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Mass Grave of ‘Prodigal Sons’ in California Poses Prehistoric Mystery
Western Digs ^ | October 17,2013 | Blake de Pastino

Posted on 10/19/2013 6:21:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

New research has turned up some perplexing clues in a prehistoric mystery: the fate of three men found in a mass grave in California, their bodies riddled with arrow points and dumped in a pit some 560 years ago.

Their violent deaths came at a tumultuous time in Central California, archaeologists say, as bands were vying brutally for territory and resources.

Indeed, the archaeological record from the period is rife with evidence of hand-to-hand combat: fractured skulls, broken arms, even body parts taken as trophies.

But the new clues, uncovered by anthropologists at the University of California Davis, don’t have anything to do with who killed the men, or why. Instead, they’re shedding light on where the men were from.

And the results -- revealed in the chemistry of the victims’ teeth and bones -- show that they were something like prodigal sons: born and raised in the same region where they were buried, but having spent most of their adult lives far away.

Unlike the Lost Son of the Biblical parable, however, these men were not feted when they returned. Instead, they were killed...

The victims were first discovered by a farmer in 1964, buried in a mound on a floodplain of the Sacramento River in Yolo County, about 100 kilometers northeast of San Francisco.

Anthropologists called in from Davis found four bodies in the pit and excavated three of them. The men had been interred in mass-grave fashion, without being placed in a traditional, flexed position and without any grave goods.

And all of them had suffered obvious physical trauma: Each had at least three, and in one case as many as seven, loose arrow points still in his rib cage; and in two of the men, obsidian points were still embedded in their spines.

(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: california; godsgravesglyphs; obsidian; precolumbian
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A digitized image shows the positions of three 15th-century men found in a mass grave in central California. (Courtesy Jelmer Eerkens)

A digitized image shows the positions of three 15th-century men found in a mass grave in central California. (Courtesy Jelmer Eerkens)

1 posted on 10/19/2013 6:21:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

2 posted on 10/19/2013 6:22:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: SunkenCiv

***Indeed, the archaeological record from the period is rife with evidence of hand-to-hand combat: fractured skulls, broken arms, even body parts taken as trophies. ***

Bunkum. Everyone knows the pre Colombian period was all paradise on earth! Any lib will tell you that life here was a bed of roses till the evil white man showed up.

Sarc/off

http://www.dickshovel.com/scalp.html


3 posted on 10/19/2013 6:33:05 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: SunkenCiv

***obsidian points were still embedded in their spines.***

Well at least the condors didn’t get poisoned by lead!


4 posted on 10/19/2013 6:35:07 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: SunkenCiv

This is interesting. Thanks for posting.


5 posted on 10/19/2013 6:41:03 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Liberty Valance

My pleasure. These three dead guys probably could have gone for a different outcome though. ;’)


6 posted on 10/19/2013 6:43:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: SunkenCiv

“Their bodies riddled with arrow points”

San Francisco.......a history of men getting the shaft.


7 posted on 10/19/2013 6:46:14 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SunkenCiv
B T T T ! ! ! ©

8 posted on 10/19/2013 6:47:19 PM PDT by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: blueunicorn6

Assault bows no doubt.


9 posted on 10/19/2013 6:51:21 PM PDT by DirtyPigpen (Semper Fi)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
Bunkum. Everyone knows the pre Colombian period was all paradise on earth! Any lib will tell you that life here was a bed of roses till the evil white man showed up

Don't forget the liberal fairy tale of the "noble" savage, one with the earth and nature...like in Avatar...!

10 posted on 10/19/2013 6:53:56 PM PDT by Popman (Liberal wars are about killing people for humanitarian reasons...)
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To: Popman

So, it must have been the Amish who don them in.


11 posted on 10/19/2013 7:12:25 PM PDT by This I Wonder32460
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To: SunkenCiv
...some 560 years ago...

Just shows the brutality of the European invaders.
Wait. What?

12 posted on 10/19/2013 7:16:29 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: SunkenCiv

These may be early Pelosians, who met an untimely death when they first suggested that “We will just have to pass it to see what’s in it,” while trying to take over leadership of the local tribe. Early politics.


13 posted on 10/19/2013 7:27:57 PM PDT by Avid Coug
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To: SunkenCiv

If Obama’s ancestor had three primordial prodigal sons pushed into a 15th century pit grave...


14 posted on 10/19/2013 8:19:40 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: SunkenCiv
The men had been interred in mass-grave fashion, without being placed in a traditional, flexed position and without any grave goods. And all of them had suffered obvious physical trauma

Obamacare through the ages.

15 posted on 10/19/2013 8:27:19 PM PDT by Ezekiel (The Obama-nation began with the Inauguration of Desolation.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

“Everyone knows the pre Colombian period was all paradise on earth! Any lib will tell you that life here was a bed of roses till the evil white man showed up.”

libtards want no knowledge of history because it interferes with their skittle-pooping unicorn fantasy of what the world is like.

The “native Americans” were members of primitive tribes. They committed atrocities on each other regularly. It still happens today on the reservations although now it is often fueled by alcohol and drugs and never talked about in the LSM. There never was a “noble savage”.

The European settlers of the time were pretty hard-ass because they had to be. It was survival of the fittest and they also committed atrocities. Now most of their descendants are metrosexuals.

It is what it is.


16 posted on 10/19/2013 11:02:11 PM PDT by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED)
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To: SunkenCiv

The 15th Century is “pre-historic”?


17 posted on 10/19/2013 11:58:53 PM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: SunkenCiv

OUTLAW Bow and Arrows!!!! lol


18 posted on 10/20/2013 12:09:20 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: An.American.Expatriate

Any period before writing arrives in a culture is prehistoric.


19 posted on 10/20/2013 5:54:48 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I question anyone calling anything north of San Francisco “Central Callifornia”. I could be central east to west, but Central California is generally known as the San Joaquin Valley, far south of Yolo. Sacramento, and environs, is known as “North Valley”.

Otherwise, this is fascinating.


20 posted on 10/20/2013 6:07:59 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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