Research Party at the Museum!

Steve O'Neil and Randy West
discussing the hunting mask. 

-Education Coordinator

What a wonderful day out here at the museum! We had Dr. Alan Garfinkel, founder and director of the California Rock Art Foundation and Principle Archaeologist for UltraSystems Environmental, Inc, and Steve O'Neil, the cultural resource manager for UltraSystems, out to study our Kumeyaay hunting mask. Along with them came Randy West, who donated the mask to the museum in 2015. The mask had been found by Randy's great grandfather in the 1920s. This mask is the only one of it's kind in the world.

Alan and Educator Coordinator
looking at the Childer's Collection.

While here, Alan and Steve, along with our staff, began to examine the artifacts from the Childers Collection. This collection came from local archaeologist Morlin Childers, and had been unavailable for study for around 30 years. While going through the collection, Alan was able to identify a collection of points, including a limace point, which is estimated to be between 7000 - 11,000 years old.

The limace point, dating back
7,000 - 11,000 years ago. 

He spent his evening with us as well, giving a presentation on the importance of bighorn sheep in ceremonies, and in his discussion, he talked about a ceremonial mask that is made from the horns of the sheep. It, like our own mask, is a one of a kind, and is on display at a museum in Utah.