of this magnitude could have been made, and it prompted so little awareness,” he said.

However, Thomas said that a report on ORA-64 is now being compiled by Macko to be presented at archeological forums. Macko is scheduled to present some of his findings Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Coast Archeological Society meeting at Western Digital Corp. in Irvine.

“We too believe that this is a remarkable site,” Thomas said. But before scientists begin judging the significance of the site based on newspaper stories, he said, scientific discipline would seem to require that they wait “for a thorough, formal report from one of their peers, that is in progress now.”