CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

Analysis and Interpretation of

The Van Norman Archaeological Complex Orphan Collection

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology, Public Archaeology

By

Dianne Gail Bellenger

May 2016

The thesis of Dianne Gail Bellenger is approved:

______Dr. James Snead Date

______Dr. Sabina Magliocco Date

______Dr. Matthew Des Lauriers, Chair Date

California State University, Northridge

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Acknowledgements

I could not have completed this thesis without the incredible assistance and support I’ve received from a multitude of people. First on my list is the chair of my graduate committee, Matthew Des Lauriers, for taking the time to walk me through the process and sit with me to go over changes that were needed. Second, James Snead, the ever-patient James Snead, who never objected to my many questions and requests for clarification. Next, Sabina Magliocco, whose knowledge about ritual gave me the insight I needed for this project. Special thanks to Kathleen Hull for generously donating her time to sit with me to discuss my thoughts and ideas about this project and taking the time to respond to my emails. I cannot forget to mention the original archaeologists and field team who excavated this site in the 1970s, especially Gerald

Gates. Without such extensive record keeping and careful packaging of the collection,

I would have floundered.

Many, many thanks to my three wonderful daughters, Alex, Livi and Andie, for their patience and support of me during my journey through graduate school. I know it was not easy, but we all persevered. I cannot go without thanking my friends and fellow graduate students at CSUN, Anne, Monica, Brittany, Meagan, Madlen,

Karleen, Allison, Travis, Austin, Kimi, Joanne and so many more. Without your support and friendship, I would be lost. My unending appreciation goes to my friend,

Susan Hart Hellman, who, no matter what time of day, will critique and edit whatever

I throw her way, and listen to me chatter on and on over tea.

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Table of Contents

Signature Page ...... ii Acknowledgements ...... iii List of Figures ...... vi List of Photographs ...... vii List of Tables ...... viii Abstract ...... ix

Chapter 1 – Introduction and Background ...... 1 The Site in Question...... 1 The Complex ...... 2 Settlement Along the Pacific Coast ...... 3 It’s in the Genes ...... 5 Southern California Settlement ...... 5 The Effects of Climate ...... 6 The Southern Californian Hunter-Gatherer Perspective ...... 6 Complexity ...... 7 Southern California Dating Sequences ...... 8 The Importance of Boats ...... 8 Beads: Value and Trade Items Within Society ...... 9 Shell Beads in a Mortuary Context ...... 13

A Brief History of Chumash, Tongva, Tataviam and Serrano ...... 17 Chumash ...... 17 Tongva ...... 19 Tataviam ...... 21 Serrano ...... 21 A Theoretical Analysis of the Complex...... 23 Ritual, Landscape and Social Unification ...... 28 Ritual and Culture ...... 28 Ritual Landscape and Performance ...... 31 The Mourning Ritual...... 33 Social Unification ...... 37 Exchange of Goods and Ideas ...... 39

Chapter 2 – The Van Norman Reservoir Archaeological Complex ...... 42 Method of Analysis ...... 42 The Location ...... 46 The Complex-Site Descriptions ...... 50 4-LAN-475 (VN1/VS11) ...... 50 4-LAN-490 (VN2/VS45) ...... 50 4-LAN-491 (VN3) ...... 51 4-LAN-492 (VN4) ...... 51

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4-LAN-493 (VN5/VS63A) ...... 52 4-LAN-629 (VN6/VS15) ...... 52 4-LAN-642 (VN7/VS45A) ...... 52 4-LAN-643 (VN8/VS45B) ...... 53 4-LAN-644 (VN9/VS45C) ...... 53 4-LAN-645 (VN10/VS63B) ...... 53 4-LAN-646 (VN11) ...... 53 Comparative Archaeology in and Near the San Fernando Valley ...... 55

Chapter 3 – Data Analysis ...... 62

Chapter 4 – Discussion ...... 82

Chapter 5 – Conclusions ...... 90 Future Research Opportunities ...... 93

Bibliography ...... 94

Appendix ...... 101

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List of Figures

1:1 Map of Southern California, Local Indigenous Groups and Complex Site ...... 16

3:1 LAN-645 (VS63B)-Types of artifacts found in each unit ...... 65 3:2 LAN-645 (VS63B)-Types of artifacts found at each depth, with total count of artifacts found at the site ...... 66 3:3 LAN-645 (VS63B)-Percentage of artifact types...... 68 3:4 LAN-645 (VS64B)-Frequency of artifact material...... 70 3:5 LAN-493 (VS63A)-Material type by level depth ...... 72 3:6 LAN-493 (VS63A)-Material types and frequencies per unit ...... 73 3:7 LAN-493 (VS63A)-Burnt rock numbers by unit ...... 77 3:8 LAN-493 (VS63A)-Unburnt rock numbers by unit...... 78 3:9 LAN-493 (VS63A)-Burnt and unburnt unidentified bone by unit ...... 79 3:10 LAN-493 (VS63A)-Surface material types ...... 81

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List of Photographs

2:1 Photograph of Complex map and surrounding area from Gerald Gates’s report of the excavation ...... 48

3:1 Fire-affected metate fragments from LAN-645 ...... 63 3:2 Assortment of fire-affected metate fragments from LAN-645 ...... 64 3:3 LAN-493-Cairn/purposeful deposition of whole and broken manos ...... 75 3:4 LAN-493-Photographs of cairn/purposeful deposition of rock and broken manos ...... 76

4:1 Baskethopper bowl from LAN-493 ...... 88 4:2 Baskethopper bowl, bottom, from LAN-493 ...... 88

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List of Tables

Table 2:1-Site Numbers ...... 44

Appendix Table 1-LAN-645 (VS63B)-Artifact types by depth ...... 101 Appendix Table 2-LAN-645 (VS63B)-Artifact materials by depth ...... 102 Appendix Table 3-LAN-645 (VS63B)-Artifact types per unit ...... 103 Appendix Table 4-LAN-493 (VS63A)-Material types by depth ...... 104 Appendix Table 5-LAN493 (VS63A)-Material types and frequencies in unit ...... 105

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Abstract

Analysis and Interpretation of

The Van Norman Archaeological Complex Orphan Collection

By

Dianne Gail Bellenger

Master of Arts in Anthropology, Public Archaeology

The Van Norman Reservoir Archaeological Complex (Complex) in the north San Fernando Valley in Southern California was excavated in the 1970s after an earthquake exposed both pre- and post-contact artifacts at the reservoir. A sampling of units was conducted and artifacts were collected and documented in catalogs and inventories. Due to time and monetary restrictions, the collection received no further examination until the current project. By analyzing the pre-contact portion of the collection and comparing it with other known sites containing similar artifact types, the Complex appears to fall in line with sites formerly identified as dedicated spaces for the performance of the mourning ritual, an important aspect of the social structure of the local indigenous people.

