YEAR IN REVIEW 2000: ARCHAEOLOGY

Western Hemisphere. Recent archaeological discoveries continued in 1999 to shed light on the first Americans and pre-Columbian civilizations and also on more recent American history. In regard to the latter, English colonist Mistress Ann Forest, wife of Thomas Forest, arrived at Jamestown, Va., in 1608 with her husband but died within a year. She and her maid were the only two women at Jamestown in the first years of the settlement's existence. The foundations of the original triangular Jamestown fort were discovered in 1996. Subsequently, archaeologist William Kelso located remains that he was sure were those of Mistress Forest, for the skeleton is that of a woman buried in an elaborate coffin, a sure sign of high social standing. Forest was only about 1.4 m (4 ft 8 in) tall and about 35 years old when she died. A computed tomograph (CT) scan of the poorly preserved skull allowed sculptor-anthropologist Sharon Long to make a clay and plaster model of Forest's appearance. As of 1999 the complex story of relationships between Europeans and Native Americans was still little understood, but archaeology was playing an important role in deciphering this aspect of American history. A mass grave of 52 people, found during the building of an oil refinery in Carson, Calif., bore testimony to the violence of some early years. The cemetery was dated to between 1510 and 1685 and was associated with local Gabrielino Indians. Whereas some of the bodies were buried carefully, many others were thrown hastily into their graves. Two people were missing their hands and another his arms and legs, as if they had been punished or drawn and quartered, a European practice of the day. The cemetery also yielded glass trade beads from Italy and a European clay pipe fragment. When Hernn Corts encountered the Aztecs of Mexico, they still revered the abandoned city of Teotihuacn (located 48 km northeast of Mexico City), one of the largest cities in the world during its heyday in the 6th century AD. They believed that their world originated on the summit of the Pyramid of the Sun in the heart of Teotihuacn. A team of American and Mexican archaeologists recently investigated the nearby Pyramid of the Moon, which stands at the head of the Avenue of the Dead, bisecting the city. They found not only evidence of four important substructures but also the edge of a complex of human burials dating to about AD 150. One man had been buried seated and facing south. His hands were tied behind his back, and he lay to the side of the burial complex, which suggested he was an important sacrificial victim, perhaps killed at the dedication of a monument or to celebrate a ruler. More than 150 artifacts surrounded the skeleton, among them fine clay vessels, jade, figurines, obsidian (volcanic glass) blades, and jadeite ear spools. Several hawks and two jaguars had been buried alive in cages near the victim. As a result of these discoveries, the excavators believed they had a good chance of finding nearby the undisturbed burial of one of Teotihuacn's powerful but unknown rulers. Spectacular Mayan discoveries continued to chronicle this most remarkable of pre-Columbian civilizations. Archaeologists Alfonso Morales and Christopher Powell probed the acropolis of the city of Palenque, which flourished from about AD 379 to 799. They used ground-penetrating radar to locate anomalies atop a pyramid named temple XX. Excavation soon revealed a grave capstone. Inside was a chamber painted with murals, including an image of a celestial lightning god. Eleven intact clay vessels and numerous jade fragments were scattered on the room's floor. Stabilization and clearance of the tomb was expected to take many months. Nearby, another temple mound, XIX, yielded a support pier 3.7 m (12 ft) high and a bench or platform carved with an image of Lord Kinich Ahkal Mo'Nab, who ruled Palenque from 721 to 764. A perfectly preserved inscription of more than 200 glyphs revealed that the ruler was the incarnation of an important primordial Mayan god. Epigrapher David Stuart calls this inscription, with its account of mythological history before the birth of Palenque's three patron gods, one of the most important Mayan inscriptions to be discovered in years. It demonstrated the close relationships between Mayan kings and the founding gods of their city. Evidence of very early human occupation continued to be reported from sites in the eastern United States, among them the Topper site near Allendale, Va. The site had previously revealed side-notched stone points dating back to as early as 11,000 years ago. Excavator Albert Goodyear concluded that this was an occupation of the Clovis culture. Recently, he excavated below the Clovis level and unearthed a scatter of stone flakes, small blades, a pile of chert pebbles, and four possible hammerstones underneath a sterile layer. This was either a slightly earlier Clovis level or an occupation dating back to before 13,000 years ago, to the very earliest settlement of North America. Meanwhile, excavators at the Paulina Lake site, near Bend, Ore., located what may be the earliest known Native American dwelling in North America, radiocarbon-dated to about 7400 BC. A thick layer of ash and pumice from an eruption of nearby Mt. Mazama in about 5600 BC covered a hearth, living floors cleared of rock, stone tools, and food remains. Large wooden posts enclosed an oval area about 4 5 m (13 17 ft) that was once the site of a tepee-like dwelling with a roof of woven grass, reed mats, or hides. Trace element analyses of the obsidian fragments found on the site revealed that the people were moving south from the Fort Rock area about 100 km (60 mi) north, probably in the spring, to stay at the lake site for weeks and possibly even months. Anthropologist Johann Reinhard had spent his career searching for Inca sites high in the Andes Mountains in Peru. In 1995 he discovered the well-preserved body of a young girl, subsequently nicknamed Juanita, who had been sacrificed high on Mt. Nevada Ampato. During 1999 he discovered the perfectly preserved bodies of two girls and a boy on the summit of a 6,700-m (22,000-ft) volcano named Llullaillaco, in northwestern Argentina. Bundled in fine textiles, the victims had been sacrificed to mountain gods five centuries ago. Rich offerings of cloth, clay pots containing dried meat, and 36 small gold, silver, and shell statues of humans and llamas were laid out carefully with the bodies. CT scans showed that the frozen bodies were so well preserved that their internal organs were intact. One girl's body had been slightly damaged by lightning. The other's head had been deliberately deformed into a conical shape and adorned with a white-feathered headdress. In April Argentine archaeologists discovered the mummy of a baby in a cave 3,600 m (11,800 ft) above sea level in northwestern Argentina. Wrapped in leather and straw, the mummy had been well preserved by the dry climate and was estimated to be between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. Brian Fagan