PAINSTAKING PROCEDURE : ARCHEOLOGISTS CAREFULLY DIG BEHIND ADOBE.

Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer

Even the dirt around the Strathearn Adobe is rich with history.

``We've found old, square-headed nails, burnt adobe, melted glass and burnt seeds and beans,'' said Tamara Whitley, one of a team of archeologists sifting through the soil in back of the adobe. ``We've also found lithic flakes associated with Chumash toolmaking.'' The stone flakes are byproducts of the process.

``This is an archeologically sensitive area, so you can't just come in with a backhoe and dig a trench,'' she said. ``Any time you put a shovel in the ground here, you find something.''

Whitley works for W&S Consulting, brought in to dig and evaluate items recovered during construction of a drainage ditch behind the adobe.

``Under the California Environmental Quality Act, builders have to go through several reviews, including an archeological one,'' said Joe Simon, who along with Tamara's husband, Dave Whitley, runs the consulting company. ``We do the digging and inspect the lands for cultural resources and archeological remains.''

Simon and Whitley's team is digging the trench - 50 feet long, 6 inches wide and 18 inches deep - inch by painstaking inch, sifting every handful of dirt through screens.

So far they've found potsherds, debris from Chumash toolmaking and remnants of the fire that destroyed an adobe room that used to stand on the spot.

``We go by levels because we want to know exactly where each piece comes from, horizontally and vertically,'' Simon said.

A Chumash Indian, Anthony Ashikiwitch Angulo - his middle name means ``spirit of the hawk'' in Chumash - works as part of the team to ensure that artifacts are properly evaluated and returned to the tribe.

``I see as it as my job to make sure that nothing gets missed,'' Angulo said as he carefully scraped away an inch of dirt. ``I keep my eyes open for every little thing.''

Some lithic flakes, shards of fused shale mined from nearby Grimes Canyon, are as small as a fingernail. The shale pieces, called debitage in archeological circles, are debris shaved off when the Chumash Indians made arrowheads and other tools, Tamara Whitley said.

Once the digging and sifting are done, Simon and his colleagues will clean, photograph, study and catalog each piece. Then the team will meet with the Simi Valley Historical Society and representatives from the Chumash tribe to discuss the value of the findings and determine where worthy pieces will be displayed.

That process will take months, Simon said.

``It's too early to tell the significance of the pieces we've found,'' he said. ``We've still got a lot of work to do.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Archeologist Tamara Whitley displays various artifacts excavated from behind the historic Strathearn Adobe in Simi Valley.

(2) Whitley uses an umbrella to beat the heat as she seeks Chumash Indian artifacts.

(3) Whitley and an assistant use the umbrella's shade as they carefully dig the narrow trench.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News