Mark Raymond Harrington facts for kids

Mark Raymond Harrington (born July 6, 1882 – died June 30, 1971) was an important archaeologist. He worked as the curator of archaeology at the Southwest Museum for many years (1928-1964). He is famous for finding ancient Pueblo structures in places like Overton, Nevada and Little Lake, California.

A Young Explorer

Mark Harrington grew up knowing about academic life. His father, Mark Walrod Harrington, was a professor at the University of Michigan. He taught astronomy, botany, zoology, and geology. Mark spent his childhood exploring around Ann Arbor, Michigan. He learned tribal languages from his Native American friends. When his family moved to Mount Vernon, New York, he started digging up and collecting local artifacts. This helped him develop a lifelong interest in Native American culture.

Becoming an Archaeologist

Mark Harrington had to leave school early because his father became ill. He took some of his archaeological finds to Frederic Ward Putnam. Putnam was a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Putnam hired Mark as an apprentice field archaeologist. This job helped him attend Columbia University. There, he studied with the famous anthropologist Franz Boas.

Mark earned a bachelor of science degree in 1907. He then got a Master of Arts in anthropology in 1908. That same year, he started working for George Gustav Heye. Heye was a collector of Native American artifacts. He later started the Museum of the American Indian in New York City. Mark spent three years collecting artifacts and learning about tribes in the East and Midwest for Heye. From 1911 to 1915, he was an assistant curator at the University of Pennsylvania museum.

In 1915, Mark found native Taíno villagers on eastern Cuba while doing fieldwork. Later, in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, he brought other anthropologists to study the villagers.

In 1917, Mark married Anna Alexander Johns. They had a son named Johns Heye Harrington, born in 1918. Mark worked for Heye for the next 13 years. He was an archaeologist, ethnologist, field collector, and curator. He worked in many places, including Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nevada, Texas, Cuba, and Ecuador.

Discovering Ancient Dwellings

Starting in 1925, Mark made some very important discoveries. He found ancient homes of Pueblo Indians and their ancestors, called “the Basketmakers,” in Nevada. One discovery was a group of 46 structures. The largest had 100 rooms. Mark first thought the earliest people lived there around 1500 BC. More recent studies show the artifacts are from between 500 BC and 300 BC. Some stone and adobe homes seemed to be made by Pueblo Indians. Mark also thought these were older than they were. Later studies showed they were from 700 to 1150 AD.

Anna, Mark's first wife, died in 1927. In December of that year, he married Edna L. Parker. Edna was a descendant of Handsome Lake, a famous Seneca religious leader. She was also the sister of Arthur C. Parker, an archaeologist and expert on Native Americans. Edna often helped Mark with his digs.

Working at the Southwest Museum

In 1928, Mark Harrington moved to Los Angeles. He became the curator of archaeology at the Southwest Museum. He worked there until he retired. During this time, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Occidental College. He led excavations in Los Angeles, Nevada, and other places for the museum. He returned to the Muddy River site, where he had made earlier discoveries, to do a full survey.

Restoring an Old Adobe Home

In 1930, Mark bought the old Andrés Pico Adobe. This home is also known as the Rómulo Pico Adobe or Ranchito Rómulo. It is near the San Fernando Rey Mission in the San Fernando Valley. It is one of the oldest houses in Los Angeles. Parts of the walls were still standing, but the floor, roof, stairs, and window and door frames needed rebuilding. Mark also added to the house. He put in a fireplace, rebuilt patio walls, and added a garage. He and Edna lived there for 15 years.

Excavations and Discoveries

While working on the Pico Adobe, Mark and a colleague started digging in Gypsum Cave in the Frenchman Range in Nevada. They found Basketmaker artifacts there. The archaeologist Bertha Parker, who was Mark's niece, helped with the expedition. She discovered the skull of an extinct ground sloth. Diggers also found sloth dung and other bones. Mark believed that humans and the ground sloth lived at the same time, dating them to 8500 BC. Later studies showed he was correct about the animal bones' age. However, the human artifacts were much more recent, from 900-400 BC.

His dating for another site at Tule Springs, near Las Vegas, has also been questioned. Mark found a spear point in a fire pit with ancient animal bones. He thought they were from the same time, suggesting the site was 10,000 to 25,000 years old. More recent checks have made his dating uncertain.

In 1933, Mark worked for the National Park Service under the Civilian Conservation Corps. He led a project to save as much as possible of the Pueblo Grande de Nevada archaeological site. This site is also known as Nevada's "Lost City," near Overton, Nevada. The site was going to be covered by the new Lake Mead, created by the Hoover Dam. They found 17 new sites and dug until the water was very close.

In 1947, Mark learned about an ancient site northeast of Los Angeles. It had artifacts from the Pinto Culture, which existed around 3000 BC. Mark excavated this place, called the Stahl site, for at least two years. During this time, in 1948, Edna died. He married a third time, to author Marie Toma Walsh, in 1949. Mark published his report on the Stahl site in 1957.

Mark Harrington retired from the Southwest Museum in 1964. He died in 1971 and is buried at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills.