Baranof Island is an island in the northern Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, in Alaska. The name "Baranof" was given to the island in 1805 by Imperial Russian Navy captain U. F. Lisianski in honor of Alexander Andreyevich Baranov.  It was called Sheet'-ká X'áat'l (often expressed simply as "Shee") by the native Tlingit people.  It is the smallest of the ABC islands of Alaska. The indigenous group native to the island, the Tlingit, named the island Shee Atika. Baranof island is home to a diverse ecosystem, which made it a prime location for the fur trading company, the Russian American Company. Russian occupation in Baranof Island impacted not only the indigenous population as well as the ecology of the island, but also led to the United States' current ownership over the land.

Geography

The island has a land area of , which is slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. It measures  by  at its longest point and perpendicular widest point, respectively.  It has a shoreline of .  Baranof Island hosts Peak 5390, the highest mountain in the Alexander Archipelago, and is the eighth largest island by area in Alaska, the tenth largest island in the United States, and the 137th largest island in the world.  Its center is near .  Most of the island lies within the limits of Tongass National Forest. A large part has been officially designated as the South Baranof Wilderness. A little bay called Ommaney Bay is located on the south end of the island. The escort carrier  bears its name.

Wildlife
Baranof Island is home to a diverse ecosystem, mainly containing land and ocean mammals. The most notable species include brown bears, Sitka black tailed deer, sea otters, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, mountain goats, and humpback whales. Steller, the prominent species of sea lions in the area, use the southern tip of Baranof Island as a breeding ground. This led to the area becoming a protected part of Alaska's Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, as one of five sea lion breeding areas in Southeast Alaska.

A recent decline in the mountain goat population of Baranof Island has led researchers to monitor the population, in order to determine the best means of increasing population numbers. Originally, it was believed no mountain goats were native to the island, and mountain goats were actually imported into Baranof island from neighboring islands. Through research it was found that there may have been an indigenous species of mountain goat to Baranof Island, as the mountain goats prominent today can be traced back to two different lineages.

Sea otters and fur trading
Sea otters have had a fluctuating population on and near Baranof Island since the colonization of the island by Russian explorers, as the mammal's population became largely protected due to its likelihood of being hunted into extinction. At the start of colonization of Baranof Island and other Russian-Alaskan territories, sea otter pelts were demanded from indigenous tribes as tribute for the new Russian settlers. Because sea otters solely rely on their fur for warmth rather than a layer of fat like many other aquatic mammals, their fur is particularly dense. The fur quickly became popular in China, and were often described as luxurious and extremely soft. The demand for sea otter pelts was so strong that sea otter fur established the Russian-Alaskan economy, but also extremely diminished the sea otter population on and surrounding Baranof Island.

After the United States had purchased the territory known as Russian Alaska, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, and the United States all signed the International Fur Seal Treaty in 1911, pledging an end to the sale of sea otter fur. Since then, other marine and environmental protection efforts have continued to prohibit the sale of sea otter fur including the 1972 United States Marine Mammal Protection Act, as well as the Endangered Species Act in 1977. Each environmental protection against the sale and hunt of sea otters and their furs, allows for Alaskan indigenous hunting. Only specific groups of Alaskan native ethnic groups that currently dwell in Alaska are permitted to hunt and use sea otters for subsistence uses as well as for the creation of indigenous group articles.

History

The first European settlement on the island was established in 1799 by Alexander Baranov, the chief manager and first governor of the Russian-American Company for whom the island and Archipelago are named. The island was the center of Russian activity in North America during the period from 1804 to 1867 and was the headquarters of the Russian fur-trading interest. The fur trading consisted of mainly sea otter pelts, fur seal pelts, and fox pelts, but it was mainly sea otter pelts that were obtained from Baranof Island.

As with many of its previously colonized territories, the Russian government instated a tribute system wherein the heads of Indigenous groups were responsible for paying Russian tribute collectors. Because it is difficult to trap sea otters and Tlingit men, the men of the Indigenous group to Baranof Island, had become skilled at doing so, the Russians chose sea otter pelts as the item of tribute. This secured labor allowed the Russians to establish the Russian-American Company. The Russian American Company was responsible for the governing of Baranof Island and all of Russian Alaska, including the indigenous group, the Tlingits. The Company remained profitable until sea otter and other hunted mammals had their populations severely diminished, and the company could no longer rely on the sale of pelts for profit. During this time, Russia was forced to surrender its war efforts against France and Britain in the Crimean War, which led to significant financial strains for the Russian government. Thus, the Russian Tsar sold the entire territory of Russian-Alaska to the United States government in 1867. The United States government was eager to expand and create a rapport with Russia, so Alaska was purchased at an approximate cost of two cents per acre, or $7.2 million exactly.

Around 1900, Baranof Island was subject to many small-scale mining ventures, especially centered on Sitka and on the north side of the island around Rodman Bay.  Canneries, whaling stations, and fox farms were established on Baranof Island and smaller islands around it, though most had been abandoned by the beginning of World War II.  The remains of these outposts are still evident, though most exist in a dilapidated condition.

In February 1924 the Alaska Territorial Game Commission hired Charlie Raatakainen to transplant mainland goats from near Juneau to Bear Mountain.  Raatakainen hired a group of Finns aboard his boat the Pelican to complete the job, though one of the group died in the process.

The 1939 Slattery Report on Alaskan development identified the island as one of the areas where new settlements would be established through immigration.  This plan was never implemented.

Communities

The population of the island was 8,532 at the 2000 census.

Almost the entire area of the island is part of the City and Borough of Sitka (Sitka also extends northward onto Chichagof Island). The only part of Baranof that is not in Sitka is a tiny sliver of land (9.75 km2) at the extreme southeast corner, which is in the Petersburg Borough, and includes the town of Port Alexander.  This section had a 2000 census population of 81 persons. The towns of Baranof Warm Springs, Port Armstrong, and Port Walter are also located on the eastern side of the island. Goddard, a now-abandoned settlement about  south of Sitka, features a few private homes and hot springs with two public bathhouses.  There are also five year-round salmon hatcheries, one located just north of Port Alexander at Port Armstrong, another located just north of Baranof Warm Springs at Hidden Falls, two are located in the city of Sitka one at the Sitka Sound Science Center, and another in the Sawmill Cove Business Park; the other just south of Sitka near Medvejie Lake.  The latter is accessible by private road from Sitka.  All of these communities, except for Port Alexander and Port Armstrong, are under the jurisdiction of the City and Borough of Sitka, of which, Sitka serves as the borough seat.

The Indigenous group to Baranof Island is the Tlingit group. The island was originally named Shee Atika, meaning "outside the shee". The Tlingit people fished, hunted, trapped, and traded goods with neighboring Indigenous groups. Items of trade mainly included furs such as sea otter and fur seal pelts, copper, and dried fish. It was the Tlingit that the original Russian explorers first colonized, forcing the native men into labor by taking native women and children as hostages. The Tlingit were seen as useful to the Russians, as Tlingit hunters could kill sea otters with ease, a task that proved particularly difficult for Russian fur trappers themselves because of the natural agility of the otters, as well as their aquatic habitat. The Tlingit were subjected to exploitative practices by the Russians, and in 1802, the group rebelled against Russian forces by attacking the Russian outpost, Redoubt Saint Michael, just northwest of Baranof Island.

The native's success did not last long after this rebellion, and the Russians with Aluet allies took back the fort and the land that the Tlingits then occupied in a six-day-long effort. The Russians were victorious, as the Tlingit had fled their land, and were not to return until 1821. By this time, the Russian-American Company was in need of the Tlingit hunting abilities, and invited the native group back to their original land on Baranof Island with the agreement of no more raids into Russian territory. Hostility between the Russians and the Tlingit continued as late as 1855. Tlingit culture is still prevalent on Baranof Island today, and their culture is kept alive through the continuation of several indigenous practices, such as making otter pelt goods.

Fishing, seafood processing, and tourism are important industries on the island, which is also famous for brown bears and Sitka deer.

Fictional accounts
Louis L'Amour's novel Sitka describes the conflict between the Russian fur trading empire and yankee settlers.

The island features prominently in James A. Michener's multigenerational novel Alaska.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a 2007 alternate-history novel by Michael Chabon about a Jewish Yiddish-speaking territory in Sitka, including most of Baranof Island. The novel proceeds from the counter-factual premise that the Slattery Report had actually been implemented.

Local author John Straley has written a number of mystery novels set on and around Baranof Island.

The Sea Runners, a 1982 novel by Ivan Doig.

Sitka is a setting in the 2009 film The Proposal, although the scenes were filmed in Rockport, Massachusetts.

See also

List of mountain peaks of North America
List of mountain peaks of the United States
List of mountain peaks of Alaska
List of Ultras of the United States
List of geographic features on Baranof Island

Notes

References

External links

 Tlingit Geographical Place Names for the Sheet'Ka Kwaan — Sitka Tribe of Alaska, an interactive map of Sitka Area native place names.

Islands of the Alexander Archipelago
Islands of Sitka, Alaska
Islands of Petersburg Borough, Alaska
Islands of Alaska
Tlingit

Baranof Island


A Man (1979) () (, transliteration: Enas Andras) is a novel written by Oriana Fallaci chronicling her relationship with the attempted assassin of Greek dictator George Papadopoulos. The book is a pseudo-biography about Alexandros Panagoulis written in the form of a novel. Fallaci had an intense romantic relationship with Panagoulis. She uses the novel to put forth her view that Panagoulis was assassinated by a vast conspiracy, a view widely shared by many Greeks.

Plot summary

The story begins with the attempt by the young engineering student, Alekos Panagoulis, to kill the tyrant of Greece Geōrgios Papadopoulos. Despite numerous precautions, the attack attempt fails and Alekos is captured, tortured and then sentenced to death. In the months to follow the sentence is postponed several times and finally never carried out because in the meantime, in Greece and abroad, the case has taken on some media relevance and the killing of Alekos would result in serious damage to the regime's image.