By analyzing the existing catalogs and inventories, and comparing them to the actual artifacts in the collection, a pattern emerges that fits with what is already known about the pre-contact mourning ritual among the Southern California indigenous

ix people. Such evidence as burnt rock, burnt bone, intentionally fragmented groundstone and piles or cairns of rocks appear at the Complex. These same identifiers have been found at other sites within the region that are known to have been used for the mourning ritual, indicating that gatherings took place where ritualized deposition of items were purposely placed in the ground. The purpose of the mourning ritual was to create a cohesiveness and solidarity among the societies of hunter-gathers in this region, as well as bring a sense of closure to the mourners as their dead proceeded into the afterlife.

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Chapter 1-Introduction and Background

The Site in Question

The Van Norman Reservoir Archaeological Complex (Complex) in the north

San Fernando Valley is an archaeological site that was excavated in the 1970s as a salvage project. The archaeologists conducted a small sample of excavations where artifacts were collected, recorded and stored. The Complex borders on the territory of several groups of local indigenous people; the Chumash, Tongva, Tataviam, and

Serrano (See Figure 1:1), who all lived in very close proximity to one another and likely shared territory.

The Complex site spanned the pre- and post-contact period. By examining and analyzing the artifact types and their deposition with other known ritual sites, the

Complex appears to have been a dedicated ritual space for the local indigenous people for the performance of rituals, most notably, the mourning ritual.

Identifying the presence and type of ritual by the archaeological record, however, can be difficult. Are there specific artifacts present that can indicate ritualistic use and if so, can it be determined that a certain ritual was performed in the area, such as the mourning ritual? What exactly can the examination of artifacts tell us about the people, their society and the site itself? How can information about the site contribute to the greater body of archaeological knowledge and about the social structure of the indigenous people, if indeed it can?

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The Complex

The San Fernando Valley in Southern California, where the Complex is located, has a rich and varied history with a climate and landscape that was quite different from the present. According to surveys and radiocarbon dating (14C) done by the United States Geological Survey in 1974 (Yerkes et al 1974) within the confines of the Van Norman Reservoir, a sampling of the surface deposits from the approximate depths between one to 21 meters, are as follows:

 Location U-91 and U-93, deposits ended approximately 1,630 years B.P. and indicated the area was swampy with peat deposits.

 Locations U-13A and U-13B lie beneath Unit 4, which indicated swampy and wet conditions with plentiful flora, and dated to about 8,820 and 9,270 years B.P. U-13-37VN had a date of 910 years B.P. This provided data that the wet conditions of this area remained for about 8,000 years.

The survey resulted in the conclusion that the “…surficial deposits represent a continental fluvial environment. The sediment was deposited intermittently by streams of dominantly high-flow regime…” (Yerkes et al 1974). Therefore, during pre-contact local indigenous occupation, the area would have been wet and swampy with abundant natural resources able to support populations within this region, especially those in short-term encampments.

In the San Fernando Valley at the time of Spanish contact, between 1769 to around 1801, nine Native American villages were identified, with seven villages being documented as Tongva or Chumash. One, identified as Achoicominga, a Tongva village, was reported as being close to the San Fernando Mission (Engelhardt 1927;

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Forbes 1966; Johnston 1962; Kroeber 1925; Heizer 1968), which is located nearest to

the Complex site. According to Forbes (1969:139), baptismal records from 1797 and

later, stated the most populous village in the area had about 90 people.

The Complex is a site that represents an important part of the lifeways of the

people in pre-contact California. These culture groups did not utilize agriculture and

remained hunter-gatherers. Their complex societies included a ritual component that

was of paramount importance to their culture as mentioned in the Introduction. The

Complex is located in an area that borders on the territory of several local indigenous

populations, including the Chumash, Tongva, Tataviam and Serrano. There are others

in the area, but these are the closest groups to the Complex area and will be the focus

of analysis.

Settlement Along the Pacific Coast

When discussing the pre-contact days of Southern California and the people

who settled there, it would be remiss not to discuss the diverse history leading to the

many different cultures that arose. One theory to explain how humans first came into

North America and ultimately, into Southern California, is a route via a coastal Pacific

Ocean migration. Another theory is a migration from Beringia into North America

through inland travel via the ice-free corridor between the Laurentide and Cordilleran

ice sheets, but this is somewhat problematic because more recent research has shown

that there were likely blockages of ice along segments of the alleged corridor from

around 30,000-11,500 years BP, during and after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)

(Levson and Rutter 1996).

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There are early sites that dispute a first migration from an inland route as well.

In what is now Alberta, Canada, sites have been dated younger than 11,000 years BP, which leads to the supposition that the sites were settled by people moving up from the south rather than travelers moving through the corridor, which would not have been open at that time. Then there is the site of Monte Verde in Chile that dates older, more than 14,000 years BP, which means these people could not have migrated through the ice-free corridor either (Levson and Rutter 1996).

The early settlement dates that have been obtained point to the theory of a

‘kelp highway’ that allowed for coastal navigation where people used the coastline to travel from Beringia once the route opened up and was free of ice, which likely occurred before the ice-free inland corridor opened up (Erlandson et al 2008). At the end of the Pleistocene, about 13,000-11,500 years BP, hunter-gatherers from Beringia began using marine resources and developed skills in maritime travel, using kelp beds, which would have already been known to them, to travel along. Because they were familiar with this type of ecosystem, they would have already had the skills and knowledge needed to survive. Kelp beds would have provided plentiful marine resources and anchor points for boats when the people rested, hunted or fished.

Having additional evidence such as coastal habitation sites would help to support the kelp highway theory, but a lack of sites is likely due to inundation of landscapes as the sea level rose approximately 120 meters at the end of the LGM.

Acidic soil around the Northwest Coast, for instance, would have also destroyed any organic material such as shells or faunal remains (Davis 2011).

