The site of Santee Greens aka Michagua, a Late Holocene village over 29,000 square meters, was originally radiocarbon dated in 1980 and 1981. It showed two occupation periods, AD 760 to AD 1030 and AD 1735 to AD 1890. With the help of the San Diego Archaeological Center, Dr. Stan Berryman was able to use modern C14 dating techniques on 23 charcoal samples. We now know the original dates leave something to be desired. With these “new” dates Dr. Berryman is revising our understanding of the work conducted by 40 archaeologists over a nearly three-year period. This is the story of 270 excavation units and 223,236 artifacts. Dr. Berryman hopes that ultimately this work will aid in a better understanding of the people who lived at this site. In this presentation, he will discuss a project that was conducted before there was a sub discipline of archaeology called cultural resource management, then take a look at the wide range of artifacts recovered and how they relate to and are explained by the C14 dates. He will also present a couple of projectile point styles, in particular the Dos Cabezas double side notch, that are found throughout the Western U.S. under the name Temporal. Finally, C14 dates and changes within the site will be examined. Join us for a look down this rabbit hole that has been waiting 40 years for its story to be told. This event will be held on Zoom.
