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f Ik . Ckpries Bosaixe and Dr. Richard irf tht*N**tda Slide Museum are investigating the fited Bilk Wist Jr., tnnklt it® Mt* fee M i Mf rfsga ^m M ia ^SU fa* S& agfefclttara’ &M mOn June 6, while they were digging a post-hole on m m h, Bill West and his son discovered what ip-to be some Indian remains. They immediately their find to Dr. Warren d’Azevedo, anthro-o t ist at the University evada. When he noti­the m u s e u m , Dr* d ’Asevedo was asked to take charge at Ute elte ui^i^ the mu­seum srtad^i^»Wt T%e Wests found a burial whkii coptain&ij home fiird-bone beads, 11 joints clustered at the abdotfieh of the skeleton as if they in a pouch, sev­eral and a grinding stcme which apparently had been placed on tap of the chest after the body ^1* buried. Burials are rarely found In this area. Unfortunately, even more rarely does an archaeologist see them before they have been dis­turbed. Meaningful Experts can learn a lot from the position in which objects are found. If disturbed, the remain­ing pile of bones and artifacts is much less meaningful than the same material intact. The Wests are to be commend­ed for the very responsible way they reacted to their find. Dr. d’Azevedo was particularly im­pressed by the very expert work of young Billy West, a teen-ager, whom he says “would make a good archaeologist.” The Wests left the skeleton in position. They kept tourists and vandals away, although many people tried to vis­it the site as news of the find spread. They notified responsible experts at once. “If everyone who made sum discoveries acted as the Wests have, it would be a great boon1 to science,” Dr. d’Azevedo said At the site the earth was care­fully sifted as it was removed from the burial, the location of the artifacts in relation to the bones was noted, and Dr. &&ze-vedo photographed the material. Later, Drs. S ta ler and ftosaire visited the site and began iden­tifying and interpreting the things they found. Prehistoric Dr. Rosake says the grave ap­pears to be quite old and pre­dates historical time in this area. The projectile points of basalt and obsidian appear to belong to the Martis culture; other items seem related1 to Sings Beach culture. Absolute dales have not been as­signed to these cultures, and they may have overlapped in time. Ar­ticles resembling both cultures appearing in this grave is a hint that this m ay be the case. The Honpy Lake find is also in­teresting because it indicates the cultures had a wider geographical distribution than had been estab­lished previously. Unfortunately there was no charcoal in the burial, and ra­dio- carbon dating is not posable. Although bones can be dated, they iiy is s ii mm i iW&. mM WM mm m Mm •mi m ass.m s - y ?iMi m mmi m m M m m H mm ? (M il I P # * Wsmamii ?wmmm* ? - m i mH iff BH Hi&gH&Im hhwbmm |Wj 111 wmm HP ?im, WM m Mi Ilis M ls ii msm ms. PROF. MORDV are so easily contaminated that the dating is not considered re­liable. Each find of this kind adds a I few more pieces to the puzzle or the cultures of prehistory. If all such discoveries were promptly j 4 reported to the museum or the i1 university and excavation left tojj experts, our knowledge of pre­history in Nevada would advance much more rapidly than it has so far. ^ i { n s i i HHS MSS ? cl ip•i MM Artifacts found in the burial on the West ranch. Eleven obsidian and basalt points (left), three bird bone beads (center) and a number of scrapers (right). tS-4 m