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It’s in the Genes

The best evidence to support a Pacific coastal migration route is genetic evidence. Mitochondrial genomes, or mitogenomes, present in indigenous populations indicate that there was likely a founding population in Beringia that remained where they were for thousands of years before spreading out along the coast once the ice receded and exposed a route. The size of the founding population is not clear and could have been as few as 80 or as many as a few hundred, which means this small group of people were susceptible to genetic drift and would have passed on traits among themselves. So, when they spread along the Pacific coast at the LGM about

18,000 years BP, they contained all of the genetic markers, the mtDNA haplogroups, which have been detected in populations of indigenous people throughout the North and South American continents. A Pacific coastal migration supports older settlements in South America and younger settlements further inland on the North American continent (Fagundes et al 2008).

Southern California Settlement

There is more supporting evidence for a coastal 11migration route to be found in Southern California, such as the discovery of Arlington Man, a human skeleton that was found on Santa Rosa Island, one of the Southern California Channel Islands, and was radiocarbon dated to about 13,000 years BP. The date indicates that this person migrated prior to the inland ice sheet route being unblocked (Gamble 2015).

Another example can be found among the Southern Californian Chumash and their development of a trade network in shell beads. These beads have been found far inland via trade networks around the end of the Pleistocene. With at least one of the

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Channel Islands apparently being inhabited around 13,000-12,000 years BP, it places

the Chumash in the area during that time period. To develop such an extensive

network of trade would have taken a significant amount of time to develop, indicating

a long-time habitation of the area. (Davis 2011).

The Effects of Climate

After the initial migrations, the climate continued to change and with the rise

in sea level, the coastline was changed, being easier to reach than before. This rich

marine environment provided an excellent ecosystem for supporting the influx of

people. Early settlement along the Southern Californian coast is indicated from a

linguistic standpoint. The origin of the Chumash language is unique because it has not

been found to be the basis for any other indigenous Californian languages. Because

the beginning of the language arose in the Santa Barbara area, the Chumash were

likely very early settlers in that region. As populations increased and moved around

California, multiple languages, up to eighty, were spoken within relatively close

proximity to one another, and it is probable that groups bordering one another spoke

several languages (Gamble 2015). With a diverse language system among the

indigenous people, it would have been vital to develop elements within the culture that

would provide the people with an identity to their particular language group, as well as

forming a bond among the other groups they interacted with. Ritual provides those

elements, as will be discussed.

The Southern Californian Hunter-Gatherer Perspective

It was not that long ago that California had been neglected in discussions about

pre-contact complex hunter-gatherer societies. Significant works by Binford (1971,

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1980), Kelly (1995) and Price and Brown (1985) do not cover pre-contact California societies with much detail due to the belief that hunter-gatherers could not have complex social structures. It was thought that because life in California was easy due to accessible resources, there was no need to develop complex societies. In 1951, a book on California anthropology hardly touched the archaeology of the region and focused mainly on historical and ethnographic accounts, glossing over the pre-contact time. Only when Native Californians: A Theoretical Approach was published in 1976, did the complexity of Californian cultures take shape (Jones and Raab 2004).

Complexity

As the years went by, researchers such as Arnold et al (2004) and Gamble

(2008) studied the complexity of the California coastal societies. California archaeology provides an excellent example of complex hierarchical cultures that did not utilize agriculture (Arnold et al 2004), which makes the people unique. There is evidence, according to Blackburn (1976), of irrigation in central California, but in

Southern California, agriculture was not developed. Instead, an economy was built on maritime and inland resources.

The old belief that complex societies came from the development of agriculture does not apply in Southern California because the indigenous people settling in this region had ample, rich supplies of marine resources, in addition to plentiful land-based resources such as acorns that were processed into meal. These ecosystems provided enough to survive very well without agriculture, even though there would still be shortages from overuse or mismanagement that caused stressful situations (Porcasi et al 2004).

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Southern California Dating Sequences

A culture sequence for this area includes the Early Archaic Period or

Millingstone culture, which dates from approximately 8000-3500 B.C.E., (Gamble

2015). This time period is representative of a change in economy, being dominated by the milling of plants. This led to the Early Period, 3500-600 B.C.E. where people were still in small, mobile groups, but permanent or semi-permanent settlements started to develop. By the Middle Period, 600 B.C.E – 1150 CE, settlements had increased in size and people were no longer as mobile. This time period is also when evidence points to the beginning of a monetary system using shell beads made on the northern

Channel Islands (Gamble 2015). Even with these larger settlements or villages, agriculture still was not needed and once a system of storage was developed, food products could be harvested and kept in quantities to support the populations in less mobile villages.

The Importance of Boats

When it came to obtaining marine and island resources, boats were a necessity to the indigenous people along the Southern California coast, especially in the vicinity of the Channel Islands. Traveling along the kelp highway from Beringia would have required some sort of watercraft (Des Lauriers 2015), and the skill of using and making such crafts would have continued as the people settled into new territory.

According to Des Lauriers (2015), the first boats were likely made up of tied bundles of tule reeds, making them lightweight and buoyant. These boats would not have held up for travel in the Channel Islands where sturdier vessels were needed to transport loads of trade goods such as shell beads, island steatite stone, and quantities

8 of marine foods. For this, the plank canoe, or tomol in Chumash and ti’at in the

Tongva language, was the perfect boat. Both the Chumash and Tongva used these types of boats for island travel. With the true date of the origin of the plank canoe being unknown, it is believed that it had its beginnings around 500 CE, the time when all of the Channel Islands were inhabited (Des Lauriers 2015). This is also the time when trade networks in island resources, such as the shell beads, came about (Gamble

2015).

Beads: Value and Trade Items Within Society

With the ability to create large-scale trade in value items, the complexity of the culture followed. An elite system ensued where only certain people could build and operate the plank canoes, thereby restricting the business of trade to the people in charge of the canoes. These wealthy people who operated the canoe trade business helped to create a larger inequality within the population. Affluent people had access to prestige or value items, including food, that others did not (Perry et al 2015).

Access to resources, trade and inequality naturally led to a type of monetary system (Gamble 2015). This came about through trade in beads that were made from various types of shell, including abalone, clam, mussel, and dentalium. While beads were made of Olivella (Olivella biplicata), they were not used as money, but were instead used for decorations and ornaments (Thalman 2015).

Shell beads had been used for thousands of years among the indigenous people for exchange and decoration (Gamble 2015) and were heavily traded, as evidenced by archaeological records. Beads have been found throughout Southern California, including Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, as well as

9 further away in areas like Yosemite, Humboldt, Napa and Modoc Counties (Gifford

1947; Thalman 2015). It appears that not all types of shell beads were traded equally, primarily because Olivella and clamshell beads have been mostly found at locations throughout the state, while other types were more localized, indicating a value placed on the Olivella and clamshell beads (Thalman 2015).

