Previous Story
NMC club screens archaeological deposits
|
Posted on Dec 09 2005
To expedite the construction of the Northern Marianas College Marine and Environmental Sciences Center, community volunteers and student members held a screening of soil piles dug up from the prospective site in Pau Pau in Marpi.
The NMC volunteers started the analysis and screening in the last few weeks of November. According to NMC’s weekly update the NMC Ecology/Marine Biology Club also worked for four hours to screen six large soil piles unearthed in Pau Pau construction site. The soil piles were dug up as part of the column footings’ excavations for the new Pau Pau Marine/Environmental Sciences Center.
NMC said the screening was part of the suggestion of the CNMI Historic Preservation Office to hasten the center’s construction in full compliance with HPO permit conditions for the center’s earthmoving and erosion control permit.
“The screening resulted in the discovery of a good number of ancient artifacts, including human bones, pottery, sling stones, shaped cutting instruments, charcoal deposits, and shells from an ancient cooking area,” read the NMC weekly update.
Bone fragments included part of a lower jaw, part of a knee, and part of a leg or arm bone, species of shells included giant clams, conches and turbans were analyzed during the screening.
A quarter of an inch of mesh or finer size and approximately 54 cubic feet of soil were screened. The activity was part of the club’s ongoing fundraising activities for the development of the center.
With the federal grant funding and the ongoing support from the CNMI’s Workforce Investment Agency, NMC’s Vocational Instructor Lino Santos is leading the project’s construction.
“The human bones will undergo more thorough analysis and will eventually be reburied at or near the site. The remaining artifacts will become part of a permanent interpretive display at the Center, highlighting the use of our island’s coastlines by the original Chamorro inhabitants.”
