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As
a day room for the homeless, United
Nations Plaza at Civic Center near Fulton and Leavenworth Streets isn't
exactly our most glamorous spot. However, two days before Halloween in
1969, an amazing discovery was made in this vicinity when subway diggers
unearthed a 5000 year-old skeleton that would become known as BARTwoman,
the first San Franciscan. Joe Pikul found the bones 75-80 feet below Market
Street while working on an excavation crew moving land for the construction
of Civic Center station. Estimated by scientists to be around 25 years
old when she died in 3160 B.C., BARTwoman was five feet, five inches tall.
She lay in the mud for millennia while the ground above her almost-final
resting place became a bog, a marsh, and a hill, until eventually a City
was built over the grave. At the time of her discovery it was reported
that BARTwoman predated other Bay Area humans by more than a hundred years.
Experts were not able to determine the cause of BARTwoman's death. So,
why's she in the Notorious section? Because she's the ultimate skeleton
in our closet! |
