7/12 Digging up the Past

BY ROGER SIDEMAN

Naomi Scher unearthed a rusty hand sickle. Gavin Raders found a dusty beer bottle. These aspiring archaeologists are behind the Redman House’s second “groundbreaking” since it went up in 1897. This time, four 10-by-15-foot plots of land are being set up for the students to dig in.“We’ll go as far down as we can until we hit sterile,” said Rob Edwards, director of the Cabrillo College Archaeological Technology Program Summer Field School. “Sterile” refers to the first layer found with no sign of human activity.Each successively deeper layer of earth will be examined for artifacts, which could then be linked to people who lived or worked on the property.“We’re looking to see if there’s a difference in artifacts between the Japanese and Anglo-American residencies,” said Raders, an anthropology major at the University of California, Berkeley.Raders said he hopes to someday use the experience to go on a dig in Peru. Most of the 25 students are undergraduates from community colleges around the state. Others include college graduates working on associate’s degrees to help land them careers in the field.The program replicates the job training they’ll need to become cultural resource consultants, Edwards said.“We’re trying to give the students the real tools to keep jobs,” he said.Under state and federal environmental laws, all new building projects may require consultants to show that construction would not disturb “heritage sites” such as native burial grounds.Edwards was not sure whether the students would find anything “especially Japanese,” he said.The Redman family sold the house in the 1930s to the prominent Japanese Hirahara family, who lived in the house until the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake ravaged its foundation, making it uninhabitable.“Chinese people had certain cultural patterns, but the Japanese were more adaptable, more assimilated,” Edwards said. The point of the dig, he said, is for students to do the hands-on work that will teach them the basics of archaeological investigation, which include learning various field study techniques such as how to record, store, analyze and report archaeological findings.After the fieldwork ends, analysis of materials from the site will take place over the next year.Local couple Pat and Rowland Rebele are underwriting part of the staffing for the fieldwork and will provide funding for the analysis of the artifacts. Some of the students will stay at the Red Roof Inn in Watsonville with a special discount from owner Chuck Allen.The public will be invited to stop by the house next week when a special tent is set up to provide background information on the house and the dig. Tours will be offered.