In this situation Panagoulis secretly continues to be tortured but never shows any intention of bowing to the will of his jailers or becoming a collaborator of the dictatorship. During his imprisonment he tried several times to escape from Boiati prison, where he was locked up, but all attempts failed. In the last two years of imprisonment, he is imprisoned in a cell built specifically for him and called "The Tomb" precisely because of its shape and size similar to a small sepulcher. Exposed to the elements, forced into a limited space and periodically subjected to torture, after years of imprisonment and ill-treatment he is set free, following the grace received from the fake democracy that was established at the fall of the Papadopoulos regime. A few days later he meets Fallaci, who went to visit him to interview him. From that meeting, their love story begins which would last until his death.

Released from prison, Panagoulis, is disputed by both the right and left, but realizes that the current democracy is fake and understands that the parliament is subjugated (albeit indirectly) by the power of the military dictatorship now represented by a new colonel. During this first period he plans subversion against the new government, but he would clash with the silence and ignorance of the people and activists who slowly begin to forget him.

In the following months the two, guarded by the secret services, manage to escape to Italy. There, they seek help from Italian and European politicians in a vain attempt to overthrow the Greek dictator. In Italy the love between Panagoulis and Fallaci matures, so much so that she becomes pregnant, but loses the child in a quarrel with him. The love story alternates between joy and estrangement between the two.

Some time later Panagoulis realizes that from abroad he has no power to change the situation in Greece and therefore decides to return to his homeland. Once back, Panagoulis tries to found his own political party but his initiative fails and joins an existing political party. Since he does not want to side with the right that is in government and that is directly controlled by the dictatorship and does not want to side with the left that wants to indoctrinate his ideas to align them with those of the party, he decides to join the weaker faction: the Centre Union – New Forces. With this party, he succeeds in being elected deputy. Here too, however, he cannot remain within the rigid logic of the scheme and in practice becomes his own independent splinter. It is in this period that he is able to take possession of numerous documents of the Greek secret services and puts himself in open hostility with the one who now rules the ranks of the new dictatorship, the defense minister Evangelos Averoff. Here Panagoulis releases secret documents, but is subsequently killed in a traffic accident caused by two hit men driving two different cars.

In the months immediately following Panagoulis' death, the Greek government does not support the evidence of the murder and declares that it was only a tragic accident. By releasing these declarations, the Greek government ignores the Italian expert reports carried out on the Panagoulis car (which shows the clear signs of ramming and rear-end collisions), ignores the accounts of the witnesses and archives all evidence. Subsequently, to discredit the publication of the secret documents of Panagoulis, the government publishes a revised version of the same, omitting the most compromising ones and publishing only the most harmless ones, possibly reserving the right to change names and dates.

Reviews
The work has had mixed reviews. Some readers find the harsh polemic repetitive and disturbing. Fallaci is said to have been angry at Ms. magazine for not reviewing the work and this enhanced her reputation as an anti-feminist.

Quotes
"Don't help me then, hand me over to the police, what's the use anyway--"
"Of suffering, fighting? It allows us to live, my boy. A man who gives in doesn't live, he survives."

Footnotes

References

1979 novels
20th-century Italian novels
Biographical novels
Novels about rebels
Novels set in Greece
Novels by Oriana Fallaci

A Man


Viragaya (Devoid of Passions) is a 1956 novel written by Martin Wickremasinghe. The novel is considered an outstanding work in modern Sinhalese fiction due to the significance of its theme and the sophistication of its technique. The story is based on a virtuous character called Aravinda, a Sinhalese youth raised in a traditional Buddhist family in the South.

First published in 1956 in Sinhala, the novel was translated into English language in 1985 by Professor Ashley Halpe, under the title The Way of the Lotus. It was later translated into the Tamil language in 1992 and French in 1995. Viragaya is considered as the first Sinhala novel which was completely translated and published in the French language. The novel was made into a movie in 1987 by Tissa Abeysekera.
Viragaya is considered one of the best novels of the writer. It exhibits the influences of Existentialism on Wickramasinghe specially through the character of Lokusuriya, the retired postmaster. Sarojini, Menaka, Bathee, Siridasa are the other prominent characters in the novel. The novel is presented through Sammy, a friend of Aravinda's cousin Siridasa. The narration resembles that of Lockwood in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.

Plot

The novel starts with Sammy, a common friend of Aravinda Jayasena and Siridasa Jayasena, visiting Siridasa. Siridasa and his wife, Sarojini welcome Sammy and relays him the news of Aravinda's death. Sammy is interested in mysticism and occultism which compelled him to travel India. He shares Aravinda's passion of metaphysics, ancient lore and alchemy. Sammy is grief stricken to hear the death of Aravinda at a relatively young age. Siridasa tells him of the final days of Aravinda and gives him a book which appeared to be the Aravinda's diary. The narration then shifts to first person and the reader meets Aravinda. Aravinda starts his story with a special introduction of his father who works as a local physician (Veda Mahattaya) to make the ends meet. Commonly known as Jayasena Veda Mahattaya, Aravinda's father is sought after by villagers when someone is ill. He visits them and treat them with traditional ayurvedic medication which he makes a servant produce at his own house. Aravinda then recalls Sarojini, a classmate of Aravinda and a daughter of a wealthy merchant. Sarojini expresses her interest in Aravinda and two enjoy each other's company. Aravinda's elder sister Menaka is married to Dharmadasa. Aravinda is forced to take biology to be a doctor but he declines to be one and becomes a government clerk. Meanwhile Sarojini proposes him to elope and start a family, but Aravainda does not accept the proposal. Grief stricken Sarojini agrees with her parents to marry Siridasa, Aravinda's cousin. Aravinda's father dies and his mother finds out that her husband has mortgaged the house to Dharmadasa for three thousand rupees. Frustrated mother leaves the house despite  her daughter's pleas that she and Aravinda can stay at their home until they die. After the departure of mother, Menaka and Dharamada move house to Aravinda's place. Aravinds pursues his career at the government office. One day, he accidentally makes an explosion in his own room while trying new chemical experiments. Realising that he is a threat to his own nephew, Sirimal, Menaka and Dharmada's son, he decides to leave the house and to rent a place. He employs Gunawathi as housemaid who has a ten year old girl named Bathee with whom Aravinda builds up a father-daughter relationship. Aravinda gives her a school education despite the criticisms of his elder sister Menaka. Kulasuriya,a retired postmaster who wanders in the village aimlessly encourages Aravinda's existentialist ideology and they enjoy each other's company. Now Bathee is grown up and she is in love with a driver named Jinadasa. Aravinda is jealous and worried to see that Bathee'a attention is completely diverted to Jinadasa. Aravinda asks Jinadasa to meet him and buys him a used car and marries him off to Bathee. After their marriage, Aravinda falls ill and Jinadasa and Bathee come to nurse him. Sarojini comes to visit Aravinda and he admits that he had both loved and not loved Sarojini and Bathee. Aravinda's illness worsened and he ponders his own life.  Aravinda makes peace with himself and he is detached from all the worldly relationships drawing the title of the novel Viragaya (detachment). Aravinda passes away and people come in numbers to pay last tribute to Aravinda; the writer alludes that the villagers have intuitively understood Aravinda's good qualities even though he is ridiculed and criticised by the middle class in society.

See also

Gamperaliya
Madol Doova
Yuganthaya
Kaliyugaya

References

External links
An inimitable psychological novel, The Nation (Sri Lanka)
VIRAGAYA: Forgotten Classic of 1956, The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

1956 novels
Sri Lankan novels
Novels set in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan novels adapted into films
Novels by Martin Wickramasinghe

Viragaya


James Curtis Lett (born January 3, 1951) is an American retired baseball player, and a former coach for several teams. He was born in Charleston, West Virginia.

Biography
Lett is a 1969 graduate of Winfield High School in Winfield, West Virginia, where he played football and basketball and ran track. He earned All-State honors in basketball as the top scorer in the state and All-America honors in football as a quarterback. He is a 1973 graduate of the University of Kentucky, where he was selected to the All-Southeastern Conference baseball team in 1971. He also was a quarterback on the Wildcats football team. Lett earned a B.S. degree in Geography.

Lett has worked in professional baseball as a player, coach, manager and front office executive in each of the last 32 years, having spent 24 of those years within the Cincinnati Reds organization (1973–96).

He began his career as a player with Tampa Tarpons (a Reds' Minor league baseball team) in 1973. After playing three years of minor league baseball (1973–75) and compiling a .256 batting average, six home runs, and 110 RBI in 313 games, Lett began his managerial career with the Shelby Reds in the Western Carolinas League in 1977. He was selected as the league's Manager of the Year in 1978 after guiding the club to a second-place finish and a 75-64 record.

Lett was a minor league manager in the Reds' chain from 1977 to 1985. He was the Reds' Bench Coach from 1986 to 1989 and again in 1996. He managed in the minors again in 1990, winning the lone South Atlantic League championship for the Charleston Wheelers, coached for the Nashville Sounds in 1991–92, and spent 1993–95 as the Reds' minor-league field coordinator.

After leaving the Reds, Lett was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays coaching staff from 1997 to 1999. He was the Blue Jays' assistant director of player development in 2000.

With the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lett served on Manager Jim Tracy's staff, as Bullpen Coach from 2001 through 2004 and as Bench Coach in 2005.

On November 1, 2005, Lett was named the Pittsburgh Pirates' Bench Coach. In his role with the Pirates, Lett coordinated the day-to-day activities of the uniformed personnel with the manager, coaches, trainers and front office staff. He also acted as the club's catching instructor. When the Pirates fired Tracy in October 2007, Lett was encouraged to seek other forms of employment. Lett was not retained by the Pirates and subsequently was hired by the Milwaukee Brewers to coach for his hometown team, the Class-A West Virginia Power. The team plays its home games in downtown Charleston at Appalachian Power Park.