Larger beads are said to have been used on the straps of backpacks so the pack would roll rather than scrape against someone’s back and other small beads were pendants or ornaments. The coastal Miwok used strings of very small clamshell beads as property that were not worn as everyday ornamentation. They were saved for special use since they were considered valuable and would be either presented as gifts or used as inherited property (Thalman 2015).

In Coastal California, shell became a significant part of society, being used for tools, gaming pieces, containers, ornaments and beads. Because shell was solely found along the coast, its value grew the further it traveled from the coastal areas (Trubitt

2003). Even as far back as the Late Pleistocene, shell goods were considered prestige or value items (Bar-Yosef 1991).

The native people used several different species of clam depending on the location of the resource. The Pismo clam (Tivela stultorum) was found from San

Francisco all the way down to San Diego and is a larger clam, while a small clam,

Saxidomus giganteus, was not as common but could still be found around Monterey

(Thalman 2015).

Eyewitness accounts of clamshell beads come from as early as 1579 when a chaplain with Sir Francis Drake’s crew noted strings of beads around a Coast Miwok

10 man’s head. Later, in 1816, Louis Choris, a Frenchman who was with a Russian expedition in San Francisco saw strings of shell beads being anteed by native people when they gambled (Thalman 2015).

Because not all shell beads were used as currency and according to Gamble

(2015), these beads were special, made thicker and more durable than the other beads since these would be traded back and forth and had to be resilient. For people like the island Chumash, they had to have a system in place that would give them access to the resources on the mainland. Trade in shell beads provided that system. They made the beads and, using the tomol, would transport them to the mainland in exchange for goods they could not get on the islands.

Another interesting facet of trade beads was the use of this commodity as a sort of dowry, used to secure marriages between island and mainland, or even further away. While the monetary bead trade network expanded, not all people considered the beads in the same way. Some used the beads as symbols of political affiliation, while others such as the Cahuilla, used them primarily for ceremonial use (Gamble 2015).

Mostly though, the beads were used as money. According to Davis (1974), the

Coast Miwok would bring shells and shell beads to the Pomo and Wappo in exchange for obsidian. Then the Pomo would trade the beads to the Yuki or Patwin for furs and skins, woodpecker scalps, dried kelp or fish (Thalman 2003).

Historic accounts record that shell beads were used as retribution, such as in the case when a man was murdered and the murderer’s family gave strings of beads to the murdered man’s family (Barrett 1952). Even though this is historic, I see no reason to believe this type of bead use was not also occurring in pre-contact times.

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In the past, researchers such as Gifford (1947), believed that beads held no utilitarian purpose in ancient societies, and did not consider that they were prestige goods. A prestige item is one that is used “to display wealth, success, and power. The purpose is to solve a social problem or accomplish a social task such as attracting productive mates, labor, and allies or bonding members of social groups together via displays of success” (Hayden 1998). Such value or prestige items are important for things like marriage or mortuary practices, often providing a symbol of the cultural identity or higher status of an individual or group (Dalton 1977).

Due to the nature of shell beads being used as value items, the trade surrounding them was different than trade of utilitarian items. An interesting difference between a prestige item and a utilitarian item is in the production. For utilitarian objects, there is often a mass production system that comes from the perfection in the efficiency of producing the goods. However, for prestige items, the knowledge and technology involved in the production would more likely be a guarded secret or kept among a few specialists, thereby maintaining the prestige status (Trubitt

2003). Another difference is in the trade itself. Utilitarian items are generally traded locally, but prestige items are usually traded across long distances because of their worth (Hirth 1992).

The study of shell beads has attracted attention for many years. Bennyhoff and

Hughes (1987) classified Olivella sp. beads with accurate descriptions and measurements and placed each variety into a temporal classification system. Chester

King (1981) developed a chronology for bead types in and around the Channel Islands of Southern California and he claimed that the different bead types over time indicated

12 societal changes. Other archaeologists have used chronologies of the various types of beads to trace the distribution of beads throughout California over time (Bennyhoff and Hughes 1987, King 1981). King found the most common shell types used in bead making were from Olivella biplicata, Tivela stultorum (clam), Haliotis sp. (abalone),

Mytilus californianus (mussel), Dentalium sp. and several others that were found along the coast of Southern California (Morris 1966).

Bead types have changed over time as King (1981) found out. In the Early

Period, rectangular Olivella sp. and abalone beads were prevalent, but then stopped entirely during the Middle Period, when ‘saucer and disk’ Olivella sp. beads and abalone disk beads were made. During the Late Period, tube shaped beads were developed, made from Dentalium sp., abalone and clam. By identifying changes in the shell types, King arrived at societal changes within the Chumash. During the Early

Period, for instance, burials were found to have an even distribution of shell beads, which was believed to indicate an egalitarian society. In the Middle Period, value grave goods such as shell beads were only found in burials within specific areas of cemeteries, which showed a change in the complexity of the society. Politics played a part as power and goods were inherited. In the Late Period, shell beads became an important source of wealth and were used like money. This led to a larger variety of bead types. Please see additional discussion under A Brief History of Chumash,

Tongva, Tataviam, and Serrano; Chumash.

Shell Beads in a Mortuary Context

There are archaeologists who believe that by examining mortuary practices and the associated grave goods such as shell beads, insight into the society can be found by

13 how they treated their dead (Gamble 2001). Arguments go in both directions, with some researchers cautioning that studies in mortuary practices can oversimplify the true complexity of a culture (Chapman and Randsborg 1981) while others such as

Hodder (1982) stress that not enough attention is given to the rituals behind burials.

Beads, as grave goods, could indicate wealth or status of the interred and their family.

Gamble (2001) noted that one Chumash burial in Malibu was found with 2,347 shell beads as well as 48 glass beads. Due to the glass beads, this was a historic burial, but the large quantity of shell beads hints at the wealth or status of the family of the deceased. “It is likely…that this person was from an elite family of canoe owners and possibly a chief” (Gamble 2001). Most shell beads found in burials numbered in the hundreds or well under a hundred, so a rich burial like the one above is not within the normal range of the grave goods in an average burial.

Ethnographic accounts document that wealth in the form of shell beads was displayed by placing wreaths of bead strands around the head (Simpson 1961) and, in fact, some burials such as the one mentioned above, show evidence that beads were placed around the head or in close proximity to the skull, which supports the data that shell beads held value or importance. Further ethnographic accounts show that the

Chumash had a ritualistic or symbolic way of differentiating the commoners from the elite or higher status people by using shell beads as grave goods (Gamble 2001).

