The Matalan were an Ohlone tribe occupying the Santa Clara valley between the towns of Coyote and Morgan Hill.
Albany Hill4 bedrock mortars and rich midden on the northeast side of Albany Hill near Cerrito Creek.Elevation 24 ft.There was an Ohlone settlement here. In addition to the shell middens at this site (Nelson’s 1909 map shows four), there were two on Point Isabel, which was once just offshore of Albany Hill.One of Nelson’s four […]
Alvarado Park2 bedrock mortars, 275+ cupules, 2 PCNs, and midden behind gazebo.This chlorite blueschist outcropping on Wildcat Creek has more cupules on it than any other we know of in the Bay Area. Was it just the blueschist found here and on Baxter Creek that attracted cuple-makers, or was something else at work?Jim and Heather […]
Canyon Trail Park Petroglyph Boulder20+ bedrock mortars and 175+ cupules on one chlorite blueschist boulder.Elevation 141 ft.CA-CCO-152This rock is in Canyon Trail Park on a branch of Baxter Creek. Baxter Creek flows into the Bay near Stege, a long-vanished neighborhood on the old shoreline of San Francisco Bay, northwest of Albany hill. Some of the […]
El Sobrante La HondaMidden and probable village site.Elevation 134 ft.Joel strikes again.The house probably sits on top of a village site, perhaps one those along San Pablo Creek marked on Sherburne Cook’s map of East Bay Indian villages.Midden soil.
El Sobrante LibraryVillage site and shellmoundElevation 95 ft.Another one of Joel’s discoveries.The library was constructed right on top of a major village site, but you’d never know it.Midden soil.
Lake Anza, east side10 bedrock mortars.We’re quite a ways up Wildcat Creek here on a little ridge above Lake Anza.
Mira Vista Park10 bedrock mortars and 60+ cupules on a chlorite blueschist boulder near Baxter Creek.Elevation 116 ft.See Canyon Trail Petroglyphs for more details about cupule petroglyphs. Also see Cupule Petroglyphs in the Diablo Range by E. Breck Parkman in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 254-55 (1986). […]
Pinole Shores ShellmoundElevation 16 ft.Dave turned us on to this mound. Keep up the good work Dave!Perhaps this mound is best described as a “shell heap”. It’s spread all over the top of the spit.We’ve identified Ostrea lurida (Olympia oyster), Mytilus californianus (California mussel), and Mytilus edulis (blue mussel) at this site.Photographs by Bob Bardell.
Whittell Marsh ShellmoundNear the tip of Point Pinole.Elevation 7 ft.N. C. Nelson counted 425 shellmounds in his seminal article “Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region,” University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 7, No. 4, Putnam and Kroeber editors, The University Press, 1909. Very few can be seen today. This is […]
Wildcat Creek4 bedrock mortars and 5 anvils or shallow mortarsElevation 267 ft.Thanks to John for directing us to this site.The mortar rock sits next to a beautiful poolOne of the bedrock mortars. The underlying rock here is blueschist.Bob straddles the mortar pictured above.