While overseeing the Dodgers' bullpen in 2003, he helped guide the pen to a major-league low 2.46 ERA, the lowest mark by any bullpen since the 1990 Oakland Athletics posted a 2.35 ERA.  The next year, Los Angeles relievers ranked second in the major leagues with a 3.06 ERA.

In his tenure as a coach in the majors, Lett has worked with four Cy Young Award recipients: Toronto's Pat Hentgen (1996 winner), two-time winner Roger Clemens (1997–98) and Eric Gagné (2003).  Lett also coached Hall of Fame reliever Trevor Hoffman in the minor leagues, helping to convert him from a shortstop to pitcher.

References

External links

Retrosheet

1951 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Charleston, West Virginia
Baseball players from West Virginia
Players of American football from West Virginia
Kentucky Wildcats football players
Kentucky Wildcats baseball players
Cincinnati Reds coaches
Los Angeles Dodgers coaches
Major League Baseball bench coaches
Major League Baseball bullpen coaches
Major League Baseball pitching coaches
Pittsburgh Pirates coaches
Toronto Blue Jays coaches
Toronto Blue Jays executives
Washington Nationals coaches
Billings Mustangs managers
Gulf Coast Reds players
Tampa Tarpons (1957–1987) players
Trois-Rivières Aigles players

Jim Lett


Leonard Thomas Lake (October 29, 1945June 6, 1985), also known as Leonard Hill and a variety of other aliases, was an American serial killer. During the mid-1980s, he and his accomplice, British Hong Kong-born Charles Ng, raped, tortured and murdered an estimated eleven to twenty-five victims at a remote cabin near Wilseyville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, located 150 miles east of San Francisco. After his 1985 arrest on unrelated charges, Lake swallowed cyanide pills that he had sewn into his clothing and died four days later. Human remains, videotapes, and journals found at Lake's cabin later confirmed Ng's involvement, and were used to convict Ng on eleven counts of capital murder.

Early life
Leonard Lake was born in San Francisco, California. When he was six years old, his parents separated, whereupon he and his siblings moved in with their maternal grandmother. Lake was reportedly a bright child, but after habitually photographing his sisters nude, which his grandmother apparently encouraged, he became obsessed with pornography. He then reportedly extorted his sisters to perform sexual acts. Lake also collected mice and killed them by dissolving them in chemicals, in the same manner he would later dispose of his human victims' corpses.

After attending Balboa High School, Lake enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1964. He served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War as a radar electronics technician. During this period, Lake was first diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. After what was termed a "delusional breakdown" in Da Nang, he received psychotherapy and, in 1971, a medical discharge.

Lake settled in San Jose and enrolled at San Jose State University, but dropped out after one semester upon becoming enamored of the hippie lifestyle in San Francisco. He moved to a commune there, and married briefly in 1975. The marriage dissolved after his wife discovered that he was making and appearing in amateur pornographic movies, usually involving bondage or sadomasochism.

For the next eight years, Lake lived at the Greenfield Ranch, a 5,600 acre back-to-the-land settlement near Calpella, north of Ukiah, California. There, he met and eventually married Claralyn Balazs — nicknamed "Cricket" — who became involved in Lake's fantasies and appeared in many of his pornographic films. Lake's growing fear of impending nuclear holocaust prompted him to begin construction of a "bunker" on the settlement grounds, until the owner of the property became aware of the project and ordered it halted.

Murders

Lake met fellow former Marine Charles Ng, originally from Hong Kong, in 1980 or 1981. Sources claim the two met through a survivalist magazine advertisement Lake placed. Lake was managing the Philo Motel in Philo, California at the time. Ng had escaped from a military prison following a conviction for weapons theft and stayed at the motel for a time and then moved into a house along with Lake and Balazs. Several witnesses testified that Ng was very subservient and allowed Lake to order him around and speak to him in a condescending, disparaging manner. Ng stated that he looked up to Lake "like a brotherly, fatherly figure". In April 1982, police raided the house and arrested Ng and Lake on weapons charges. Ng was returned to Fort Leavenworth to complete his sentence. Lake jumped bail and began life as a fugitive, using various aliases and wearing disguises in an attempt to hide his true identity. In July 1984, Ng was dishonorably discharged after serving time for theft and desertion, and rejoined Lake and Balazs. Ng first stayed in an apartment rented by Lake's sister before moving into an apartment on Lenox Ave in San Francisco in the fall of 1984. Lake was living Wilseyville in a cabin owned by Balazs' parents by this time. Next to the cabin, Lake had built a structure described in his journals as a "dungeon". He had already murdered his brother Donald Lake, and his friend Charles Gunnar, stealing their money and identities.

Over the next year, Lake and Ng began a pattern of rape, torture, and murder. Lake and Ng targeted women but were not hesitant to abduct entire families. After killing the men and children to get them out of the way, Lake would hold the women captive in a custom-built room in the bunker at the ranch, tie them up and torture and rape them, and eventually kill them. Lake allegedly did not allow Ng to enter the rear portion of the bunker, telling him "that is my domain". Lake also lured men to the compound with promises of work but would instead rob and murder them, after which Lake stole their identities. After killing the victims by shooting them, they would either bury them in shallow graves on or near the property, or burn them and scatter the bones. Police found over forty pounds of burned, crushed bone fragments scattered around the Wilseyville property. Charles Ng was convicted of murdering eleven people, but because of the massive amount of burned, shattered bone fragments found at the cabin, they are thought to have killed as many as twenty five people. Lake is known to have committed several murders without the assistance of Ng, and wrote in his journal that Ng was initially "very hesitant to get involved with my plan". Known victims include Lake's brother, his best friend, his neighbors, multiple people met through newspaper advertisements, tenants of a boarding house where Lake had rented a room, two men who had advertised gay sex (one of whom survived), and two workmates of Ng.

