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<< Other Photo Pages >> West Berkeley Shell Mound - Artificial Mound in United States in The West

Submitted by AKFisher on Saturday, 06 January 2024  Page Views: 154

Multi-periodSite Name: West Berkeley Shell Mound Alternative Name: Berkeley Shellmound
Country: United States
NOTE: This site is 27.025 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: The West Type: Artificial Mound
Nearest Town: Berkeley, CA
Latitude: 37.867970N  Longitude: 122.3018W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
Destroyed Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
2 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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External Links:

West Berkeley Shell Mound
West Berkeley Shell Mound submitted by AKFisher : Berkeley shell mound demonstration. Photo credit: Brooke Anderson on X. (Vote or comment on this photo)
The West Berkeley Shellmound, located in West Berkeley, California, sits at the site of the earliest known habitation in the San Francisco Bay Area. The shellmound (also often referred to as a midden) was used for both burials and ceremonial purposes, and was a repository for shells, ritual objects, and ceremonial items. Recent proposals for development on the site were stalled for years by the City of Berkeley and local Indigenous activists and organizations,

Most notably Corrina Gould. The California Court of Appeal found on April 20, 2021 that these delays were legally unjustifiable and that there was no evidence of a historic structure that would be disturbed by the development and that the project could proceed.[5]

History:
The shellmound sits within the territory of the Chochenyo people, a division of the indigenous Ohlone people. Carbon dating puts the earliest additions to the shellmound at about 3,700 B.C.E, with continuous additions from a village at the site until 800 C.E.[6] At that point, the village relocated nearby, but the mound maintained ongoing ceremonial purposes, including as a burial site. While the portions of the mound that were aboveground, reportedly 300 feet long and thirty feet high, were removed by white inhabitants between the years of 1853 and 1910 and used to build roads and for other commercial purposes.

There are no remaining portions of the village, but a parking lot located at 1900 Fourth Street is within the three-block landmarked area and was proposed for a park and memorial center.[6] In 2000 the Berkeley City Council named the three-block area an historic landmark,[7] and in September, 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation declared the site as one of the 11 “most endangered historic places” in the United States.[8]

The discovery of two sets of ancient human remains situated outside of the previously-established boundaries of the shellmound during construction at 1919 Fourth Street has prompted calls to re-designate the borders of the shellmound.[9]

Protection efforts:
A developer with plans to build a mixed-use 260-unit apartment complex with 130 of those units designated as low-income housing under Senate Bill 35 was delayed from 2018 to 2021 by the City of Berkeley, motivated in part by the activism of local activists who intervened in the lawsuit including Corrina Gould, a local Lisjan Ohlone leader, and organizations including the Coalition to Save the West Berkeley Shellmound and Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC).[6][4] On April 20, 2021, a three-justice panel of the California Court of Appeal unanimously declared in a 70-page opinion that after almost 20 years of investigation and years of litigation, "[t]here is no evidence in the record that the Shellmound is now present on the project site in a state that could reasonably be viewed as an existing structure, nor even remnants recognizable as part of a structure." The Court therefore held that "[t]here is no evidence in the record of a structure that could be demolished by appellant’s project." Although there were numerous allegations that the parking lot was a burial place, there was no proof of that.[5]

The City of Berkeley and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan sought review from the California Supreme Court of the order allowing the development to proceed, but only one, rather than the required four, Justices considered the case appropriate for further review, so the appellate decision allowing the development to proceed became law.[10]

It is listed as a Berkeley Landmark (228) by the city since 2000.[1]. Source: Wikipedia.

References
1. "List of Designated City Landmarks, Structures of Merit & Historic Districts" (PDF). City of Berkeley. January 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 30, 2023.
2. "Berkeley Landmarks :: The Shellmound". berkeleyheritage.com. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
3. Staff, Amber Tang | Senior (2019-10-24). "Judge rules against developers in West Berkeley Shellmound lawsuit". The Daily Californian. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
4. "Judge rules for Berkeley in developer's lawsuit over Spenger's parking lot". Berkeleyside. 2019-10-23. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
5. "Ruegg & Ellsworth et al. v. City Of Berkeley et al., Confederated Villages Of Lisjan et al" (PDF). Courts.ca.gov. April 20, 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
6. Brandon, Elissaveta M. "Eleven Historic Places in America That Desperately Need Saving". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
7. WOLLENBERG, CHARLES (2008). Berkeley: A City in History (1 ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25307-0. JSTOR 10.1525/j.ctt1ppx83.
8. Rudman, Taylor (2020-09-25). "West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site named 1 of 11 most endangered historic sites in US". The Daily Californian. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
9. Dinkelspiel, Frances (2016-05-11). "Second West Berkeley human remains discovery prompts call to re-examine shellmound boundaries". Berkeleyside. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
10. "Ruegg & Ellsworth V. City Of Berkeley (Confederated Villages Of Lisjan)". California Courts, Appellate Court Case Information. May 28, 2021.

References:
Wikipedia ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Berkeley_Shellmound
Berkeley Landmarks (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Berkeley_Landmarks_in_Berkeley,_California
Berkeley Heritage:
berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/shellmound.html

Directions:
From downtown Berkeley via University Ave., 1.7 mi.
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