PORT ANGELES – Remains found Tuesday afternoon at the Port Angeles International Gateway Transportation Center construction site are animal bones, according to three archaeologists and Lower Elwha Klallam tribal officials.
But all work will remain suspended at the downtown site until more archaeological work is done on the nature and extent of the bone fragments and the context of where they were uncovered.
City Manager Mark Madsen said the animal bones had obviously been sawed with a bonesaw.
The archaeologists didn’t date or otherwise classify the bones and the nature of the site remains to be seen, he said.
The remains were found at the absolutely lowest level of excavation, about 14-16 feet below street level.
“So are they hitting mudflats or fill material?” Madsen said.
The discovery evokes memories of other similar finds, the most recent being at Beckett Point in Jefferson County in May.
Construction on a $2.8 million community septic system and drain field was halted there after remains thought to be Native American were found.
In December 2004, construction was halted on a state Department of Transportation graving yard site on Marine Drive in Port Angeles after human remains and artifacts were unearthed from the Klallam village of Tse-whit-zen.
