COBBLE MORTARS/BOWLS: EVIDENCE OF PREHISTORIC FISHERIES IN THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BIGHT (original) (raw)
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2003
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PALEOCOASTAL LITHIC USE ON WESTERN SANTAROSAE ISLAND, CALIFORNIA
California’s Northern Channel Islands have produced several Paleocoastal assemblages that include some of the most intricate and finely crafted lithic technologies in the Americas. Current understanding of chert use and availability on the islands comes primarily from research on Late Holocene sites from Santa Cruz Island, where chert sources played an important role in providing microdrills for Late Holocene Olivella bead production. New data from Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites suggest that Paleocoastal peoples relied heavily on other cherts from San Miguel and Santa Rosa islands. To examine the deeper history of lithic use on the islands, we analyzed eight Paleocoastal lithic assemblages from San Miguel and Santa Rosa, which were part of the larger island of Santarosae until about 10,000 years ago. We discuss lithic availability and material preference for formal and expedient stone tool manufacture on the Northern Channel Islands between ~12,000 and 7,500 years ago.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2016
Decades of systematic archaeological investigations highlight the importance of fish and fishing for prehistoric people along the central coast of California, but to date temporal and spatial trends remain unsynthesized. An evaluation of 202,177 fish remains from 86 sites on the central coast of California yielded a sample of 75,532 NISP from temporally and methodologically controlled contexts. Seventynine temporal components demonstrate a 10,000-year history of fishing within estuaries, along the open rocky coast, and on the Monterey Peninsula. Fishes within six taxa dominate the record throughout including New World silversides, small surfperches, and members of the herring family which almost certainly were caught with nets, and rockfish and cabezon which were amenable to individual hook and line capture. The persistent dominance of these fishes suggests that nets and hooks/gorges were employed throughout the sequence along with watercraft. Only very modest changes are apparent between 10,000 and 300 years ago, suggesting continuous harvest of a relatively productive, stable resource that was too abundant to be seriously impacted by pre-European harvesting practices. There is no evidence for gradual or incremental intensification in fishing, rather there are three intervals of change in fish remains and inferred fishing practices that reflect changes in human population and/or environment. There is no compelling evidence for depression of the prehistoric fishery and the record seems to reflect epiphenomenal sustainability related to low human populations and a highly productive, upwelling-fueled, under-exploited fishery. Comparison of the prehistoric record with enormous yields recorded historically further supports this conclusion. .
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2002
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American Antiquity, 2001
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Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 1989
The reconstruction and interpretation of prehistoric subsistence has been a focus of Santa Barbara-area archaeology for many years, and the analysis of faunal remains is an integral part of this research. Shellfish remains are an abundant and visible constituent of local sites. The role of shellfish in subsistence, and their relative contribution to the prehistoric diet, have been topics of recent literature (Erlandson 1988a;. To understand the role of shellfish in the prehistoric diet, it is necessary to document the nature of shellfish remains in archaeological sites.
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Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 2015
Author(s): Jones, Terry L.; Lebow, Clayton G. | Abstract: Previous assessments of the age of bedrock mortars (BRMs) on the central California coast have limited them to post cal A.D. 1250 contexts. Recent investigations from a single-component late Middle Period site with associated bedrock mortars (CA-SLO-5) on the San Luis Obispo coast, and the stratigraphic position of a bedrock mortar cup beneath dated midden residues at Swordfish Cave (CA-SBA-503) in northern Santa Barbara County, indicate that these features were used as early as 1,385 cal B.C. and that their overall age encompasses the late Early, Middle, Middle-Late Transition, and Late/Early Historic periods in this region.