Known Victims
 December 1982 - Donald Lake, 32 was the younger brother of Leonard Lake. Donald was hit by a train as a child and suffered mental problems as a result of the accident. He was described as a very nice, gentle man by acquaintances but Leonard resented him because his disability required the full attention of their mother, resulting in Leonard being raised by their grandparents. Leonard referred to him as a "leech" in conversations with his ex-wife Claralyn Balazs, and said that he did not deserve to live. In December 1982, Donald was living with his mother in San Francisco, California when Leonard stopped by on a road trip up north and asked Donald to come along to a house sitting job. Donald was never seen again, and his mother reported him missing. Leonard resurfaced on New Year's Day in 1983 to rent a room in a house on 19th street under the false name "Alan Drey". Leonard stole Donald's identity, opened up a P.O. box in his name, and began cashing his disability checks. Leonard later forged a letter to their mother claiming to be Donald and that he had moved away to live with drug dealers in Reno, Nevada. It is believed that Donald was the first person murdered by Leonard.
 May 22, 1983 - Four months later, Lake moved in with his friend, Charles Gunnar, 36. Gunnar was a former postman and drama coach from Morgan Hill, California. He was best man at Lake's wedding to Balazs in 1981. They had a lot in common as they both valued survival skills and the weaponry world. On May 22, Lake invited Gunnar to go on a road trip to Las Vegas or Tahoe for rest and relaxation after his divorce. Gunnar left his daughters with a babysitter. A couple of days later, Lake returned alone in Gunnar's van and told the babysitter that Gunnar ran off with a woman. Charles Gunnar was never seen again. After the murder, Lake stole Gunnar's identity and began to cash his government checks. Lake introduced himself as 'Charles Gunnar' to most of the people he met while living in Wilseyville. Gunnar's body was not found by police during the initial 1985 investigation, but was unearthed in 1992 when a subsequent owner of the Wilseyville property was digging down to install a footing for a new garage.
 April 1984 - Jeffrey D. Askren, 30 of Sunnyvale vanished in April 1984. His late model Honda automobile was found a few days later in the West Point area of Calaveras County, near Lake's home.
 July 11, 1984 - Donald Giulietti, 36, a radio personality from San Francisco, California was spending time in his apartment expecting a visitor. Giulietti was an openly gay man who lived with another man named Richard Carrazza. Giulietti placed a personal ad in a low-key newspaper offering to give oral sex to straight men. That night a stranger knocked on the door and Giulietti assumed it was someone taking him up on his offer. As soon as Giulietti opened the door, a man whipped out a pistol and shot him in the head at close range. Carrazza ran from the back room into the study and found Giulietti on the floor. Carrazza was also immediately shot in the chest and left for dead. The shooter fled and Carrazza survived the attack. Carrazza called 911 and when the police questioned him, he was able to give a description of the shooter. Carrazza described being shot by a small Chinese man wearing prescription glasses. Carrazza would go on to identify Charles Ng as the shooter.
 July 25, 1984 - Harvey Dubs, 29; Deborah Dubs, 33; Sean Dubs, 1, lived in San Francisco, California in 1984. Harvey was selling video equipment in July of that year and placed an advertisement in a local newspaper. Deborah was speaking on the telephone to a friend on July 25 when the doorbell rang at their family's apartment. Deborah told her friend that she had to end the conversation, as two men who were interested in the items had arrived at their home. Deborah, Harvey, and Sean have never been heard from again. A neighbor across the alley saw an Asian man leave their residence struggling to carry a large duffel bag later in the day. The same neighbor observed an unidentified vehicle drive away from the Dubs's apartment on July 26, the day after the family disappeared, with the Asian man in the passenger seat and a bearded man driving. Another neighbor who lived in the apartment below the Dubs' heard footsteps a few days after the family had been reported missing, and saw an Asian man exiting the Dubs' front door with a large duffel bag and a suitcase. She walked outside and called out to the man, but he ignored her and briskly walked away down the street. Once he reached the end of the street, a vehicle quickly pulled around the corner and the man got in the passenger seat. The car quickly sped off. Later that evening, the same neighbor was returning home and believed she could see the same man in the Dubs' apartment through the living room window and once again heard footsteps upon going inside. A man identifying himself as 'James Bright' called Harvey's employer in late July and claimed that Harvey had to go to Washington for a family emergency. The unidentified man terminated the conversation when Harvey's coworker became suspicious. Years later, the coworker described being played a tape by investigators and stated that the voice on the tape was "quite similar" to the voice she heard over the telephone. The voice on the tape was Leonard Lake. A receipt in Harvey Dubs' name, and videotape equipment from the Dubs' San Francisco home were found at Lake's cabin.
 August 1984 -  Maurice Rock, of San Francisco, disappeared from a Carl Street rooming house known as the "Pink Palace". Lake had rented a room at the Pink Palace under the pseudonym "Alan Dray". Some time after Rock disappeared, the woman renting the room next to Rock saw a man removing a refrigerator from his room. The man introduced himself as 'Steve' and offered to photograph her. She agreed, but felt unsettled and changed her mind once 'Steve' came to her room with his camera equipment. She later identified the man as Lake.  Rock's remains were recovered from the Wilseyville property.
 August 1984 -  Sheryl Okoro, of San Francisco disappeared from the Pink Palace rooming house. Photographs, an 11 page letter written by Okoro, and remains were recovered from the Wilseyville property.
 October 15, 1984 -  Randy Jacobson, 36 of San Francisco, disappeared from the rooming house after becoming involved in a business deal with Lake. His identity was subsequently stolen by Lake. Lake also tried to steal Jacobson's van after the murder, but was unsuccessful as the van was towed away before Lake was able to move it. Jacobson's remains were buried under the chicken coop on the Wilseyville property.
 November 2, 1984 - Paul Cosner, 40, was last seen in San Francisco, California on November 2. He was employed as a used car dealer at the time of his disappearance. His brown 1980 Honda Prelude disappeared with him. Cosner had advertised the vehicle for sale in a local newspaper and told his fiancée that he had found a potential buyer, whom he described as "weird." He said he was leaving his apartment at 7:30 p.m. to meet the buyer and would return at 8:00 p.m. to watch a television program with her. He was never heard from again. Strange messages from an unidentified caller were left on his answering machine after his disappearance. Lake was arrested with Cosner's car on June 2, 1985. There were two bullet holes in the car, one in the front passenger door and another in the roof above the front passenger sun visor. Personal effects including Cosner's driver's license, glasses, and other paperwork were found buried in a bucket on the Wilseyville property. Cosner's remains have never been found.
 January 20, 1985 - Clifford Peranteau, 23, was a coworker of Charles Ng at Dennis Moving Company in San Francisco, California in 1985. Peranteau was last seen in San Francisco on January 20. He has never been heard from again. In April 1985, Lake sold Peranteau's motorcycle to a man in West Point, California. Several of Peranteau's personal belongings including an engraved pen/pencil set were discovered in an apartment owned by Ng.
 February 24, 1985 - Jeffrey Gerald, 25, worked as a mover at Dennis Moving Company with Ng and spent evenings playing drums for the band Crash And Burn. On February 24, he vanished after saying he was going to help Ng move for a side job. The following day, February 25, 1985, the owner of a church youth campground in Wilseyville confronted Lake's neighbor Lonnie Bond and a friend for firing guns through the trees while camp was in session nearby. After Bond and his friend explained to the man that they only shoot into the dirt, the camp owner walked next door to the house of a man he knew as 'Charles Gunnar' and knocked on the door. After several minutes of knocking, Lake answered the door with a sheet wrapped around his arm and otherwise appeared to be naked. The sheet appeared to have a significant amount of blood. When questioned, Lake said he had severely cut himself on a circular saw. A doctor in Jackson, California later testified that he treated Lake on February 25, 1985 for a fresh gunshot wound to his fingers. A magazine advertisement was later posted by 'Charles Gunnar' for the sale of Jeff Gerald's car.
 April 12-15, 1985 - Michael Carroll, 23, had served time with Ng in Fort Leavenworth and they remained acquainted afterward. He and his girlfriend Kathleen Allen, 18, were spending time in a Milpitas, California motel room where they were temporarily staying. At 10 p.m. one night, Carroll told Allen that he had to do something and would be back in the morning. Carroll never returned. A few days later, on April 14, Allen received a phone call at the Milpitas Safeway where she worked. The caller told her that her boyfriend Michael was at Lake Tahoe may have been shot. She immediately told her boss that she had to leave and go to Lake Tahoe to be with Carroll. She was last seen getting into a brown/gold car with a bearded man in the parking lot of the Safeway. The following day, Allen called her boss at the Safeway and requested 4 weeks off to be with Carroll in Lake Tahoe. A later search of telephone records revealed that each of these calls to the Safeway were made by someone at Lake's Wilseyville property. Allen appeared in a videotape found at Lake's home and her last paycheck was sent to a town near his cabin, according to San Jose police. Carroll was also mentioned in the videotape and his driver's license was found at the cabin.
 April 19, 1985 - Lonnie Bond Sr., 27, his live-in girlfriend Brenda O'Connor, 19, their son, Lonnie Bond Jr., 1, and a family friend Robin Scott Stapley, 26, who went by his middle name. The Bond family moved into the house next door to Lake in January 1985.  Lonnie Sr. and O'Connor disliked their neighbor, whom they knew as 'Charles Gunnar', who they claimed was "extremely obnoxious, rude, and demented". Lake disliked the Bonds because they constantly fired weapons on their property and regularly left the main gate to their shared driveway unlocked.   O'Connor felt uncomfortable with Lake because he repeatedly asked her to pose naked for him. On April 18, 1985, Bond and a group of friends returned to a friend's house from a Yuma, Arizona motorcycle rally. Bond armed himself with a .22 pistol and left for Wilseyville, telling a friend that he was going to confront Lake over his sexual advances toward O'Connor. Likewise, Stapley had picked up a newly purchased .22 Ruger on April 16 and joined Bond in Wilseyville. None of them were ever seen again. Calaveras County Sheriff Claude Ballard said investigators believe O'Connor appeared in a videotape in which Ng cuts her clothes off with a butterfly knife as Lake tells her that her "baby is going to be taken away" and was "sound asleep, like a rock". When Lake was arrested on June 2, Lonnie Bond's license plate was affixed to the car he was driving - the Honda Prelude stolen from Paul Cosner. Police said that Lake was in possession of Stapley's gun and driver's license, and initially identified himself as Stapley when he was arrested. The bodies of Lonnie Sr. and Stapley were found buried in Wilseyville in a shallow grave about a mile from Lake's property. O'Connor and Lonnie Jr. have never been found.

Arrest and suicide
On June 2, 1985, Ng was caught shoplifting a vise from a hardware store in South San Francisco and fled the scene on foot, throwing the vise into the trunk of a brown Honda. Lake attempted to pay for the vise, but by then police had arrived. Officers noticed that Lake bore no resemblance to the photo on his driver's license, which carried the name of Robin Scott Stapley, a San Diego man reported missing by his family several weeks earlier. Lake was arrested after a gun equipped with a prohibited silencer was found in the trunk of his vehicle, a 1980 Honda Prelude, and was later positively identified via a fingerprint search. At the station, Lake was placed in an interrogation room where he was given a pen, paper, and a glass of water. A short time later, a detective entered the room to conduct an interview and found Lake violently convulsing on the floor. The notepad contained a brief suicide note. At the hospital, it was determined that he swallowed cyanide pills that he had sewn into his clothes. Lake never regained consciousness and died four days later on June 6.

The license plate on Lake's vehicle was registered to Lonnie Bond, but the VIN on the Honda itself was registered to Paul Cosner, who had disappeared from San Francisco in November 1984. A utility bill found in the Honda led detectives under the command of San Francisco Police Homicide Lieutenant Gerald McCarthy to the property in Wilseyville, where they found Stapley's and Bond's trucks, and the dungeon. In a makeshift burial site nearby, police unearthed over forty pounds of burned and crushed human bone fragments corresponding to a minimum of eleven bodies. A phone line trench 100 feet long and 10 feet deep was found to be filled with trash, personal effects of victims, and two intact skeletons. Another intact body was found buried under a chicken coop. Two bodies found about a mile from the cabin were later identified as Bond and Stapley. They had been gagged and executed by gunshots to the head.

Prodding the ground near the cabin, police noticed loose dirt, leading them to two buried five-gallon buckets. One contained an assortment of ID papers and personal possessions, suggesting that the total victim count could be as high as twenty-five. In the other were Lake's handwritten journals for the years 1983 and 1984, and two videotapes . One videotape contained a 20 minute long manifesto recorded on October 23, 1983, in which Lake discusses his plan to build a "cell" and enslave women. The other tape, labeled 'M Ladies', documented the torture of Kathleen Allen and Brenda O'Connor. In one scene, Lake is heard telling O'Connor that her family is not liked by the neighborhood to which O'Connor replies "So we'll leave" and Lake coldly answers "Oh, you've already left. We've closed you down". Ng later tells O'Connor "You can cry and sob like the rest of them, but it won't do any good. We are pretty... cold-hearted, so to speak". In another scene, Allen is seen tied to a bed as Lake tells her "I'm having a little war within myself, between what I want to do and what we might call the decent thing to do. And for the moment the decent thing to do is winning. So rest". Both Allen and O'Connor were subsequently murdered.