In a Middle Period Chumash cemetery, the distribution of shell beads as grave goods varied depending on sex and age of the deceased. The majority of burials contained few or no shell beads, while a small percentage had 850 or more beads.

Most of the burials containing large quantities of beads were of children and one child

14 burial contained 4,564 ornaments and beads. This, however, does not indicate that all children received rich burials simply because they were children, since the majority of child burials had no or very few beads (Gamble 2001). In the Coachella Valley in

Southern California, cremated human remains were found with associated grave goods that included shell beads in addition to other items such as pendants and projectile points (Love et al 2001, Quinn 2001). This leads to the conclusion that whether the deceased was cremated or intact, the presence of shell beads was intended as a value item or type of ritualistic votive offering.

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Figure 1.1: Map of Southern California, Local Indigenous Groups and

Complex Site 16

A Brief History of Chumash, Tongva, Tataviam, and Serrano

In pre-contact times, the area of Southern California from what is now Santa

Barbara, Ventura, the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles was inhabited by local indigenous populations (See Figure 1:1) for thousands of years, dating back to around

8000-3500 B.C.E. according to the culture sequence described in the Introduction

(Gamble 2015). As sporadic populations increased in size, permanent settlements were developed throughout Southern California (Bean 1992:303).

The most populous group, the Chumash, lived in the area of what is now

Topanga Canyon, to San Luis Obispo in the north and eastwards toward the foothills bordering the San Joaquin Valley. But the territory was not only restricted to these mainland areas; they also occupied Santa Rosa, Anacapa, San Miguel and Santa Cruz islands, islands comprising the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. The Tongva occupied an area from the San Fernando Valley south to the Los Angeles basin, as well as three of the Channel Islands; San Nicholas, San Clemente and Santa Catalina. On the northwestern boundary of their lands were the Chumash, who the Tongva likely followed in wealth and size (Gamble 2008; Bean and Smith (1978:538). The Tataviam lived east of the inland Chumash groups, near the upper portion of the Santa Clara

River and to the southwest edge of the Antelope Valley, while the Serrano territory bordered the Tongva, to the east of the Los Angeles area and into the San Bernardino

Mountains.

Chumash

The Chumash culture was complex, operating on a political system of villages where there could be a single or multiple chiefs based on inheritance, that ruled (King

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1969; Blackburn 1975, 1976). Larger villages with more than one chief may have been a “political center” (Johnson 1988) and some evidence points to there being a

“regional” chief ruling over an entire area containing several villages (Gamble 2008;

Blackburn 1975; King 1969). To add to the complexity of the Chumash society, they had three relatively distinct language groups depending on the region. These included the people to the north, the Obispeño, the people in the central area, the Purismeño,

Ineseño, Barbareño, and Ventureño, and the people on the islands, the Cruzeño

(Gamble 2008; Goddard 1996;320).

The Chumash economic system revolved around trade and exchange, including the use of shell beads as currency (King 1976), as mentioned previously. The shell beads were one of the results of craft specialization and were widely traded from the

Channel Islands (Arnold 1987; King 1976, Howard and Raab, 1993) throughout the state and into other distant regions such as the Great Basin (Bennyhoff and Hughes

1987; King 1990a). When it came to value or prestige objects such as shell beads, the elite used these items to maintain their status level or to trade with other elites to form or keep alliances (Gamble 2008).

Gibson and Koerper (2000) and King (1990) created a dateable sequence for the manufacture of shell and stone beads as well as other implements like fishhooks.

Trade in shell beads was so important to the Chumash that it is estimated that millions of drills and beads were created on the Channel Islands in about 15 permanent village sites and transported to the mainland in an exchange network for supplies and resources not available on the islands (Arnold et al 2004).

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The societal hierarchy may have developed due to a shift in the environment when the climate became dryer around A.D. 450-1300 and the people had to rely more on marine resources. Another example of craft specialization was the tomol, as mentioned previously (Des Lauriers 2015), allowing for island resources such as steatite and shell beads to be transported (Arnold 2001a; Kennett and Kennett 2000).

Gamble (2008) believes that the hierarchical status system occurred when settlements increased in size due to the ability to store foods and because of the plentiful marine resources. Some Chumash villages had populations ranging from approximately 400-500 people, with smaller seasonal encampments, and were arranged in a socio-political hierarchy based on an inherited leadership (Gamble and

Russell, 2002). This new, settled society created a desire for prestige or value items.

By specific people controlling the valuable resources, whether it was shell beads or tomol, it led to the creation of status differences since there was an unequal value placed on the different crafts.

Tongva

Like the Chumash, the Tongva culture had a hierarchical, social structure based on politics, ritual, economy and lineage (McCawley 1996). Those within a particular lineage had allotted areas for hunting and resource gathering, but if the resources became depleted or those in the lineage increased beyond the carrying capacity of the area, then the lineage would split into smaller groups and settle into another area, claiming the area for themselves. This method created expansion into previously unoccupied territory (Bean 1972a).

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For economic and ritual reasons, each lineage was divided into one of two groups or moieties. As Harrington (1942:32) explained, each moiety was responsible for providing specific things such as songs or ceremonial goods for rituals, thereby requiring both moieties to cooperate and come together to make the ritual whole. An economic exchange also occurred during these rituals. Both moieties would distribute food and other articles with one another, creating a unified base of trade over the various territories (Bean 1972a).

The lineages had a leader, a chief, called the tomyaar (Gamble 2008), who was responsible for handling the distribution and storage of food, maintain alliances with other leaders and villages, and to distribute shell bead money during ceremonies. The trade and exchange of shell beads from the islands to the mainland has been around for about 5,000 years according to archaeological excavations that have found evidence of this (Howard and Raab 1993). There were trade networks between the Tongva,

Chumash, Salinans, Serrano, Cahuilla and other groups further away. At contact, the

San Fernando missionaries recorded that the Tongva spoke at least three different dialects, yet they could easily communicate with one another (Bean 1972a; 1974).

Trade between villages and the various populations existed, as evidenced by trade artifacts discovered at sites. Examples of possible trade goods include steatite, obsidian and fused shale, which have sources many kilometers from the site locations.

