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SUNNY Temp: 59 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Friday, August 29, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine Joy Magazine Tempo A & E RogueValleyAutoFinder RogueValleyHomeFinder Real Estate Showcase Wellness Connection Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Employment Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend July 6, 2003 Archaeology graduate student Nicole Norris looks over a marked spot in a former Indian seasonal village site where a grinding stone discovered just months ago has since been taken. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Stolen history The theft of artifacts from an American Indian site in the Green Springs is the latest in an alarming increase in looting in Southern Oregon’s archaeological areas By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune GREEN SPRINGS — A hole in the ground the size of a basketball tells the story. "This was where a grinding stone for processing plants was — now it’s gone," said Mark Tveskov, professor of anthropology at Southern Oregon University. Tveskov made the observation while overseeing a dozen students in SOU’s annual archaeological field school mapping out the site of what was a American Indian seasonal encampment in the Green Springs area on Thursday. In the Bureau of Land Management’s Medford District, the site of roughly seven acres was an important meeting and trading point for Takelma, Klamath and Shasta Indians for countless generations, according to Tveskov and BLM archaeologists. Advertisement Scanning the surface, the students used small red flags mounted on metal rods to mark places where obsidian and other stone flakes forged by ancient human hands were found. Unfortunately, larger pieces like the grinding stone found during a brief survey last year that were still there earlier this spring, have been taken by illegal pot hunters. "When the economy takes a dive, this kind of looting seems to increase," explained Ann Ramage, the BLM’s district archaeologist. "They sell it on eBay and the Internet." Because of the potential for more illegal digging, officials asked that the exact location not be disclosed. Under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, which put more teeth into the Antiquities Act of 1906, it is illegal to gather or dig artifacts on federal land without a permit. But with the vast district covering some 900,000 acres, it’s impossible to protect the countless archaeological sites, particularly those not yet officially mapped, Ramage will tell you. Although this site may have been known by some pot hunters for decades, it was "discovered" by Ashland resident Christian Solfisburg during an outing with his young daughter four years ago. Solfisburg, who had studied anthropology in his native Chicago a dozen years ago, saw an obsidian projectile point on the surface. "With further reconnaissance, just walking around, I noticed other lithics (stone artifacts) scattered on the ground," he recalled, adding that he then notified Tveskov. He later helped BLM archaeologists make a preliminary survey of the site. Now back in college, he was a member of the archaeological field school this past week. But two mortars found and mapped during the preliminary survey are no longer there. "It’s pretty apparent much this site has been picked over in the last couple of years," Tveskov said as he pointed out an excavated spot in the trees beyond the meadow. Looking like an old sunken grave, the site had apparently been dug with pick and shovel by pot hunters in years past. A few obsidian flakes remain along the edge. The problem with illegal pot hunting, in addition to its cultural destruction, is that it takes artifacts out of context, he said. "There is a huge amount of history here," he said. "What you’ve got to envision is generation after generation of people coming up here, having their special spot, not unlike people coming up to the Greens Springs area today. "That results in a huge archaeological site over thousands of years," he added. "The cumulative effect is dispersed deposits of artifacts over a large area." Archaeologists liken the summer camp somewhat to a pre-history version of tent camping. Both spiritual relationships and the local economy would be closely tied to the site, he observed. But it was the likely interaction between tribes that makes the site particularly important to the scientific community. Each nation would have spoken different languages but would have been able to communicate in the common Chinook jargon, Tveskov said. For a moment, Tveskov wondered aloud how the site would have looked when it was occupied by native people. "The way I see this place a couple of hundred years ago is a meadow complex — they would have burned the landscape to maintain the open meadow," he said. "That made it a good place to gather plants like blue camas and tarweed that was important for native people for thousands of years. "People in the meadow would be interacting with each other as families," he added. "What makes this site different in my mind is that it was part of a huge trade network," interjected BLM archaeologist Amy Sobiech. "We can see that by the documentation of the obsidian here." Obsidian can be traced to its origins through its chemical makeup, she noted. "This was probably a summer meeting place for the Takelma, Shasta and the Klamath," Ramage agreed. "It was a place to come, trade and visit relatives." They could dig blue camas root, gather huckleberries, pick wild strawberries, hunt deer or elk, fish the nearby stream, she said. Nicole Norris, a graduate archaeology student who has worked with Tveskov at several prehistoric sites in the region, noted the basalt outcropping in the meadow. "That really piques my interest," she said. "This is the type of basalt that was used in this region to make tools: knives, points, bowls, mortars and pestles. "And there is great basket material over there in the marsh with cattails and thrushes," she added. "This would have been a great spot." A lone witness to this summer camp of long ago would have been a huge fir tree several hundred years old towering over the area. "It would have come to a fairly sharp crashing halt in the 1850s when the reservation period began," Tveskov said of the site’s use. Within half a dozen miles as the raven flies is the Applegate Trail which settlers followed to pour into the region a 150 years ago. The goal now is to map out the extent of the summer camp, including sites where families lived, Ramage said. "We’d like to determine how many generations stayed here," Ramage said. "My gut feeling is that it was several thousand years." That estimate is based on projectile points and other stone tools that have popped up in the area, she said. Anyone with an interest in archaeology is encouraged to participate in the district’s new site stewardship program this year, Sobiech said. Volunteers will help keep an eye on sites that have been looted in the past, but won’t confront pot hunters, she said. "Their mission is to go out and monitor these sites," she said, noting that helps protect the sites while giving people an appreciation for prehistory. While hunting arrowheads was once seen by some as a benign family hobby, its impact on the archaeological landscape has not been benign, Tveskov stressed. "And it seems much more like commercial operations," he said. "People are coming in and mining places for artifacts to sell. There can be a fairly big market for these kinds of things." He knows of what he speaks. "I was working on a site last summer that had been badly looted when this guy pulls up in a car and says, ‘I’ll give you $200 for every arrowhead you’ve got,’ " Tveskov said. What the fellow received at no charge was a lecture on destroying a cultural site. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Rogue Valley Auto Finder Rogue Valley Job Finder --> Rogue Valley Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times