Brickyard origins

Archaeologists will look to the contours of the land and the construction of our modern fixtures as a throughline to the past. Humans have a tendency to repurpose the infrastructure of prior communitie, and we mold our environments onto the patterns of the past. The hill before you, the centerpiece of Brickyard Cove, did not form through forces of nature. Like the shellmounds, it is a remnant of past habitation. Unlike the shellmound, however, it is literally a trash-heap midden. In this spot and further toward the Berkeley marina are the sites of two former landfills. Much of the refuse at this particular landfill was masonry rubble and bricks from the 9,000 buildings that were demolished during construction of the Bart line through West Berkeley and Oakland in the 1960s. You are witness to a strange succession of events. Across earth, we have the life stories of plants and animals and humans woven together. Ecosystems grow and transform as species arrive and vanish, climates change, and disturbances rock the landscape. The story of the people who have lived here—stories of urban renewal and gentrification, immigration and emigration, political discontent and the burried legacy of genocide, continue to tear apart and reassemble the pieces of this place. At this spot, a landfill has been reclaimed by hikers, cyclists, and wildlife after years of environmental advocacy. Even still, you may find bits of broken brick, fragments of worn glass, and chips of china that have been rolled by the tidewater or pushed up by the tunneling of gophers and ground squirrels.