Such value items as shell beads or steatite, were traded from Santa Catalina Island by the Tongva around the same time that the Chumash were producing these materials

(Raab and Howard, 2000). Value items like these were found at the Complex as well

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(Gates 1975), indicating possible trade or distribution of goods that provided an economic aspect to the ritual.

Tataviam

The Tataviam territory was roughly to the east of the inland Chumash groups, near the upper portion of the Santa Clara River and to the southwest edge of the

Antelope Valley. There was a village documented by the San Fernando Mission after contact, that was a combination of Chumash and Tataviam. To the south were the

Tongva people. The Tataviam people were Takic speakers and ethnographic data from post-contact times indicated that the Tataviam intermarried with other groups, and also attended various Chumash celebrations or rituals. Tataviam society was apparently similar to their neighbors, the Chumash and Tongva, and they also held a yearly mourning ritual between the end of summer and beginning of autumn. The ritual required a circular structure made out of brush to be constructed, which is similar to the other groups (King and Blackburn 1978).

Serrano

The Serrano’s territory bordered the Tongva, to the east of the Los Angeles area and into the San Bernardino Mountains. They were also Takic speakers, however, linguists place them closer to the Kitanemuk than to the Tongva or Chumash. The

Serrano’s socio-political structure varied from other nearby groups like the Tongva,

Tataviam or Chumash because they did not have a politically unified society with large lineage groups. Instead, they had smaller independent lineage groups that had their own land, although they apparently did not claim land that was not within their lineage group (Bean and Smith 1978).

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Being inland, they relied on desert plants like yucca and cactus, as well as pine nuts, seeds and roots. In addition to plants, they added mammals like deer and rabbits, and fish when available. Each small village had its own leader who lived in a special ceremonial house. The Serrano had a type of mourning ritual similar to the Tataviam,

Tongva and Chumash, although it was also tied to other ceremonies. Once a person died, they were cremated right away and most of the deceased’s belongings were destroyed. Some of the property was reserved for a special ceremony held a month later when it would be burned and the relatives would sing and dance. Each year, a week-long ceremony would take place, with the first two days reserved for preparing food and presents that would be needed. The fourth day was set aside to name any children who were born the past year. One the sixth day, the families erected effigies of the dead and placed the deceased’s clothing on the effigies. The evening was filled with songs and dance where presents of shell beads and other items were distributed among the attendees (Bean and Smith 1978).

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A Theoretical Analysis of the Complex

As already mentioned, ritual in its many forms, holds a deeper meaning than what might be seen on the surface. There are multiple impacts conveyed through ritual that help to create a sense of belonging and understanding of one’s place in the culture or tribe. Emile Durkheim was perhaps the most well-known French functionalist sociologist in the late 1800s and his views centered around the idea of social solidarity to explain how and why people did certain things like performing rituals that might appear strange, yet in fact had a purpose within a society. Those rituals act on the society to maintain it or change it and have a very real effect on people. The people become stronger because of ritual and the ritual maintains societal cohesion (Olaveson

2001).

In The Elementary Forms, Durkheim states that ritual is designed to “…make us act and to help us live”. His term, collective effervescence, is used to describe how religion has two main parts to its structure; belief and action. The effervescent component is when the participants in a ritual are influenced on a deep, emotional level, driven to an effervescent state by performing the ritual. As the participants experience the effects of the communal act of the ritual, they become a part of the whole. Durkheim believed that symbolic representations are critical to the creation of a society and to the individual communicating to one another. Because these representations are the foundation of society, rituals must be held regularly to recharge the effervescence (Durkheim 2001).

This communication among individuals in a society, whether close or far apart, also functions to create a mutual desire to conform and follow the societal rules and

23 behaviors that were depicted in some fashion within the symbols and ideologies, those that cause the strong emotional ties. The act of gathering for a ritual brings the individuals into a powerful bond that permeates with energy, sometimes driving the participants into a frenzied state where they chant, shout and dance (Durkheim 2001).

This collective effervescence “is also likened to a type of delirium, and to ecstatic states, especially as seen in prophets and great religious figures; further, collective effervescence is by its very nature temporary” (Durkheim 2001). A ritualistically- inspired effervescent state could not continue for long as the participants would become exhausted and it would lose its effectiveness.

Along the coast of California, several religious practices among the local indigenous people instilled this sense of belonging. Three main religions, the

Chinigchinich among the Acjachemen people who lived in what is now Orange

County, the ‘antap initiatic society among the Chumash in Santa Barbara, and the

Kuksu religion in the northern part of the state around the San Francisco Bay are excellent examples. All of these practices were restricted to the elite members of the group, but these initiates accepted the responsibility of their role in acting as the society’s leaders in political and religious matters. The rituals of these religions were a method of communicating through performance of songs and dances. With no writing system, the only way to pass along the religious or social structure of the society was through oral traditions and performance of these rituals. Without these methods of learning through words, song or performance, the history and other important factors of the society would be lost and the sense of cohesiveness and belonging would not exist. “Throughout coastal California, ritual and performance once permeated all

24 aspects of village life, much as the sacraments of a modern church guide the lives of the faithful today” (Thakar and Gamble 2015).

Continuing the study of community and cohesiveness was another French sociologist and nephew of Durkheim, Marcel Mauss. He followed in Durkheim’s footsteps and influenced other famous sociologists such as Bronislaw Malinowski and

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. Mauss had a background in ritual and religion (Hart 2007) and sought to find those common parts that created the cohesiveness of a society and that during communal rituals, especially what was known as effervescence, the worship of the sacred or god reflected a type of truth because the ritual was in fact a reflection of the society (Gordon et al 2011). The mourning ritual in Southern California falls into the category of a communal ritual as Mauss described.

Ceremonial gift exchanges involved not only an economic aspect, but also included politics, myth, feasting, drinking and socialization to form what Mauss called a total social fact (Gordon et al 2011), the material expression of Durkheim’s social facts. The exchange of items or gifts was done to repair any damage to the society and patch up gaps or holes to hold the society together (Gordon et al 2001). The presence of possible trade or value items at the Complex may reflect these total social facts.

One of Mauss’s most famous works was The Gift, which discusses these elements of social, political, economic and social aspects to gift exchange. Mauss effectively showed that the idea of a credit-based network of exchange was not an invention of modern societies, but was around throughout many different cultures in the past. He focused mainly on the North American Pacific Northwest and Melanesia where this type of exchange served to keep individuals embedded in the society and

25 maintained management over conflict (McGee et al 2012). There were three parts to exchange; an obligation to give, the obligation to receive and the obligation to repay

(McGee et al 2012). To reinforce these three ideals, mythology and imagery was developed to stress how this system reflected the moral and material parts of the society.