Lake's ex wife, Claralyn Balazs, cooperated with investigators and received legal immunity from prosecution. Court records stated that Balazs turned over weapons and other material to authorities during the investigation. She was called as a key witness in Ng's trial in 1999. Yet in a surprise move, Ng's lawyer, William Kelley, dismissed Balazs without asking any questions. Kelley later declined to explain his actions. Balazs was on the witness stand for a few minutes as Kelley read sections of her immunity agreement. Balazs had been expected to shed light on what happened inside the mountain cabin that her parents owned and rented to her and Lake. It was later revealed that Balazs had removed boxes of papers and videotapes from the Wilseyville cabin in the time between Lake's arrest and the initial police search. Many videotapes referenced in Lake's journal were never recovered by investigators.

Ng, who had never legally obtained U.S. citizenship, was captured in a department store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on July 6, 1985. A store security guard suspected Ng of shoplifting and in the ensuing confrontation, Ng shot the security guard. Though wounded, the security guard was able to disarm and detain Ng until the police arrived. Ng served four and a half years in a Canadian prison, and tried to fight extradition to the United States on the grounds that he would be subject to capital punishment. In 1991 he was extradited to California, where he was indicted on twelve counts of first-degree murder. Despite the video evidence, and the detailed information in Lake's diaries, Ng maintained that he was merely an observer and that Lake planned and committed all of the kidnaps, rapes, and murders unassisted.

In February 1999, Ng was convicted of eleven of the twelve homicides — six men, three women, and two male infants. Jurors deadlocked on the twelfth charge, the murder of Paul Cosner, but Ng was sentenced to death. The presiding judge noted, "Mr. Ng was not under any duress, nor does the evidence support that he was under the domination of Leonard Lake." , Ng was still incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. The last execution in California was in 2006. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order placing a moratorium on the death penalty in California.

See also

House on the Hill

General:
 List of serial killers in the United States
 List of serial killers by number of victims

References

External links

1945 births
1985 deaths
1985 suicides
20th-century American criminals
American male criminals
American people convicted of theft
American rapists
American murderers of children
American serial killers
Crime in California
Criminals from California
Criminals of the San Francisco Bay Area
Family murders
Filmed killings
Fratricides
People from Mendocino County, California
People from San Francisco
People with schizoid personality disorder
Serial killers from California
Serial killers who died by suicide in prison custody
Suicides by cyanide poisoning
Suicides in California
Torture in the United States
United States Marines
United States Marine Corps personnel of the Vietnam War
Violence against men in North America
San Jose State University alumni

Leonard Lake


The term bioarchaeology has been attributed to British archaeologist Grahame Clark who, in 1972, defined it as the study of animal and human bones from archaeological sites. Redefined in 1977 by Jane Buikstra, bioarchaeology in the United States now refers to the scientific study of human remains from archaeological sites, a discipline known in other countries as osteoarchaeology, osteology or palaeo-osteology. Compared to bioarchaeology, osteoarchaeology is the scientific study that solely focus on the human skeleton. The human skeleton is used to tell us about health, lifestyle, diet, mortality and physique of the past. Furthermore, palaeo-osteology is simple the study of ancient bones.

In contrast, the term bioarchaeology is used in Europe to describe the study of all biological remains from archaeological sites. Although Clark used it to describe just human remains and animal remains (zoology/archaeozoology/zooarchaeology), increasingly modern archaeologists also include botanical remains (botany/archaeobotany/paleobotany/paleoethnobotany).

Bioarchaeology was largely born from the practices of New Archaeology, which developed in the United States in the 1970s as a reaction to a mainly cultural-historical approach to understanding the past.  Proponents of New Archaeology advocated using processual methods to test hypotheses about the interaction between culture and biology, or a biocultural approach. Some archaeologists advocate a more holistic approach to bioarchaeology that incorporates critical theory and is more relevant to modern descent populations.

If possible, human remains from archaeological sites are analyzed to determine sex, age, and health.  The results are used to determine patterns relevant to human behavior at the site.

Paleodemography
Paleodemography is the field that attempts to identify demographic characteristics from the past population. The information gathered is used to make interpretations. Bioarchaeologists use paleodemography sometimes and create life tables, a type of cohort analysis, to understand the demographic characteristics (such as risk of death or sex ratio) of a given age cohort within a population.  Age and sex are crucial variables in the construction of a life table, although this information is often not available to bioarchaeologists. Therefore, it is often necessary to estimate the age and sex of individuals based on specific morphological characteristics of the skeleton.

Age estimation
The estimation of age in bioarchaeology and osteology actually refers to an approximation of skeletal or biological age-at-death. The primary assumption in age estimation is that an individual's skeletal age is closely associated with their chronological age. Age estimation can be based on patterns of growth and development or degenerative changes in the skeleton. Many methods tracking these types of changes have been developed using a variety of skeletal series. For instance, in children age is typically estimated by assessing their dental development, ossification and fusion of specific skeletal elements, or long bone length. For children, the different points of time at which different teeth erupt from the gums are best known for telling a child's age down to the exact year. But once the teeth are fully developed, age is hard to determine using teeth.  In adults, degenerative changes to the pubic symphysis, the auricular surface of the ilium, the sternal end of the 4th rib, and dental attrition are commonly used to estimate skeletal age.

When using bones to determine age, there might be problems that you might face. Until the age of about 30, the human bones are still growing. Different bones are fusing at different points of growth. Some bones might not follow the correct stages of growth which can mess with your analysis. Also, as you get older there is wear and tear on the humans' bones and the age estimate becomes less precise as the bone gets older. The bones then become categorized as either 'young' (20–35 years), 'middle' (35–50 years), or 'old' (50+ years).

Sex determination

Differences in male and female skeletal anatomy are used by bioarchaeologists to determine the biological sex of human skeletons.  Humans are sexually dimorphic, although overlap in body shape and sexual characteristics is possible. Not all skeletons can be assigned a sex, and some may be wrongly identified as male or female.  Sexing skeletons is based on the observation that biological males and biological females differ most in the skull and pelvis; bioarchaeologists focus on these parts of the body when determining sex, although other body parts can also be used.  The female pelvis is generally broader than the male pelvis, and the angle between the two inferior pubic rami (the sub-pubic angle) is wider and more U-shaped, while the sub-pubic angle of the male is more V-shaped and less than 90 degrees.  Phenice details numerous visual differences between the male and female pelvis.

In general, the male skeleton is more robust than the female skeleton because of the greater muscles mass of the male. Males generally have more pronounced brow ridges, nuchal crests, and mastoid processes.  It should be remembered that skeletal size and robustness are influenced by nutrition and activity levels. Pelvic and cranial features are considered to be more reliable indicators of biological sex.  Sexing skeletons of young people who have not completed puberty is more difficult and problematic than sexing adults, because the body has not had time to develop fully.

Bioarchaeological sexing of skeletons is not error-proof.  In reviewing the sexing of Egyptian skulls from Qua and Badari, Mann found that 20.3% could be assigned to a different sex than the sex indicated in the archaeological literature. A re-evaluation of Mann's work showed that he did not understand the tomb numbering system of the old excavation and assigned wrong tomb numbers to the skulls. The sexing of the bone material was actually quite correct. However, recording errors and re-arranging of human remains may play a part in this great incidence of misidentification.

Direct testing of bioarchaeological methods for sexing skeletons by comparing gendered names on coffin plates from the crypt at Christ Church, Spitalfields, London to the associated remains resulted in a 98 percent success rate.

Sex-based differences are not inherently a form of inequality, but become an inequality when members of one sex are given privileges based on their sex.  This stems from society investing differences with cultural and social meaning.  Gendered work patterns may make their marks on the bones and be identifiable in the archaeological record. Molleson found evidence of gendered work patterns by noting extremely arthritic big toes, a collapse of the last dorsal vertebrae, and muscular arms and legs among female skeletons at Abu Hureyra.  She interpreted this sex-based pattern of skeletal difference as indicative of gendered work patterns. These kinds of skeletal changes could have resulted from women spending long periods of time kneeling while grinding grain with the toes curled forward. Investigation of gender from mortuary remains is of growing interest to archaeologists.

Non-specific stress indicators

Dental non-specific stress indicators

Enamel hypoplasia
Enamel hypoplasia refers to transverse furrows or pits that form in the enamel surface of teeth when the normal process of tooth growth stops, resulting in a deficit of enamel.  Enamel hypoplasias generally form due to disease and/or poor nutrition.  Linear furrows are commonly referred to as linear enamel hypoplasias (LEHs); LEHs can range in size from microscopic to visible to the naked eye.  By examining the spacing of perikymata grooves (horizontal growth lines), the duration of the stressor can be estimated, although Mays argues that the width of the hypoplasia bears only an indirect relationship to the duration of the stressor.

Studies of dental enamel hypoplasia are used to study child health.  Unlike bone, teeth are not remodeled, so they can provide a more reliable indicator of past health events as long as the enamel remains intact. Dental hypoplasias provide an indicator of health status during the time in childhood when the enamel of the tooth crown is being formed. Not all of the enamel layers are visible on the surface of the tooth because enamel layers that are formed early in crown development are buried by later layers. Hypoplasias on this part of the tooth do not show on the surface of the tooth.  Because of this buried enamel, teeth record stressors form a few months after the start of the event.  The proportion of enamel crown formation time represented by this buried in enamel varies from up to 50 percent in molars to 15-20 percent in anterior teeth.  Surface hypoplasias record stressors occurring from about one to seven years, or up to 13 years if the third molar is included.

Skeletal non-specific stress indicators

Porotic hyperostosis/cribra orbitalia
It was long assumed that iron deficiency anemia has marked effects on the flat bones of the cranium of infants and young children. That as the body attempts to compensate for low iron levels by increasing red blood cell production in the young, sieve-like lesions develop in the cranial vaults (termed porotic hyperostosis) and/or the orbits (termed cribra orbitalia). This bone is spongy and soft.

