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The Cerutti Mastodon Site Reinterpreted with Reference to Freeway Construction Plans and Methods PaleoAmerica A journal of early human migration and dispersal ISSN: 2055-5563 (Print) 2055-5571 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ypal20 The Cerutti Mastodon Site Reinterpreted with Reference to Freeway Construction Plans and Methods Patrick M. Ferrell To cite this article: Patrick M. Ferrell (2019): The Cerutti Mastodon Site Reinterpreted with Reference to Freeway Construction Plans and Methods, PaleoAmerica, DOI: 10.1080/20555563.2019.1589663 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2019.1589663 Published online: 22 Mar 2019. Submit your article to this journal View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ypal20 PALEOAMERICA Center for the Study of the First Americans https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2019.1589663 Texas A&M University RESEARCH REPORT The Cerutti Mastodon Site Reinterpreted with Reference to Freeway Construction Plans and Methods* Patrick M. Ferrell Independent Scholar ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The Cerutti Mastodon (CM) site has been claimed as evidence for human presence in North America Cerutti Mastodon; California 130,000 years ago. Damage to mastodon bones at an active construction site was attributed to State Route 54; alternative ancient human activity. Damage by modern construction equipment was not cited as a possible interpretation; bone damage; cause. Through reference to a freeway right-of-way map and construction plans, contemporary freeway construction road building practices, and work site photographs available on the Internet, this paper concludes that freeway construction was responsible for the damage. 1. Note on sources Reo Drive over crossing. Before construction, the area was a hilly ridge paralleling the new freeway. At about This paper cites sources beyond the necessary publi- 350 feet east of the CM site the ridge blended with the cations that presented the original work (Holen et al. local topography (State of California, Department of 2017), and the challenging and supporting papers it Transportation n.d.a). At station 230 + 00 the site was inspired. It uses construction plans and a right-of-way covered by about 9 feet (State of California, Department map personally obtained from the San Diego Caltrans of Transportation n.d.c) of sediments generally described district 11 headquarters office, and information from as “unnamed Pleistocene stream deposits” (Deméré, Cer- internet websites. The internet citations are of two utti, and Majors 1995,1)(Figure 1). types: civil engineering equipment and construction spe- cifications, as well as Cerutti Mastodon (CM) site photo- graphs made by the San Diego Natural History Museum. 3. Construction plan and methods The photographs were apparently released as part of the “press kit” offered on the date of the announcement of The freeway construction plan calls for grading the area the Nature letter, and at the time of this writing were of the CM site to form a 10-foot-wide access way/buffer no longer available as downloads of said “press kit” zone along the northern right-of-way line, and a sound from the museum’s website. The references offered as berm to the south of that (State of California, Depart- photograph sources are cited for that purpose only. ment of Transportation n.d.b). Grading is the action of Most are popular web-based scientific news publications. sculpting the earth surface in the project zone, as one The authorship of articles is sometimes not given. Since would in the clay sculpting of a statue; removing material websites are ephemeral in nature, the dates they were from one point to another to conform to the planed sur- observed are given. They may not still be available. face configuration, termed “grade.” The sound berm is For reasons of clarity, this paper uses the measure- an embankment between the residential tract to the ment units that were specified in original sources: feet north, and the freeway. It is designed to shield those in reference to the construction plan, and meters in refer- homes from traffic noise. A structural cross section of ence to the CM site excavation. the sound berm at station 230 + 00 joins the access way 10 feet south of the right-of-way line at plan elevation 151.00 feet, then rises toward the freeway at a slope 2. The site location and topography ratio of 2 feet horizontally to 1 feet vertically (2:1) to The Cerutti Mastodon site is in San Diego County, Cali- elevation 158.00 feet, then goes a variable distance hori- fornia, abutting the northerly right-of-way line of State zontally, before plunging at a 2:1 slope to the freeway