Arlington Springs Man

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Arlington Springs Man [nb 1] was a Paleo-Indian [1] whose remains were found in 1959 on Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands located off the coast of Southern California. He lived about 13,000 years BP, making him possibly the earliest dated person in North America, [nb 2] and an important scientific discovery because his presence on the island at this early date supports a coastal migration theory for the peopling of the Americas. [4] [1] In 2022, after a NAGPRA request, Arlington Springs Man was repatriated to the Santa Ynez Band of the Chumash Indians for reburial according to their native customs at an undisclosed location.

Contents

History

In 1959, the socialite and philanthropist Kitty Harvey, granddaughter of Fred Harvey and heir of the Fred Harvey Company, funded an archaeology expedition to the Channel Islands. [5] It was under the leadership of Phil C. Orr, curator of anthropology and paleontology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, who had been prospecting the steep bluffs of Arlington Canyon annually since 1946. [5] [6] Orr was in the canyon at a location called Arlington Springs, where according to his memoir he was "working" - scientists who knew Orr reported his jeep had become stuck and they were actually working to extract it. [7] [6] At this point, Orr looked up the canyon wall and noticed what he thought was a femur bone eroding from a cut bank, later determined to be about 37 feet deep from the surface. [6] Orr understood that at this depth it was probably a very old bone. [6] He pointed it out to his associates who didn't think it was important and kept working, but according to Orr, without his insistence to investigate further, they probably would have passed it by. [6] In this way the discovery was notable, according to Orr, for being so improbable. [6]

Along with the femur several other human bones were found, which were radio carbon dated to 10,000 years BP using the relatively primitive dating technology available at the time. The area was once marshy and the man had died on the edge of a ciénega, a type of marsh common in the region. [6] According to Orr's original paper the man may have died accidentally. [8] Orr named him Arlington Springs Man, wrapped the bones in plaster, and stored them at the museum where they sat undisturbed and largely overlooked for the next 30 years. [7]

Arlington Springs Man was later re-examined in 1989 by Orr's successors at the museum, John R. Johnson and Don Morris. Newer radiocarbon dating technology determined the remains were actually as old as 13,000 years BP, [9] making him the earliest dated (adult) individual in North America. [10] It was also determined the bones were from a female. The moniker was changed to Arlington Springs Woman, [11] but after more time and study, in 2006 Johnson reversed his assessment, concluding that the remains were more likely those of a man. [12] Author Stephen Fried noted that Kitty Harvey probably would have been delighted by the gender controversy because she was herself openly gay. [5]

Habitat

Arlington Springs Man lived on Pleistocene-epoch Santa Rosae island. The weather was much cooler and the sea level was 150 feet (46 m) lower than today. During the last ice age, the four northern Channel Islands were held together as the one mega-island of Santa Rosae. [4] At the time the island was inhabited by Pygmy mammoths, which it is supposed the Arlington Man's people hunted, because at the same time full-sized Columbian mammoths were being hunted elsewhere in North America. [7] The coastal regions of the island, which Paleo-Indians likely inhabited, has since been inundated by sea-level rise, meaning the location of Arlington Canyon was in the interior miles from the coast. [7]

His presence on an island at such an early date demonstrates that the earliest Paleoindians had watercraft capable of crossing the Santa Barbara Channel, and lends credence to a coastal migration theory for the peopling of the Americas, using boats to travel south from Siberia and Alaska. [1] [7]

Six more field seasons have taken place between 1994 and 2008. No new human bones have been found, but chert microflakes derived from sharpening stone tools were discovered in the same soil layer that contained Arlington Man's bones, along with discoveries about other flora and fauna. [7]

Custody and reburial

Arlington Springs Man was held by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History from the time of discovery until 2022. [7] In April 2022, under the federal law Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Arlington Springs Man was repatriated to the Santa Ynez Band of the Chumash Indians. [13] The claim was made by the tribe in October 2021, along with a request to return other tribal items held by the museum. [13] NAGPRA protects Indian remains from disrespectful treatment, such as storage in labs, museums, and private collections. [14] According to the museum president, they were "honored to care for this important cultural heritage for many years and now find it deeply satisfying [to] transfer custody back to the Chumash community". [13] According to a leader of the Santa Ynez Band, "These items have come home to our tribe, and it allows us to do the important work of repatriation and reburial." [13]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ His historical name is unknown. A moniker was invented as a means of identification. Arlington Springs Man follows the practice of naming a discovery after the place it was found.
  2. ↑ "Scientists have found only about 50 skeletons of such antiquity, most of them fragmentary. Any new find can thus add crucial insight into the ongoing mystery of who first colonized the New World." [2] "Remains of no more than 50 individuals have been found that can be said with confidence the predate 9,000 years BP." [3]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Johnson, John R. "Arlington Man". Channel Islands. National Park Service. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Lemonick, Michael D.; Dorfman, Andrew (March 13, 2006). "Who Were the First Americans?" (PDF). Time . Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  3. ↑ Chatters, James C. (2014). "Chapter 4: Wild-Type Colonizers and High Levels of Violence among Paleoamericans". In Allen, Mark W.; Jones, Terry L. (eds.). Violence and Warfare Among Hunter-Gatherers. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press. p. 71. ISBN   9781611329391.
  4. 1 2 Miller, Mark James (September 13, 2020). "Arlington Springs Man, the oldest human fossil found in North America". Santa Maria Times. Archived from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Fried, Stephen (2010). Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West. New York: Bantam. pp.  266-267, 396. ISBN   978-0553804379.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Orr, Phil C. (1968). Prehistory of Santa Rosa Island. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. pp.  52-53, 91.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Johnson, John R.; Lathim, Rod (2017). "The Arlington Springs Man". West of the West Education Website.
  8. ↑ Orr, Phil C. (1962). "Arlington Springs Man". Science. 135 (3499): 219. Bibcode:1962Sci...135..219O. doi:10.1126/science.135.3499.219. PMID   14482348.
  9. ↑ Glassow, Michael A., ed. (2015) [2010]. "Channel Islands National Park: Archaeological Overview and Assessment" (PDF). Department of the Interior . Retrieved 2024-02-20.
  10. ↑ Polokavic, Gary (11 April 1999). "Channel Island Woman's Bones May Rewrite History". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Arlington Springs Woman biography". Who2. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  12. ↑ Chawkins, Steve (11 September 2006). "Ancient Bones Belonged to a Man – Probably". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Feraday, Caroline (May 6, 2022). "Museum returns Chumash remains and objects". KCLU-FM .
  14. ↑ Gulliford, Andrew (February 28, 2010). "Bones of Contention: The Repatriation of Native American Human Remains". The Public Historian . 18 (4). University of California Press. The Smithsonian Institution alone had 18,600 American Indian remains. Indians are further dehumanized by being exhibited alongside mastodons and dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. No other issue has touched a more sensitive chord than these disrespectful nineteenth-century collecting practices.

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