It is however, highly unlikely that iron deficiency anemia is a cause of either porotic hyperostosis or cribra orbitalia. These are more likely the result of vascular activity in these areas and are unlikely to be pathological. The development of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis could also be attributed to other causes besides an iron deficiency in the diet, such as nutrients lost to intestinal parasites.  However, dietary deficiencies are the most probable cause.

Anemia incidence may be a result of inequalities within society, and/or indicative of different work patterns and activities among different groups within society.  A study of iron-deficiency among early Mongolian nomads showed that although overall rates of cribra orbitalia declined from 28.7 percent (27.8 percent of the total female population, 28.4 percent of the total male population, 75 percent of the total juvenile population) during the Bronze and Iron Ages, to 15.5 percent during the Hunnu (2209–1907 BP) period, the rate of females with cribra orbitalia remained roughly the same, while the incidence of cribra orbitalia among males and children declined (29.4 percent of the total female population, 5.3 percent of the total male population, and 25 percent of the juvenile population had cribra orbitalia).  Bazarsad posits several reasons for this distribution of cribra orbitalia: adults may have lower rates of cribra orbitalia than juveniles because lesions either heal with age or lead to death.  Higher rates of cribia orbitalia among females may indicate lesser health status, or greater survival of young females with cribia orbitalia into adulthood.

Harris lines
Harris lines form before adulthood, when bone growth is temporarily halted or slowed down due to some sort of stress (either disease or malnutrition). During this time, bone mineralization continues, but growth does not, or does so at very reduced levels.  If and when the stressor is overcome, bone growth will resume, resulting in a line of increased mineral density that will be visible in a radiograph. If there is not recovery from the stressor, no line will be formed.

Hair
The stress hormone cortisol is deposited in hair as it grows.  This has been used successfully to detect fluctuating levels of stress in the later lifespan of mummies.

Mechanical stress and activity indicators

Examining the effects that activities and workload has upon the skeleton allows the archaeologist to examine who was doing what kinds of labor, and how activities were structured within society. The division of labor within the household may be divided according to gender and age, or be based on other hierarchical social structures. Human remains can allow archaeologists to uncover patterns in the division of labor.

Living bones are subject to Wolff's law, which states that bones are physically affected and remodeled by physical activity or inactivity.  Increases in mechanical stress tend to produce bones that are thicker and stronger.  Disruptions in homeostasis caused by nutritional deficiency or disease or profound inactivity/disuse/disability can lead to bone loss.  While the acquisition of bipedal locomotion and body mass appear to determine the size and shape of children's bones, activity during the adolescent growth period seems to exert a greater influence on the size and shape of adult bones than exercise later in life.

Muscle attachment sites (also called entheses) have been thought to be impacted in the same way causing what were once called musculoskeletal stress markers, but now widely named entheseal changes. These changes were widely used to study activity-patterns, but research has shown that processes associated with aging have a greater impact than occupational stresses. It has also been shown that geometric changes to bone structure (described above) and entheseal changes differ in their underlying cause with the latter poorly affected by occupation. Joint changes, including osteoarthritis, have also been used to infer occupations but in general these are also manifestations of the aging process.

Markers of occupational stress, which include morphological changes to the skeleton and dentition as well as joint changes at specific locations have also been widely used to infer specific (rather than general) activities. Such markers are often based on single cases described in clinical literature in the late nineteenth century. One such marker has been found to be a reliable indicator of lifestyle: the external auditory exostosis also called surfer's ear, which is a small bony protuberance in the ear canal which occurs in those working in proximity to cold water.

One example of how these changes have been used to study activities is the New York African Burial Ground in New York. This provides evidence of the brutal working conditions under which the enslaved labored; osteoarthritis of the vertebrae was very common, even among the young.  The pattern of osteoarthritis combined with the early age of onset provides evidence of labor that resulted in mechanical strain to the neck.  One male skeleton shows stress lesions at 37 percent of 33 muscle or ligament attachments, showing he experienced significant musculoskeletal stress.  Overall, the interred show signs of significant musculoskeletal stress and heavy workloads, although workload and activities varied among different individuals.  Some individuals show high levels of stress, while others do not.  This references the variety of types of labor (e.g., domestic vs. carrying heavy loads) labor that enslaved individuals were forced to perform.

Injury and workload
Fractures to bones during or after excavation will appear relatively fresh, with broken surfaces appearing white and unweathered.  Distinguishing between fractures around the time of death and post-depositional fractures in bone is difficult, as both types of fractures will show signs of weathering.  Unless evidence of bone healing or other factors are present, researchers may choose to regard all weathered fractures as post-depositional.

Evidence of perimortal fractures (or fractures inflicted on a fresh corpse) can be distinguished in unhealed metal blade injuries to the bones.  Living or freshly dead bones are somewhat resilient, so metal blade injuries to bone will generate a linear cut with relatively clean edges rather than irregular shattering. Archaeologists have tried using the microscopic parallel scratch marks on cut bones in order to estimate the trajectory of the blade that caused the injury.

Diet and dental health

Caries
Dental caries, commonly referred to as cavities or tooth decay, are caused by localized destruction of tooth enamel, as a result of acids produced by bacteria feeding upon and fermenting carbohydrates in the mouth.  Subsistence based upon agriculture is strongly associated with a higher rate of caries than subsistence based upon foraging, because of the higher levels of carbohydrates in diets based upon agriculture. For example, bioarchaeologists have used caries in skeletons to correlate a diet of rice and agriculture with the disease.   Females may be more vulnerable to caries compared to men, due to lower saliva flow than males, the positive correlation of estrogens with increased caries rates, and because of physiological changes associated with pregnancy, such as suppression of the immune system and a possible concomitant decrease in antimicrobial activity in the oral cavity.

Stable isotope analysis

Overview
Stable isotope biogeochemistry is a powerful tool that utilizes variations in isotopic signatures and relates them to biogeochemical processes. The science is based on the preferential fractionation of lighter or heavier isotopes, which results in enriched and depleted isotopic signatures compared to a standard value. Essential elements for life such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur are the primary stable isotope systems used to interrogate archeological discoveries. Isotopic signatures from multiple systems are typically used in tandem to create a comprehensive understanding of the analyzed material. These systems are most commonly used to trace the geographic origin of archaeological remains and investigate the paleodiets, mobility, and cultural practices of ancient humans. Over the past few decades the use of isotope geochemistry in the context of archaeology has dramatically increased.

System Applications

Carbon
Stable isotope analysis of carbon in human bone collagen allows bioarchaeologists to carry out dietary reconstruction and to make nutritional inferences. These chemical signatures reflect long-term dietary patterns, rather than a single meal or feast. Isotope ratios in food, especially plant food, are directly and predictably reflected in bone chemistry, allowing researchers to partially reconstruct recent diet using stable isotopes as tracers. Stable isotope analysis monitors the ratio of carbon 13 to carbon 12 (13C/12C), which is expressed as parts per mil (per thousand) using delta notation (δ13C). The 13C and 12C ratio is either depleted (more negative) or enriched (more positive) relative to an international standard. The original standard used in carbon stable isotope analysis is Pee Dee Belemnite (PDB), though this material has since been exhausted and replaced. 12C and 13C occur in a ratio of approximately 98.9 to 1.1.

The ratio of carbon isotopes in consumers varies according to the types of plants digested with different photosynthesis pathways. The three photosynthesis pathways are C3 carbon fixation, C4 carbon fixation and Crassulacean acid metabolism. C4 plants are mainly grasses from tropical and subtropical regions, and are adapted to higher levels of radiation than C3 plants. Corn, millet and sugar cane are some well-known C4 domesticates, while all trees and shrubs use the C3 pathway. C4 carbon fixation is more efficient when temperatures are high and atmospheric CO2 concentrations are low. C3 plants are more common and numerous than C4 plants as C3 carbon fixation is more efficient in a wider range of temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

The different photosynthesis pathways used by C3 and C4 plants cause them to discriminate differently towards 13C leading to distinctly different ranges of δ13C. C4 plants range between -9 and -16‰, and C3 plants range between -22 and -34‰. The isotopic signature of consumer collagen is close the δ13C of dietary plants, while apatite , a mineral component of bones and teeth, has an ~14‰ offset from dietary plants due fractionation associated with mineral formation. Stable carbon isotopes have been used as tracers of C4 plants in paleodiets. For example, the rapid and dramatic increase in 13C in human collagen after the adoption of maize agriculture in North America documents the transition from a C3 to a C4 (native plants to corn) diet by 1300 CE.

Skeletons excavated from the Coburn Street Burial Ground (1750 to 1827 CE) in Cape Town, South Africa, were analyzed using stable isotope data in order to determine geographical histories and life histories of the interred. The people buried in this cemetery were assumed to be slaves and members of the underclass based on the informal nature of the cemetery; biomechanical stress analysis and stable isotope analysis, combined with other archaeological data, seem to support this supposition.

Based on stable isotope levels, eight Cobern Street Burial Ground individuals consumed a diet based on C4 (tropical) plants in childhood, then consumed more C3 plants, which were more common at the Cape later in their lives. Six of these individuals had dental modifications similar to those carried out by peoples inhabiting tropical areas known to be targeted by slavers who brought enslaved individuals from other parts of Africa to the colony. Based on this evidence, it was argued that these individuals represent enslaved persons from areas of Africa where C4 plants are consumed and who were brought to the Cape as laborers. These individuals were not assigned to a specific ethnicity, but it is pointed out that similar dental modifications are carried out by the Makua, Yao, and Marav peoples. Four individuals were buried with no grave goods, in accordance with Muslim tradition, facing Signal Hill, which is a point of significance for local Muslims. Their isotopic signatures indicate that they grew up in a temperate environment consuming mostly C3 plants, but some C4 plants. Many of the isotopic signatures of interred individuals indicate that they Cox et al. argue that these individuals were from the Indian Ocean area. They also suggest that these individuals were Muslims. It was argued that stable isotopic analysis of burials, combined with historical and archaeological data can be an effective way in of investigating the worldwide migrations forced by the African Slave Trade, as well as the emergence of the underclass and working class in the colonial Old World.

