Groundbreaking surprise

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) thought he was simply turning over the first shovel for the construction of the new collections wing for the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History. However, his shovel struck metal, bringing a seemingly too-quick response by museum archaeologists, with equipment at the ready, to take a closer look and document the moment.

DeFazio had not hit a project-stopping artifact, however. His strategically placed "dig" put him in contact with a specially placed box containing gifts to thank the Congressman for his long-running effort to bring $2.8 million in funding to the project from a federal highway package. More than 500,000 artifacts being stored and made available for research by the museum have surfaced during road and public works projects that date back to the construction of dams on the Columbia River.

Above, DeFazio holds a plaster cast of a fossil skull of Perchoerus, a 28-million-year-old peccary -- also known commonly as a javelina -- from the Turtle Cove strata of the John Day Fossil Beds in eastern Oregon. The box also contained a hand-hewn knife made by museum director Jon Erlandson, who is standing next to DeFazio. Also pictured are Pamela Endzweig, the museum's director of collections, and Thomas Connolly, who heads the museum's research division.

(Click on the photo for a larger view and high-resolution version of the image. Photo by Jack Liu)

Link: Groundbreaking announcement