Route 54 between stations 230 + 00 and 230 + 50 location (State of California, Department of Transpor- (Deméré, Cerutti, and Majors 1995, 22), east of the tation n.d.c)(Figure 2). CONTACT Patrick M. Ferrell [email protected] *Review and acceptance of this manuscript was managed by Reid Ferring, Department of Geography and the Environment, North Texas University. © 2019 Center for the Study of the First Americans 2 P. M. FERRELL Figure 1 Cerutti Mastodon site location map in San Diego, California. Notes: C combined with L, center line; Dr. Sys., drainage system; R/W, right-of-way; St. Rte., State Route; W/B, west bound. Figure 2 Structural cross section of the sound berm at station 230 + 00. Notes: 2:1, slope ratio; el., elevation in feet above sea level; R/W, right-of-way; var., variable dimension. In the area of the CM site, this construction was done access way to blindly end there (Personal observation, using a Caterpillar 235C excavator (Holen et al. 2017, 4-10-2018). Access to the area between the right-of- methods). It worked from the top of the ridge digging way line and the berm during construction could only out material from south of the right-of-way line to form be made from about 350 feet to the east of the CM the access way and sound berm (Holen et al. 2018, 1). site where the ridge flattened out. Considering the slop- The excavator is a huge backhoe. It can reach out 39.4 ing terrain and the narrowness of the workspace, the feet and dig down 26.4 feet from ground level (RITCHIE most practical way of removing the excavated dirt Specs n.d.). It works by reaching out and scooping dirt would be to back dump trucks in from the east, fill back toward itself. It can rotate in a horizontal plane to them, and drive out to the east. The work, progressing dump material onto the ground, or into a dump truck from east to west, would necessitate the trucks repeat- for haul off. The bucket most likely used for this scooping edly crossing the CM site in two directions as work pro- would have been the 54-inch wide general duty bucket. It ceeded to the west end. The near proximity of has a capacity of 2.62 cubic yards, and could fill a 5-cubic residences would also require the use of a water truck yard dump truck with two scoops (Caterpillar n.d.). to spray the area regularly for dust control, keeping The berm originates about 800 feet west of the CM the sediments moist between the right of way and the site by joining the existing high ground causing the sound berm. PALEOAMERICA 3 When that work was done, construction of drainage n.d.a), which was developed about 20 years before the system 21 (State of California, Department of Transpor- cited grading. tation n.d.c) could begin. This is at station 230 + 00, at The tract was graded to conform to the the west end of the CM site. As can be seen in a photo general topography of the area with some slight of the CM site excavation (Haaretz 2017), this work modification to the above-mentioned ridge. These required the breaching of the sound berm for access of modifications did not directly disturb the CM site the drainpipe, construction of a drop inlet catch basin (State of California, Department of Transportation at the toe of the northerly slope of the sound berm, n.d.c). and the burying of a drainpipe down the south slope to Commonly this sort of grading turns up cobbles, join the rest of the drainage along the freeway. Materials which can be an impediment to later construction. for the construction of the catch basin seem to have been If they are not too numerous, they are brought to the site and placed at the base of the sound collected and deposited in areas on the site where berm, east of its location, as shown in another photo of they will not be a bother, such as along a boundary the CM excavation (San Diego Community Newspaper with an undeveloped freeway project. Evidence, Group 2017). The presence of the materials probably which may suggest that this happened at the CM accounts for the lack of excavation in the north part of site, is provided in a photograph of a bulldozer grid units H, I, J, K, L, and M (Holen et al. 2017, figure filling in the site after excavation was completed 1). At this point in construction the bones in the CM (Zimmer 2017). site were discovered, and controlled hand-excavation Stones can be seen to the left of the blade of the began (Holen et al. 2017, methods). A photograph bulldozer, along the fence between them and the taken from the top of the sound berm just east of drai- adjoining yard to the east. They were near station nage system 21 shows the site early during the CM exca- 230 + 65 ± and have been recently observed and photo- vation (Popular Archaeology 2017).
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