Nitrogen
The nitrogen stable isotope system is based on the relative enrichment or depletion of 15N in comparison to 14N in an analyzed material (δ15N). Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses are complementary in paleodiet studies. Nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen are ultimately derived from dietary protein, while carbon can be contributed by protein, carbohydrate, or fat in the diet. δ13C values help distinguish between dietary protein and plant sources while systematic increases in δ15N values as you move up in trophic level helps determine the position of protein sources in the food web. 15N increases about 3-4% with each trophic step upward. It has also been suggested that the relative difference between human δ15N values and animal protein values scales with the proportion of that animal protein in the consumer's diet, though this interpretation has been questioned due to contradictory views on the impact of nitrogen intake through protein consumption and nitrogen loss through waste release on 15N enrichment in the body.

When interpreting δ15N values of human remains, variations in nitrogen values within the same trophic level are also considered. Nitrogen variations in plants, for example, can be caused by plant-specific reliance on nitrogen gas which causes the plant to mirror atmospheric nitrogen isotopic values. Enriched or higher δ15N values can be achieved in plants that grew in soil fertilized by animal waste. Nitrogen isotopes have been used to estimate the relative contributions of legumes verses nonlegumes, as well as terrestrial versus marine resources to the diet. While other plants have δ15N values that range from 2 to 6‰, legumes have lower 14N/15N ratios (close to 0‰, i.e. atmospheric N2) because they can fix molecular nitrogen, rather than having to rely on nitrates and nitrites in the soil. Therefore, one potential explanation for lower δ15N values in human remains is an increased consumption of legumes or animals that eat them. 15N values increase with meat consumption, and decrease with legume consumption. The 14N/15N ratio could be used to gauge the contribution of meat and legumes to the diet.

Oxygen

The oxygen stable isotope system is based on the 18O/16O (δ18O) in a given material, which is either enriched or depleted relative to a standard. The field typically normalizes to both Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW) and Standard Light Antarctic Precipitation (SLAP). This system is famous for its use in paleoclimatic studies but it also a prominent source of information in bioarchaeology.

Variations in δ18O values in skeletal remains are directly related to the isotopic composition of the consumer's body water. The isotopic composition of mammalian body water is primarily controlled by consumed water. δ18O values of freshwater drinking sources vary due to mass fractionations related to mechanisms of the global water cycle. Evaporated water vapor will be more enriched in 16O (isotopically lighter; more negative delta value) compared to the body of water left behind which is now depleted in 16O (isotopically heavier; more positive delta value). An accepted first-order approximation for the isotopic composition of animal drinking water is local precipitation, though this is complicated to varying degrees by confounding water sources like natural springs or lakes. The baseline δ18O used in archaeological studies is modified depending on the relevant environmental and historical context of surrounding water sources.

δ18O values of bioapatite in human skeletal remains are assumed to have formed in equilibrium with body water, thus providing a species-specific relationship to oxygen isotopic composition of body water. The same cannot be said for human bone collage, as δ18O values in collagen seem to be impacted by drinking water, food water, and a combination of metabolic and physiological processes. While δ18O values from bone minerals are essentially an averaged isotopic signature throughout the entire life of the individual, dental enamel reflects isotopic signatures specific to early life since enamel is not biologically remodeled.

While carbon and nitrogen are used primarily to investigate the diets of ancient humans, oxygen isotopes offer insight into body water at different stages in a consumer's life. δ18O values are used to understand drinking behaviors, animal husbandry, and track mobility.  97 burials from the ancient Maya citadel of Tikal were studied using oxygen isotopes. Results from tooth enamel identified statistically different individuals, interpreted to be individuals from Maya lowlands, Guatemala, and potentially Mexico. Historical context combined with the isotopic data from the burials is used to argue that migrant individuals were a part of lower and higher social classes within Tikal. It is further suggested that the female migrants who arrived in Tikal during Early Classic period could have been the brides of Maya elite.

Sulfur
The sulfur stable isotope system is based on small, mass-dependent fractionations of sulfur isotopes in an analyzed material. These fractionations are then reported relative to Canyon Diablo Troilite (V-CDT), the agreed upon standard for the field. The ratio of the most abundant sulfur isotope, 32S, compared to rarer isotopes such as, 33S, 34S, and 36S, is used to characterize biological signatures and geological reservoirs. The fractionation of 34S (δ34S) is particularly useful since it is the most abundant of the rare sulfur isotopes, allowing the fractionations to be biogeochemically meaningful and analytically resolvable. This system is less commonly used on its own and typically acts as a secondary source of information that complements isotopic values of carbon and nitrogen. In bioarchaeology, the sulfur system has been used to investigate consumer paleodiets and spatial behaviors through the analysis of hair and bone collagen. Dietary proteins incorporated into living organisms tend to determine the stable isotope values of their organic tissues. Methionine and cysteine are the two canonical sulfur-containing amino acids. Of the two, δ34S values of methionine are considered to better reflect isotopic compositions of dietary sulfur, since cysteine values are impacted by diet and internal cycling. While other stable isotope systems have significant trophic shifts, there is only a small shift (~0.5‰) observed between the δ34S values.

Consumers yield isotopic signatures that reflect the sulfur reservoir(s) of the dietary protein source. These characteristic values are determined by the isotopic nature of sulfate in the environment. Animal proteins sourced from marine ecosystems tend to have δ34S values between +16 and +17‰, terrestrial plants range from -7‰ to +8‰, and proteins from freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems are highly variable. The sulfate content of the modern ocean is very well-mixed with a δ34S of approximately +21‰, while riverine water is heavily influenced by the sulfur-bearing minerals in surrounding bedrock and terrestrial plants are influenced by the sulfur content of local soils. Estuarian ecosystems have increased complexity due to seawater and river inputs. The extreme range of δ34S values for freshwater ecosystems often interferes with terrestrial signals, making it difficult to use the sulfur system as the sole tool in paleodiet studies.

Various studies have analyzed the isotopic ratios of sulfur in mummified hair. Hair is a good candidate for sulfur studies as it typically contains at least 5% elemental sulfur. One study incorporated sulfur isotope ratios into their paleodietary investigation of four mummified child victims of Incan sacrificial practices. δ34S values helped them determine that the children had not been eating marine protein before their death. Historical insight coupled with consistent sulfur signatures for three of the children suggests that they were living in the same location 6 months prior to the sacrificial ceremony. Studies have also measured δ34S values of bone collagen, though the interpretation of these values was not reliable until quality criteria for the analysis was published in 2009. Though bone collagen is abundant in skeletal remains, less than 1% of the tissue is made of sulfur, making it imperative that these studies carefully assess the meaning of bone collagen δ34S values.

Archaeological uses of DNA
aDNA analysis of past populations is used by archaeology to genetically determine the sex of individuals, determine genetic relatedness, understand marriage patterns, and investigate prehistoric population movements.

An example of Archaeologists using DNA to find evidence, in 2012 archaeologists found skeletal remains of an adult male. He was buried under a car park in England. with the use of DNA evidence, the archaeologists were able to confirm that the remains belonged to Richard III, the former king of England who died in the Battle of Bosworth.

In 2021, Canadian researchers used DNA analysis on skeletal remains found on King William Island, identifying them as belonging to Warrant Officer John Gregory, an engineer serving aboard HMS Erebus in the ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition. He was the first expedition member to be identified by DNA analysis.

Bioarchaeological treatments of equality and inequality
Aspects of the relationship between the physical body and socio-cultural conditions and practices can be recognized through the study of human remains.  This is most often emphasized in a "biocultural bioarchaeology" model. It has often been the case that bioarchaeology has been regarded as a positivist, science-based discipline, while theories of the living body in the social sciences have been viewed as constructivist in nature. Physical anthropology and bioarchaeology have been criticized for having little to no concern for culture or history. Blakey has argued that scientific or forensic treatments of human remains from archaeological sites construct a view of the past that is neither cultural nor historic, and has suggested that a biocultural version of bioarchaeology will be able to construct a more meaningful and nuanced history that is more relevant to modern populations, especially descent populations.  By biocultural, Blakey means a type of bioarchaeology that is not simply descriptive, but combines the standard forensic techniques of describing stature, sex and age with investigations of demography and epidemiology in order to verify or critique socioeconomic conditions experienced by human communities of the past. The incorporation of analysis regarding the grave goods interred with individuals may further the understanding of the daily activities experienced in life.

Currently, some bioarchaeologists are coming to view the discipline as lying at a crucial interface between the science and the humanities; as the human body is non-static, and is constantly being made and re-made by both biological and cultural factors.

Buikstra considers her work to be aligned with Blakey's biocultural version of bioarchaeology because of her emphasis on models stemming from critical theory and political economy.  She acknowledges that scholars such as Larsen are productive, but points out that his is a different type of bioarchaeology that focuses on quality of life, lifestyle, behavior, biological relatedness, and population history.  It does not closely link skeletal remains to their archaeological context, and is best viewed as a "skeletal biology of the past."

Inequalities exist in all human societies, even so-called "egalitarian" ones. It is important to note that bioarchaeology has helped to dispel the idea that life for foragers of the past was "nasty, brutish and short"; bioarchaeological studies have shown that foragers of the past were often quite healthy, while agricultural societies tend to have increased incidence of malnutrition and disease.  However, based on a comparison of foragers from Oakhurst to agriculturalists from K2 and Mapungubwe, Steyn believes that agriculturalists from K2 and Mapungubwe were not subject to the lower nutritional levels expected for this type of subsistence system.

