We investigate animal food preferences of the Ostiones people, the occupants of the coastal site of Puerto Marqués, one of the few Late Archaic Period sites located along the Pacific coast of Mexico ...(4600 and 2000 cal BCE). Our data are based upon recovered faunal remains at the site, which consist of vertebrate bones and molluskan shells identified to the lowest possible taxon. Habitat information for the animals allows a reconstruction of the Ostiones people's predator-prey relationship to regional animal populations. Estimated meat weight calculations provide information about the relative importance of food sources, at least in terms of animal remains at the site. In general, shellfish meat dominates meat from vertebrates and the principal targeted mollusks are estuarine. Bony fish are the most important contributor to vertebrate meat and they are mainly marine species. We compare these data to the only other known Late Archaic Period coastal assemblages on the southern Pacific coast of Mexico in order to formulate a preliminary model of people's coastal adaptation during this interval.
Since the collapse of the Clovis-first model of the peopling of the Americas some 30 years ago, there has been growing interest in the Pacific Coast as a potential early human dispersal corridor. ...With postglacial eustatic sea level rise inundating most New World paleoshorelines older than ~7000 years, however, locating terminal Pleistocene sites along modern coastlines is challenging. Using the distribution and archaeology of subaerial Paleocoastal archaeological sites on California's Northern Channel Islands as a guide, we developed a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) predictive model to locate and map submerged high probability landforms, which might contain Paleocoastal sites. Our results illustrate how archaeologists can narrow targets in their search for evidence of the first Americans along submerged Pacific Coast paleoshorelines. Keywords: Underwater Archaeology, Peopling of the New World, Paleoshorelines, Geophysical Mapping
On global, regional, and local scales, sea level histories and paleoshoreline reconstructions are critical to understanding the deep history of human adaptations in island and coastal settings. The ...distance of any individual site from the coast strongly influences decisions about the transport of coastal resources and has a direct impact on human settlement and resources procurement strategies. Our ability, then, to identify relic productive habitats, such as wetlands, that were subaerial during time periods relevant to human occupation, is critical to models of human settlement and resource patterning that guide our search to identify cultural resources. Accurate location of productive habitats becomes more critical when searching for terminal Pleistocene sites submerged by postglacial marine transgression. While paleoshoreline reconstructions and sea level histories can provide a baseline for identifying drowned and ancient coastal ecosystems, post-transgressive sediment deposited on the seafloor can skew accurate paleoshoreline location. To correct for this, we used sub-bottom profiling data from the southern California Coast to determine revised paleoshoreline locations and to identify sonar signatures indicative of paleogeographic contexts that may harbor wetland environments. These data were used to define core sample locations that resulted in the identification of submerged, preserved paleosols. The paleosols data, presented here for the first time, have provided information on ancient landscapes and relic habitats that were subaerial prior to postglacial sea level rise. In our study area on the continental shelf off the California Channel Islands archipelago, the paleosols correspond to a critical period of shifting habitats, evolving landscapes, species extinctions, and the arrival of humans into a rapidly changing ecosystem.
The Channel Islands of California have received much attention from researchers, in part, due to the long occupation history of the islands that spans at least 13,000 years. The Northern Channel ...Islands have played an important role in our understanding of early coastal adaptations and development of complexity among maritime adapted peoples; however, this is only part of the picture. The Southern Channel Islands, located approximately 90 km south of the Northern Channel Islands, have a similar occupational history to their northern counterparts, but exist in a very different environmental and geographic context. Occupants on each island would have faced marine and terrestrial environments that could be vastly different based on issues such as fluctuating sea temperatures, fresh water accessibility, and plant, animal, and marine shell seasonality. The coastal adaptations along all the Channel Islands reflected these differences. Understanding variation on the Channel Islands archipelago can be realized by comparing and contrasting multiple types of environmental and material data from trans-Holocene sites, archaeological deposits that present continuous data sequences over a wide time span of the Holocene. One such site from San Clemente Island in the southern portion of the archipelago is Eel Point. Previous excavations at this site resulted in a rich array of cultural material; however, recent research has shown major portions of the collections have not yet been processed, are unanalyzed, or are under-analyzed. Specifically the groundstone and archaeobotanical assemblages have not been comprehensively analyzed or reported on, but are integral to understanding not only subsistence strategies, but also technological development and island paleo and historical ecology. These data form the basis for an inter-island comparative approach to understand long-term human-environmental interactions and impacts to ancient ecosystems on the Channel Islands archipelago. This study focuses on leveraging these under-analyzed and unanalyzed data to present on the variation in adaptions on the archipelago and to demonstrate the relevance of multi-island studies for considering the cultural impacts of climatic change in Mediterranean environments.