The distribution of wealth is best depicted in Mauss’s study of the Potlatch in the Pacific Northwest. This ritual exchange had a built-in credit system since there is time passage between the Potlatch and the repayment of the gifts. It also contains a representation of honor within the society due to the host’s adherence to the society’s customs, while discouraging bad or harmful behavior of those individuals who would not follow the societal rules. The Potlatch created a system where the members of the society could gain prestige and wealth while reinforcing these rules and is a prime example of a total social fact since it incorporates multiple parts of the society, including religious, economic, legal and social forms (McGee et al 2012).

Similar to the Potlatch, only not as extreme, the mourning ritual among the

Chumash and Tongva, contained a type of credit-based system where the host was responsible for distributing goods and providing food and other necessities. This was at great expense and would be taken up by a different host at another time.

The purpose of a ritual exchange system is two-fold; to maintain alliances and to characterize the divisions or standings of the people who are included in the exchange. This is exemplified by Mauss’s statement, “it is by opposing reason to emotion and setting up the will for peace against rash follies…that peoples succeed in substituting alliance, gift and commerce for war, isolation and stagnation” (McGee et

26 al 2012). From his studies, Mauss drew the conclusion that, “Human institutions everywhere are founded on the unity of individual and society, freedom and obligation, self-interest and concern for others” (Hart 2007). If these factors were not present, a society could not thrive and maintain its cohesive membership, especially without a system of writing, as in the case of the Southern California indigenous people, as mentioned above.

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Ritual, Landscape and Social Unification in Southern California

Ritual and Culture

Ritual was important to these unique Southern California hunter-gather societies. Ritual is a major part of the social complexity of the pre-contact people in

California and this complexity is a topic discussed by many anthropologists. Aspects of trade, exchange, politics, religion, ritual, ideology and familial relationships all contribute to a complex society. When it comes to the fuction of rituals, such as the mourning ritual venerating the deceased, there was a trade and exchange aspect that reinforced a socio-economic-political system (Blackburn 1976). As the internal and external structures of these societies grew, even without agriculture as a catalyst, their social organization became complex and multi-faceted.

With ritual being at the forefront of the social structure of pre-contact societies, it is important to understand the importance and function of the rituals to fully understand the culture (Blackburn 1976).

Information about ritual in and around pre-contact Southern California, especially mourning rituals, has been gathered from ethnographies and historical data at the time of European contact and beyond. While some change would have naturally occurred after contact, the observed rituals at initial contact and in the first few years would have provided a relatively clear and accurate view of the rituals as they were prior to contact.

Observations showed that mourning of the dead was not restricted only to the relatives of the dead, but rather was a community-wide ceremony. The ceremonies were performed in a “consecrated space of ritual performance that was re-used over

28 many years and, possibly, even generations” (Hull 2013). The concept of a ritual space or landscape within a culture has been studied by various archaeologists over the years and while rituals vary between cultures, they have similar significant aspects with regard to the social organization, status ranking, and politics (Potter 2000).

According to Hull et al (2013), ritual, in all of its forms is a complex and multi-layered part of society. In the past, archaeologists would qualify a site as ritualistic from the presence or absence of presumed ritual items, but with growing evidence and understanding of the complexity of the preparation and performance of, for example, the mourning ritual, archaeologists are more aware of what was involved.

For instance, a dedicated space was required, as was significant preparation prior to the actual event. The mourning ritual “…appears to have involved equipment acquisition or production, sequential implement fragmentation and treatment, and interment of incomplete objects or bodies…” (Hull et al 2013).

Many cultures had mourning rituals with at least some aspects to the ritual that were similar as those among the local indigenous people in and around the San

Fernando Valley. The Maidu, in northeast California, held annual mourning rituals for the dead who had died in the previous year. This ritual was known as the burning. The ritual space was chosen by the topography since they required a large, clear area. The village that had the ritual area within its territory was responsible for providing the food. Once the guests came to the site, the leader distributed the food to the families the day before the ritual began. The following day, the people built a circular enclosure made of brush and sticks with entrances at the east and west sides (Dixon

1905).

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In the middle of the circle, wood was piled up for a huge fire. In the evening, the mourners each erected a pole onto which they hung gifts or clothing to be burned.

The central fire was lit and once everyone had placed their gifts on the poles, they had the option of trading with others for different gifts before the burning started. Trading was not a necessity, however, and once this activity had concluded, the shaman or leader made a speech to the mourners and tossed the first offering of food onto the fire. Crying and wailing occurred and throughout the night, the people threw or carefully placed the gifts and clothing into the fire. In the morning, the poles were taken down and any remaining clothing or gifts were put on the fire. As singing and wailing continued, the fire was almost snuffed out by the large quantity of remaining goods. After this, the leader of the ritual made a final speech to end the event. People then rested, played games or gambled for a day until separating to their villages

(Dixon 1905).

The mourning ritual of the central California Miwok also had similar aspects to the Southern Californian culture groups. An observation in 1906 by C. Hart Merriam

(1955) stated that the Miwok mourning ritual was held annually and, when completed, allowed the official mourning period of the relatives of the dead to end. While this observation was in post-contact times, many of the ritual elements likely remained the same or had their origin in the past. As with other groups, the Miwok erected a ceremonial ‘house’ with a fire in the center. This house, however, was covered, at least at the time Merriam observed. For several nights, the mourners would wail and cry, sing and dance, while the people who were not mourning would watch or participate in chants. The hosts would prepare food and it would be shared among the

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guests. This ritual apparently did not have the element of burning offerings, gifts or

clothing of the deceased.

Even in larger societies, such as the South American Tiwanaku culture, had a

sacred landscape defined by the Akapana, an earthen mound shrine. This centrally

located shrine “…restated cosmology, a worldview so broadly held by members of the

Tiwanaku society, elite and non-elite, that the architectural references were recognized

and accepted. Further from the center of the Akapana, the sacred landscape became a

more profane space” (Moore 2004), but the ritual space itself provided a point of

stability between power, myth and emotional relationships within the society

(Chidester and Linenthal 1995). The profane or outer areas could be used for

temporary encampments and daily activities not directly related to the actual

ceremony, such as preparing food or cooking. While the ritual might be different than

those in Southern California, the concept of it creating a cohesion between the people

is the same.

