News Scrapbook 1974-1975

OURNAL Thlll'lday. July 18, 117' 15 cents per copy

Del Mar Solana Beach Rancho Santa Fe

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J.thone 459-4201

Vol. LXII No. Z-4

man's past

·;cientists delve-literally-into local

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Terri Briden and Prof. James Moriarity of La Jolla work at the site of 'Del Mar Man,' oldest known inhabitant of the New World The archeological dig is on the City of Del Mar's Bluffs Preserve. (Staff photo by Steve Zimmerman) More pl'lotos on Page 9. A Del Mar dig intO man's past Hy I.OLA SHERM Scientists set up a fenced camp on u bluff overlooking the Pacific Friday, the fence went up to

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protect the site. Over the weekend, students and other volunteers under the direction of Prof. James Moriarity of La Jolla, professor at , University of San Diego, began the laborious work of sifting the grains of sand. They're just north of the mouth of the San Dieguito River. ot to long ago, the bluffs site was proposed for a maJor apartment project. James Scripps, a sometimes Del Mar resident, through the Scripps Foundation, put up $125,000 to help the city buy the bluffs for a natural pre erve. City officials trod the exact site of the archeological dig when they visited the new park and when they erected the sign identifying it. The dig is just below that rustic sign. The bluff itself has suffered quite a bit of erosion since 1929, as pictures from the museum attest. Archeologists have promised the city they'll restore the site to its before - the - dig ~tate once they're through. In the meantime, they'll explain their work and offer visitors a short tour. Two University of San Diego students , Brian Smith and Richard Coyer, and Patricia Helfman, a biologist at UCSD, comprise the managing search team Work willbe carried on from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m daily The skull is on view at the Museum of Man in Balboa Park, San Diego.

Ocean la 'l weekend in hopes of finding some clue to life almost 50,000 years ago. They' re digging at the site of the "Del Mar Man," oldest known inhab1tanl of the Western Hemisphere. Del Mar M n, a new name, was di cover d 45 years ago but wa n't consider d all that significant. The late Malcolm J , Rogers, then an cheologist for the San Diego tuseum of Man. tound Del Mar Man's skull eroding out of the face of a cliff. Three years earlier, some bones had been unearthed by a steam hovel filling a lagoon for the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in La Jolla Shores. Scientists figured the remains were about 20,000 years old - no big thing at that time. Last May, along came Jeffrey L. Bada of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and his new method of dating bones from the presence of ammo-acid molecules. He discovered that the bones found in La Jolla and Del Mar were 48,000 years old •· more than twice the age of any other authentically verified dates for mankind in the New WQ,ld. The museum, owner of the skull, g?t Del .Mar's permission to dig on city-owned property, the Bluffs Reserve.

Then and now. The bluffs north of the mouth of the San Dieguito River looked like the photo above left in 1929 when the late Malcolm J. Rogers, then an archeologist for the Museum of Man, found a skull skull protruding from an eroding cliff. Today, left, center, the erosion has continued to a point where a large scoop seems to have been cut from the bluffside. Pictures are courtesy of the Museum, which has started a new dig on the site because that skull now has been dated at 48,000 years ago and is the earliest known evidence of man in the New World. Right, workmen put up a fence to protect the new digs. Left bottom, Terri Briden and Kimball Banks sift the sand for artifacts. Right bottom, Prof. James Moriarity of University of San Diego, head of the dig, confers with volunteers Angela Keffala and Barbara Weber. Other photos by Steve Zimmerman and Lola Sherman. San Dieguito Scene