Using 1929 aerial photos of western Santa Cruz Island, we identified numerous potential shell midden locations, followed by confirmation of site locations via field reconnaissance. Heavy grazing by ...sheep, cattle, and pigs closely cropped island vegetation in the early twentieth century, exposing shell middens now often covered with thick vegetation. We discuss the potential and limitations of early aerial photos as aids to archaeological site identification and management in island and coastal settings. Although results varied from island to island, we found historic aerial photos to be extremely useful for documenting previously unrecorded sites on Santa Cruz Island, ranging from historical EuroAmerican sites to Island Chumash sites dating to as much as 7250 cal BP. These methods may also be applicable to other islands around the world subject to heavy livestock grazing in the past, especially where introduced animals have been removed and recovering vegetation now obscures archaeological sites.
Paleocoastal sites, dated between ∼13,000 and 8000 cal yr BP, are relatively abundant on California's Northern Channel Islands but rare on the largest island of Santa Cruz. Here we describe three ...lithic sites containing chipped-stone crescents and, in one case, a stemmed Channel Island Barbed point fragment. Elsewhere on the islands, datable sites containing crescents are either terminal Pleistocene or early Holocene in age. Two of the lithic sites produced no datable organic remains, but one contains a small patch of intact shell midden dated to ∼8650 cal yr BP. These three sites add to the growing number of Paleocoastal sites on Santa Cruz and the other Northern Channel Islands.
Defining a maritime cultural landscape relies on recognizing both the landscape and seascape as integral to maritime societies. While this concept has been part of anthropological studies for ...decades, data from the submerged portion of the maritime landscape is often overlooked. The maritime archaeological work needed to collect these data has historically been marginalized within the broader archaeological discipline, but is slowly gaining widespread acceptance. More island and coastal researchers have begun integrating land- and sea-based data into their project designs, promoting recognition of the importance of sea-based data from submerged landscapes and encouraging understanding that maritime cultural landscapes shaped and are shaped by maritime societies. Among the many maritime cultural landscapes worldwide, we present two examples from California that exemplify how researchers are conceptualizing maritime landscapes and gathering data necessary for a holistic view of maritime societies and the spaces that influence their cultural development.
While studies on recovery bias are numerous in the literature, the current research focuses on defining best practices in field collection techniques to provide a more accurate representative of site ...constituents, particularly fish remains. Methods to determine best practices included use of 1/4-inch, 1/8-inch, and 1/16-inch mesh to process excavated material from 10 × 10 cm and 40 × 40 cm-sized bulk column samples and from a 1 × 1 m test unit. Fish remains were compared to determine density and diversity differences between the samples and how these different data sets may impact cultural interpretations. This research shows that while collection of larger column samples processed using a smaller mesh size provides a more robust data set, the taxonomic richness present in a 1 × 1 m test unit provides complimentary data that are critical to understanding subsistence trends as a whole.
Recent surveys on California's northern Channel Islands have highlighted the ubiquity of small, low-density lithic scatters across coastal terraces and interior ridgelines. These sites typically lack ...organic materials or diagnostic artifacts and are therefore rarely the subject of archaeological investigation. Here we quantify raw material and flake type for nine representative sites from three distinct parts of Santa Rosa Island. The three regions are located on the western, eastern, and northern portions of the island, where Dry Canyon chalcedony, metavolcanics, and a mix of metavolcanics and Wima chert are most common, respectively. Assemblages from these sites reflect a consistent pattern in which inhabitants opportunistically used locally available, low-quality toolstone for expedient tools rather than trading for high-quality exotic materials. An investigation of two permanent settlement sites on the north coast, CA-SRI-19 and -821, show that the pattern of using local materials was consistent for at least the last 7,500 years. Investigating sparse lithic scatters with limited data in aggregate provides a useful approach to more fully understand patterns of mobility and resource acquisition and use.
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