Arlington Springs Man
Arlington Springs ManTemplate:Refn was an ancient Paleoindian,<ref name="Johnson" /> most likely a man,<ref name=":0" /> 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 Before Present, making him the earliest dated adult in North America.Template:Refn<ref name="Polokavic" /> It was an important scientific discovery because his presence on the island at this early date supports the coastal migration theory for the peopling of the Americas.<ref name="Miller" /><ref name="Johnson" /> In 2022, after a NAGPRA request, Arlington Springs Man was repatriated to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians for reburial according to their native customs.
HistoryEdit
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.<ref name="Fried">Template:Cite book </ref> 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.<ref name="Fried" /><ref name="Orr 1968" /> Orr and his associates were 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.<ref name="Johnson 2017" /><ref name="Orr 1968" /> 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.<ref name="Orr 1968" /> Orr understood that at this depth it was probably a very old bone.<ref name="Orr 1968" /> 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.<ref name="Orr 1968" /> In this way the discovery was notable, according to Orr, for being so improbable.<ref name="Orr 1968" />
Two femur and other unidentified bone fragments bones were found.<ref>J. R. Johnson, T. W. Stafford Jr., H. O. Ajie, D. P. Morris, Arlington Springs Revisited. in Proceedings of the Fifth California Islands Symposium (Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2002), pp. 541–545.</ref> The bones were radiocarbon dated to 10,000 years Before Present, 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.<ref name="Orr 1968">Template:Cite book</ref> According to Orr's original paper the man may have died accidentally.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name="Johnson 2017" />
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 Before Present,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> making him the earliest dated (adult) individual in North America.<ref name="Polokavic">Template:Cite news</ref> It was also determined the bones were from a female. The moniker was changed to Arlington Springs Woman,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but after more time and study, in 2006 Johnson reversed his assessment, concluding that the remains were more likely those of a man.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Author Stephen Fried noted that Kitty Harvey probably would have been delighted by the gender controversy because she was herself openly gay.<ref name="Fried" />
HabitatEdit
Arlington Springs Man lived on Pleistocene-epoch Santa Rosae island. The weather was much cooler and the sea level was Template:Convert lower than today. During the last ice age, the four northern Channel Islands were held together as the one mega-island of Santa Rosae.<ref name="Miller">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="Johnson 2017" /> 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.<ref name="Johnson 2017" />
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.<ref name="Johnson">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Johnson 2017" />
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.<ref name="Johnson 2017" />
Custody and reburialEdit
Arlington Springs Man's remains were held by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History from the time of discovery in 1959.<ref name="Johnson 2017">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In April 2022, under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), his remains were repatriated to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians.<ref name="Feraday" /> The claim was made by the tribe in October 2021, along with a request to return other Chumash items held by the museum.<ref name="Feraday" /> NAGPRA requires that Native American remains held in labs, museums, and private collections be repatriated to Native tribes if requested.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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".<ref name="Feraday" /> Tribal Chair Kenneth Kahn stated that "These items have come home to our tribe, and it allows us to do the important work of repatriation and reburial."<ref name="Feraday">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Buhl Woman – (Human remains)
- Calico Early Man Site – (Archeological site)
- Cueva de las Manos – (Cave paintings)
- Fort Rock Cave – (Archeological site)
- Kennewick Man – (Human remains)
- Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi – (Human remains)
- List of unsolved deaths
- Marmes Rockshelter – (Archeological site)
- Naia (skeleton) – (Human remains)
- Paisley Caves – (Archeological site)
- Peñon woman – (Human remains)
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- NPS.gov: Channel Islands National Park — Arlington Man
- About.com: Arlington Springs Site Template:Webarchive
- Journal from The Center for the Study of the First Americans: "The Mammoth Trumpet" — Volume 21, Number 4 September 2006.
Template:Pre-Columbian North America Template:Populations of Native California Groups Template:Cultural areas of indigenous North Americans