Danforth argues that more "complex" state-level societies display greater health differences between elites and the rest of society, with elites having the advantage, and that this disparity increases as societies become more unequal.  Some status differences in society do not necessarily mean radically different nutritional levels; Powell did not find evidence of great nutritional differences between elites and commoners, but did find lower rates of anemia among elites in Moundville.

An area of increasing interest among bioarchaeologists interested in understanding inequality is the study of violence. Researchers analyzing traumatic injuries on human remains have shown that a person's social status and gender can have a significant impact on their exposure to violence. There are numerous researchers studying violence, exploring a range of different types of violent behavior among past human societies. Including intimate partner violence, child abuse, institutional abuse, torture, warfare, human sacrifice, and structural violence.

Archaeological ethics
There are ethical issues with bioarchaeology that revolve around treatment and respect for the dead.  Large-scale skeletal collections were first amassed in the US in the 19th century, largely from the remains of Native Americans.  No permission was ever granted from surviving family for study and display.  Recently, federal laws such as NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) have allowed Native Americans to regain control over the skeletal remains of their ancestors and associated artifacts in order to reassert their cultural identities.

NAGPRA passed in 1990.  At this time, many archaeologists underestimated the public perception of archaeologists as non-productive members of society and grave robbers. Concerns about occasional mistreatment of Native American remains are not unfounded: in a Minnesota excavation 1971, White and Native American remains were treated differently; remains of White people were reburied, while remains of Native American people were placed in cardboard boxes and placed in a natural history museum. Blakey relates the growth in African American bioarchaeology to NAGPRA and its effect of cutting physical anthropologist off from their study of Native American remains.

Bioarchaeology in Europe is not as affected by these repatriation issues as American bioarchaeology but regardless the ethical considerations associated with working with human remains are, and should, be considered. However, because much of European archaeology has been focused on classical roots, artifacts and art have been overemphasized and Roman and post-Roman skeletal remains were nearly completely neglected until the 1980s. Prehistoric archaeology in Europe is a different story, as biological remains began to be analyzed earlier than in classical archaeology.

See also
 Ancient DNA
 Biocultural anthropology
 Odontometrics
 Osteoarchaeology
 Paleopathology
 Zooarchaeology

References

Further reading

 J. Buikstra, 1977.  "Biocultural dimensions of archaeological study: a regional perspective".  In: Biocultural adaptation in prehistoric America, pp. 67–84.  University of Georgia Press.
 J. Buikstra and L. Beck, eds., 2006.  "Bioarchaeology: the Contextual Study of Human Remains."  Elsevier.
 M. Katzenberg and S. Saunders, eds., 2000.  Biological anthropology of the human skeleton.  Wiley.
 K. Killgrove, 2014. Bioarchaeology . In: Oxford Annotated Bibliographies Online. Oxford.
 C.S. Larsen, 1997.  Bioarchaeology: interpreting behavior from the human skeleton.  Cambridge University Press.

 S. Mays, 1998.  The archaeology of human bones.  Routledge.
 Samuel J. Redman, 2016. Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums.  Harvard University Press.
 M. Parker Pearson, 2001. The archaeology of death and burial.  Texas A&M University Press.
 D. Ubelaker, 1989.  Human skeletal remains: excavation, analysis, interpretation.  Taraxacum.
 T. White, 1991.  Human osteology.  Academic Press.

External links
Organizations
 American Association of Physical Anthropologists
 Biological Anthropology Section of the American Anthropological Association
 British Association of Biological Anthropologists and Osteoarchaeologists
 Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology

Journals
 American Journal of Physical Anthropology
 International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
 HOMO: Journal of Comparative Human Biology
 International Journal of Paleopathology
 Bioarchaeology of the Near East

Other
 Paleopathology
 The African Burial Ground
 Bioarchaeology and the Center for Bioarchaeological Research
 National NAGPRA homepage
 Bones Don't Lie Blog
 Powered by Osteons Blog
 Kristina Killgrove's Bioarchaeology Blog at Forbes

1970s neologisms
Collections care
Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
Museology
Cultural heritage
Archaeological science
Art and cultural repatriation
Zooarchaeology

Bioarchaeology


The Raptor Trust is a wild bird rehabilitation center located in the Millington section of Long Hill Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, and surrounded by the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.

History
Len Soucy became interested in hawks after a visit to the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania in 1964. In 1968, he acquired  in Millington, and with the help of his family started to take care of injured raptors in their backyard. Over time their efforts became known, a bird hospital was added, and by the end of the seventies, hundreds of different birds were annually brought in to be taken care of, supported by the private efforts of the Soucy family. In 1982, The Raptor Trust was founded as a non-profit organization to provide the organizational and financial infrastructure for the mission, namely to provide free care for orphaned and injured birds, to educate people about birds, especially birds of prey, and to set an example of humane conduct.

Today

Currently the organization maintains an infirmary, educational facilities, a gift shop, and a large complex of some 70 cages and aviaries for recuperating birds that will be released and for providing refuge to unreleasable birds. About 40 hawks, eagles, and owls are permanent residents of the trust. A number of unreleasable birds have bred successfully. Unreleasable birds also can serve as foster parents to younger birds. Visitors can view the many unreleasable birds of prey of the facility at close range.

References

External links

Official Web Site of The Raptor Trust

Buildings and structures in Morris County, New Jersey
Long Hill Township, New Jersey
Organizations established in 1982
Organizations based in New Jersey
Bird sanctuaries of the United States
Wildlife rehabilitation and conservation centers
Tourist attractions in Morris County, New Jersey
Ornithological organizations in the United States
1982 establishments in New Jersey
Raptor organizations

The Raptor Trust


Confuse the Marketplace is an EP by LCD Soundsystem.  The 12" single is a collection of songs for the North American market, all of which were previously only available on vinyl on European singles from Sound of Silver.  All the songs were readily available on the extended edition of 45:33, released one month prior.

Track listing

External links
Official LCD Soundsystem website

LCD Soundsystem albums
2007 EPs

Confuse the Marketplace


Václav Pichl (25 September 1741 – 23 January 1805; known in German as Wenzel Pichl) was a Czech classical composer of the 18th century. He was also a violinist, music director and writer.

Pichl was born at Bechyně, Bohemia.  His first musical training was at Bechyne with the cantor Jan Pokorný. He served as a singer between the years 1752–1758 at the Jesuit college at Březnice. In Prague, he was a violinist at the Jesuit seminary of Saint Wenceslaus and his studies while at the university were philosophy, theology and law.

He was appointed to the post of first violinist of the Týn Church in 1762 and studied counterpoint with the organist J. N. Seger. In 1765 he was engaged by the composer Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf as a violinist for the private orchestra of Bishop Adam Patachich at Nagyvárad (now Oradea, Romania). The orchestra was dissolved in 1769 and Pichl became the music director for Count Ludwig Hartig in Prague.

In about 1770 he became first violinist of the Vienna court theatre and on the recommendation of the Empress Maria Theresa, he became music director for the Austrian governor of Lombardy at Milan, Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este. Pichl went to Italy in 1777 and remained there until 1796 when the French invaded Lombardy, he then returned to Vienna, where he stayed in the service of the archduke until his death (apart from a brief visit to Prague in 1802). In 1785, he met Mozart and became friends with him. While Pichl was active in Milan, he served as Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy's musical trustee in Milan, as well having composed over 148 pieces for the prince's favorite instrument, the baryton. A detailed list of works that Pichl prepared for  Dlabac's Künstler-Lexikon (1802) runs to around 900 items, most of which are still extant. Wenzel Pichl died at Vienna, Austria, on 23 January 1805, as the result of a stroke while playing a violin concerto at the Palais Lobkowitz. He was 63 years old.

Selected works
 Six symphonies, op. 1 (two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, drums, strings. ca. 1778. "SEI SINFONIE A PIÙ STROMENTI. Dedicate A SUA ALTEZZA REALE IL SERENISSIMO ARCIDUCA FERDINANTO Principe Reale d'Ungeria e Boemia ... Da WENCESLAO PICHL. in attuale Servizio dell'Istessa Altezza Reale. OPERA PRIMA")
 Six String Quartets, op. 2 (in A, C, F, Em, D, and B♭. ca. 1779.)
 Three Violin Concertos, op. 3 (in D, G and B♭. 1779.)
 Six trios concertans, op. 7 (in C, F, B♭, E♭, A and D. 1783.) The front page of this work (IMSLP) states that he was a pupil of M. Haydn
 Three Symphonies, op. 8 (in C, E♭ and D. 1784.)
 Six Duos for Violin and Viola, op. 10 (in C, G, D, B♭, F, E♭. 1784.)
 Three quartets for flute, violin, viola, and violoncello, op. 12 (1787)
 Three String Quartets, op. 13 (in A, B♭ and E♭. 1788.)
 Three Duets for viola and cello, op. 14 (in C, G and A. ca. 1788.)
 Three Symphonies, op. 15 (in D, B♭ and ca. 1790.)
 Three Duos for violin and cello, op. 16 (Amadeus Edition edited by Bernhard Pauler, published in 2002)
 Twelve Caprices for solo violin, op. 19 (1796)
 Three Sonatas for Solo Violin with Accompaniment of Violin or Viola, op. 23
 Symphonies for Orchestra op. 24
 Sei fughe con un preludio fugato: per un violino solo  (may be op. 41 )
 Etude for the Violin in the Form of Twelve Caprices, op. 46 (about 1801)
 Koncert for String Bass and Orchestra in C major

References

External links

1741 births
1805 deaths
People from Bechyně
Czech male classical composers
Czech expatriates in Italy
Czech classical violinists
Male classical violinists
Czech Classical-period composers
18th-century Bohemian musicians
Musicians who died on stage
String quartet composers
19th-century Czech male musicians

Václav Pichl