Beardsley finds surprising artifacts

photo by Manuel Hernandez

Dr. Felicia Beardsley, associate professor of anthropology, recorded the oral history of the natives in the East Pacific Islands. Beardsley was recognized in February by the United States government for finding one of the earliest known coral fish hooks. Displayed are artifacts found during her expedition: a wedge stone knife, a white shell used for wood working, a tool to grind herbs into powder and two fish hooks.

by Gloria Diaz
Assistant Editor

Associate Professor of Anthropology Felicia Beardsley recently returned from the Western Pacific Islands.

Beardsley has been a professor at the University of La Verne for two years, having taught at University of California Riverside.

She said she had been interested in archeology for the past 18 years. In archeology, she said, all professionals have their area of expertise and for the past 10 years, Beardsley's area has been the Pacific Islands.

She first became interested in the art of the world in graduate school when her professor handed her a map of Easter Island and told her to "do something with it." The map had marks around the coastline that represented locations of stone temples.

She started looking at the history of the temples and the construction of the stone features. At that point she decided to change the direction of her dissertation. Changing a dissertation means new research and more time. Beardsley still focused on archeology, but instead of going to South America she focused on the West Pacific.

To get to Easter Island, she had to "hitchhike" onto another person's project where she became the co-director. After a while she decided to start a side project of mapping the city quarries on the islands with some of the workers from the first project helping her.

While she was examining the quarries, she had acquired samples and needed to bring them back home. To do this, she sold all her clothes and put the samples in her suitcase.

"The customs agents gave me some funny looks, but they figured I was doing something scientific, so that was ok to them," Beardsley said.

On the first dig, Beardsley located the stone quarries, and examined the methods of quarrying and how they transported the rocks and raw materials.

"It's about looking at how people create the environment they live in, how they organize their space and how they modify their environment," Beardsley said. She said it was about "what they did, when, how and what kind of technology and what tools were involved in the process."

"I have always kept that basic theme, all over the Pacific," she said.

The first half of 1999 was spent in Yap, where her daughter accompanied her. She attended a school in the village after a family took her into their home.

"The people provided psychological support, they gave us food and support," Beardsley said.

Now her daughter sends school supplies to the school she attended. This past Easter, Beardsley sent candy to the family.

Most recently she traveled back to the center of the pacific to explore the island of Kosrae.

Kosrae is a small lonely volcanic island in the midst of the coral islands in the pacific. There have only been three other people who have explored the manmade island in Kosrae, she said.

"I always wondered what happened, and how that island got to be so important," Beardsley said.

In 1999 she came across a coral collapsed wall while working with a local crew whom she trained. It took them a month to clear the vegetation using machetes.

They started mapping the site and looking at what is below the surface. The wall itself encompasses a site that is larger than any of the other sites on the island. While excavating over a couple of seasons they produced dates going back to 1200 and a few as far as 1100, depending on the statistics.

They stumbled upon the greatest archeological find: fishhooks made of coral. No one had ever found anything like this before. There were some in every stage of production, from raw materials to the finished product.

"You create a scenario in your head of people sitting around the fire and talking while making fish hooks," Beardsley said.

The dig site is as big as 300 feet long and 250 feet wide. For the time she was there, she had a team of six. Once again she trained the local people that helped her.

Kosrae is a former territory of the United States, so it wasn't difficult for her to gain funding for the excavation. After WWII the United Nations turned over all the territories that belonged to Japan and the other countries that lost to the United States.

"I have worked on other islands where the WWII presence was in your face, when you go out in the field you carry the number of the ordinance disposal team to remove old bombs," Beardsley said.

In Kosrae no one had ever recorded coral fish hooks. The first thing she did was contact archeologists that had worked all over the pacific.

"I sent pictures and no one had ever seen these kinds of fishhooks," Beardsley said. "This is a new artifact for the archeology of the pacific."

Just as modest as her clothes, so is Beardsley's attitude of finding something no one else has.

"You could say that we recovered the fish hooks, not discovered them."

Since finding the fish hooks, the site has become a "type-site," which means that any coral fish hooks found will be described as relative to the site.

Beardsley has published her findings in trade journals and archeological science journals.

Another magnificent find for Beardsley was on the island of Palau where she came across painted pottery that no one had ever found before. The site was the earliest dated site on the island.

"We had to get into the burial chamber where you are trying not to panic in such a small space, and everyone else around you expects you to be the professional, because you are," described Beardsley.

"I just find the pacific islands utterly fascinating, I use the oral history of the island to understand the archeological records and fill any gaps the records may have," Beardsley said.