Archeology Orange County

Nothing prepared the diggers for the strange and beautiful artifacts--the beads, mysterious stone spheres and decorated clay cylinders--buried in the bluff top above Newport Bay. Then they started unearthing bones. Hundreds of human bones. Arm bones. Leg bones. Teeth. Bone fragments. Parts of human skulls. Still, the excavation crews pushed on, quietly dismantling--some say destroying--one of the oldest and most important archeological sites on the California coast.

To most people, a piece of broken glass in the dirt is nothing more than yesterday's trash. To Nick Magalousis, it can be a tiny window into history. There's plenty of broken glass just below the surface where one of Orange County's most powerful families once reigned over an agricultural empire that stretched from the mountains to the ocean.

It looks like an ancient pyramid half buried in the sands of time. A huge concrete structure with 16-foot-thick ceilings and 6-foot-thick walls, it has stood as a massive gray monument to a bygone era. Now in the process of being demolished, it is yielding archeological treasures just as any real pyramid would. Instead of hieroglyphics, however, modern-day archeologists have been trekking here every day to study . . . graffiti .

A judge Wednesday declined to require a new environmental study for a controversial Huntington Beach construction site where workers recently found human bone fragments believed to be those of prehistoric Native Americans. Orange County Superior Court Judge William McDonald denied a request by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust that the study be ordered in light of last month's archeological find at the proposed site of 16 homes on the mesa overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Scientists say they have made significant discoveries among at least 3,000 fossils dug up in this area, including previously unidentified species of whales, crabs and fish. The fossils, experts say, are 10 million to 15 million years old and confirm theories that the shoreline once extended from inland Camp Pendleton northeast to Chino and that Southern California once was a region of tropical temperatures.

Burning sage and wearing black armbands, a group of Native Americans gathered outside a gated community on Sunday to honor ancient people who lived here as long as 9,500 years ago and whose bones were uncovered by development. The All Souls' Day ceremony was part protest, part memorial service as about 70 Indians and supporters expressed outrage that 600 or more prehistoric burials were moved in 1995 and 1996 to make way for an Irvine Co.

One of the biggest disasters in Orange County history became an unexpected boon to archeologists when it was found recently that the fire that destroyed hundreds of homes also uncovered prehistoric artifacts in Crystal Cove State Park that may be up to 9,000 years old. The fire burned off dense vegetation that had grown over a handful of cave-like rock shelters and overhangs that prehistoric people had hollowed into hillsides of what is now the inland section of the state park.

North American Indians always have held close spiritual ties with their ancestors. So when charges surface that human remains and religious artifacts from sacred Indian burial grounds have been unearthed by developers and tossed in a scrap heap, kin groups and tribal elders go on the warpath. "We believe the remains of our people are sacred," says Vera Rocha, chairwoman of the Gabrieleno Indian Tribe, whose ancestors once occupied the hilly lands near Newport Beach.

The centuries-old mystery surrounding a small, dark cave could threaten the future of a $1.26-billion toll-road project. For 362 days a year, the little cavern along the Eastern Transportation Corridor in the western foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains looks like a hundred other insignificant holes in the steep rocks. But for three days each December, local Native Americans say, a strange event occurs there that makes it a spiritual nexus. During the winter solstice Dec.

From its 6-foot jaw to its wrist bones, a 4-million-year-old whale skeleton unearthed on a hillside here is being hailed as the most complete, well-preserved specimen of its kind ever discovered, excited paleontologists said Tuesday. "This is probably the best whale skeleton ever found. Ever, anywhere, period," said Steve Conkling, a paleontologist who works for the county. "There are things preserved on this specimen I've never seen preserved even on modern whales."

A judge Wednesday declined to require a new environmental study for a Huntington Beach construction site where workers recently found human bone fragments believed to be those of prehistoric Native Americans. Orange County Superior Court Judge William McDonald denied the Bolsa Chica Land Trust's request that the study be ordered in light of last month's find at the proposed site of 16 homes on the mesa overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Workers digging a drainage ditch for a new business complex in San Juan Capistrano stopped work on Tuesday after finding bones from a 200- to 500-year-old American Indian man. The remains are recent in archeological terms and there is no evidence of other bones or artifacts nearby that would disrupt construction, said work site archeological monitor Steve Dennis.

County supervisors Tuesday approved a three-year contract with Cal State Fullerton anthropologists to sort and catalog hundreds of artifacts and bones that have languished in an overcrowded warehouse. "This is exciting," said Karon Kaelin, a university spokeswoman. "We can get started right away, though we need to get a key [to the warehouse]. Then we will put the facility into working order."

A judge Wednesday ordered a hearing next month that could lead to a new environmental study at a Huntington Beach construction site where ancient bones were found last week. Orange County Superior Court Judge William McDonald set a Sept. 8 hearing to determine if discovery of human remains on a 6-acre site overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands requires a full environmental review.

Ancient human remains have been found at a development site on the Bolsa Chica mesa, adding to the furor over the controversial housing project. Skeletal fragments were unearthed last week during grading at a 6-acre site where homes are planned on a bluff overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Activists monitoring the project say they are concerned that an entire burial ground may have been destroyed.

Ancient human remains have been found at a development site on the Bolsa Chica mesa, adding to the furor over the controversial housing project. Skeletal fragments were unearthed last week during grading at a six-acre site where homes are planned on a bluff overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Archeologists who have been monitoring the project are concerned that an entire burial ground may have been destroyed.

News that prehistoric bones of 600 or more burials were unearthed and then reburied during an Irvine Co. project near Newport Bay is provoking surprise and concern among anthropologists and other experts. Some call the number of burials remarkable. And some say the fact that bones were reburied without radiocarbon dating or DNA testing constitutes a loss of scientific information that could have advanced knowledge about genetics and the relationships between California's earliest inhabitants.

Finally dealing with thousands of artifacts and bones languishing in a warehouse, Orange County supervisors on Tuesday picked Cal State Fullerton to sort and display fossils found over the years during housing, highway and other construction. A Cal State Fullerton faculty group would take charge of million-year-old whale bones and other treasures that have filled to overflowing a shabby, metal-walled warehouse behind barbed wire in Santa Ana.

Archeological remains found at Bartlett Park will probably bury the city's ambitious development plans for the site. In a report due later this month, a city consultant will propose dramatically scaling back the initial designs because rare seashells discovered in April suggest it was once a Native American gathering place.