The abalone shell is more than 200 years old.
Red abalone, for their meat and colorful shells, were sought after for centuries by the Chumash along the California coast. The meat provided nutrients while the shells turned into jewelry, bowls and more. A UCSB anthropology team has discovered a 200—year old abalone shell at La Purisima Mission State Historic Park in Lompoc.
“We had no idea how big it was and slowly, as we started getting deeper and deeper into the sidewall, we realized how massive it was,” UCSB doctoral student Kaitlin Brown said. The shell was about four feet below ground at the site of Chumas “family apartments” at the park. The abalone was a gem among all the mussels Ms. Brown and her team have found, but it wasn’t the only thing of interest that the team has uncovered.
“The stuff being found behind the apartments is really interesting, too,” said Ms. Brown, “because there are a lot of shell beads and shell bead—making detritus, so the Chumash, even in 1813, are still making beads here.”
As for the abalone shell, Ms. Brown believes that its placement was no accident.
“After we excavated the whole abalone out, I handed it over to the Native monitor, passing the abalone that appeared to be deliberately placed by a Mission resident a few hundred years ago into the hands of a Chumash tribal descendant.”
The hands that received the shell belong to tribal descendant Gina Mosqueda—Lucas of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. Ms. Mosqueda—Lucas’s role in the excavation is to ensure that artifacts — whether they are shells or beads — come out of the ground with respect. Archaeologists around the world sometimes receive backlash for extracting artifacts without taking into consideration the items’ cultural importance. The UCSB team, according to Ms. Mosqueda—Lucas, has been maneuvering well the ethical side of excavation. She described Ms. Brown and her team as a “great group of students” who are “very respectful of the culture.”
“They’re always asking questions about language, about these items that are coming out of the ground, the things that they’re finding. They ask for the purposes within the culture — what they’re used for. So they’re really good at asking questions, and not just pulling artifacts out of the ground.”
The culturally—aware approach is deliberate for Ms. Brown, who is teaching the field class that takes place at Lompoc’s park.
The main thing that she says she is trying to teach is “how important it is these days to really work with the local community…It’s not just about digging up the past; it’s really about what we’re calling attention to in the present.”
And folks will get to see the presentation at UCSB. With the excavation completed, Ms. Brown and her students must now inspect the data they have collected. The team will share their findings in October at the Society for California Archaeology’s annual data—sharing gathering at UCSB’s Sedgwick Reserve, 3566 Brinkerhoff Ave. in Santa Ynez.