Ritual Landscape and Performance

An approach to understanding ritualistic sacred places comes from Douglas

(1972, 1982a, b) where she states that a culture’s belief system should be analyzed as

being “part of society” rather than looking at it as a completely separate entity. Ritual

actions and beliefs are central to a particular society’s people understanding the part

they play in the world, be it political, economic or ideological, and the mourning ritual

falls in line with this by showing how life and death is another aspect of the culture,

not something that is isolated. Ritual revolving around the dead creates a link between

the sacredness of the mortuary landscape and the social order of a culture. The sacred

31 landscape within the Andean cultures Moore studied included physical landmarks such as mountains, shrines and water resources like springs, as well as the actual way in which the dead were treated. The dead and the physical landscape combine to create the ritual space in the Andes as well as other cultures (Moore 2004).

By examining comparative cultures and their use of dedicated, ritual space, it can give insight into the widespread similarities of the importance and symbolic nature of dealing with the dead. Therefore, location and landscape matter when it comes to these ritual spaces and the areas around them. For example, mountains or water features are prominent at sacred places for either practical or spiritual reasons, as said by Perry (2007); “The sacred properties of places such as mountaintops and springs may or may not be accentuated through cultural modification”. This includes making changes to an area such as clearing brush, or transporting ritual objects to the site because such resources were not found onsite, or since value/prestige items were required for ceremonies.

Myth or lore could play a part in choosing a particular landmark or feature, whereas being close to a water source would be vital for a gathering place since natural resources would be needed to sustain the people during the ceremonial time.

Even a temporary encampment of a few days or weeks would require easy access to nearby water, plants and animals.

Within the ritual space, the ceremony was conducted. Recent studies of ritual and the corresponding components of its meaning includes the prospect of a performance function that is necessary for the society (Hull 2014; Bell 1992, 1997).

According to Hull (2014), most literature focuses on performance ritual in complex or

32 large-scale societies, while small, hunter-gatherer societies have been studied with a particular focus on their mortuary rituals or rock art, thereby neglecting the performance aspect of these rituals (Hull 2014; Hill 2011; Randall 2011; Robinson

2004; Yates, Golson and Hall 1985). The reason for this is likely because larger societies are easier to relate to as far as political or ideological functions. But that does not mean hunter-gatherer societies, such as the Tongva or Chumash, did not use a form of performance in their rituals.

In an account by the ethnographer Stephen Powers (1840-1904) of a mourning ritual by the Maidu tribe in northern California, he stated that the ceremony was held in late August, started at night and went through the night. During this time, donations of food, basketry, shell beads in strings, and clothing were hung on branches, taken down and tossed into bonfires at intervals between dances. This is certainly a performance aspect of the ceremony that included any attendees who wished to participate, creating a camaraderie between the people and forming a united group even if the people came from different villages or from different language groups

(Walker 1951). The performance was the pinnacle of the ritual.

The Mourning Ritual

Walker (1951) became familiar with the mourning ritual after he excavated five archaeological sites in Los Angeles County and found evidence of ritualized intentional fragmenting of artifacts, eventually leading to his conclusion that the sites were all used for the mourning ritual. The mourning ritual certainly is not a unique concept as mentioned in above examples. Walker, however, references a similar ceremony from another continent, among the Goldi (now called Nanai) in northeastern

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Asia. The Goldi made offerings of clothes, food, utensils and provided dances for entertainment for the deceased, believing the dead required this for them to move into the afterlife. The performance of the dance in this case was for the deceased and united the participants in their service to this cause.

In Southern California, a change occurred at the transition between the

Millingstone Period and the Intermediate Period. At this transition, human occupation increased and spread further inland and the use of groundstone for manos and metates, or mortars and pestles, became more common. Then, later in the Intermediate Period, cremations became the favored method of handling the deceased and stone beads were used as offerings to the deceased (Hull 2013).

Sutton (2009) posited that at the transition, the Takic speaking people moved into the Southern California coastal area from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, which was occupied by those in the later portion of the Millingstone Period. According to

Sutton, these new residents cremated their dead in features identified as being related to mourning rituals. Sutton believes that as this population increased, their mourning rituals became a cyclical event that distinguished them from other groups and created a bond among themselves. Hull (2013) notes that the mourning ritual may have had its beginnings around 2,500 years ago which correlates with the transition period, which would make Sutton’s postulation correct.

As the populations increased and settled in the Los Angeles basin and on the

Channel Islands, the Tongva culture had its beginnings. Death was an important aspect of society and was considered a type of force that arrived to end a person’s life by taking their breath away (Boscana 1933; Harrington 1933; McCawley 1996). Specific

34 rituals, starting with a funeral, commenced upon the death of an individual for the purpose of liberating the spirit and aiding its travel to the “land of the dead”

(McCawley 1996). The final stage of dealing with death was with the culmination of the mourning ritual. This could be held anywhere from a year to four years after the initial death (Merriam 1955), and parts of this ceremony included performance aspects.

The performance of the ritual was critical to passing along the culture or tribe’s history, which strengthened the feeling of belonging, but immediately after the death of a person, a mortuary ceremony was held only among the close relatives of the deceased (Kroeber 1925:642) and the body was generally cremated with objects that were also burned, such as intentionally fragmented groundstone, baskets or other personal objects of the deceased (Hull 2013; Boscana 1978:73; Reid 1968). While it is not documented where the initial cremations and ritualistic burning of items occurred, it is believed that this activity was held in areas that were designated for this and not for the communal mourning ritual, such as within the village or very close by (Hull et al 2013; Davis 1921; Merriam 1955a). The ritual space for the communal mourning ritual was located away from residential locales and cemeteries, and while they sometimes contained primary burials, there were no full cemeteries found on the sacred site. These sacred areas were known to the attendees and were reserved only for certain rituals, such as the mourning ritual (Blackburn 1974; Hull et al 2013).

The mourning ritual of the Tongva was complex (Hull et al 2013), went for eight days and “…involved four rites, and was typically given by person (sic) of wealth and prominence” (Merriam, 1955), and required “significant investment in

35 both preparation and performance” in a predesignated area for that specific ritual use

(Hull 2013). The officiator of the ceremony offered invitations to other tribes or villages, was the overseer of the preparations and was responsible for providing the ritual feast for the entire duration of the ceremony as well as overseeing the redistribution of property (Reddy 2015). The redistribution of property was an economic and political aspect of the ritual. The set-up of the sacred site included erecting a pole made from a pine tree, known as the Ko-too’-mut. This pole was rubbed to a polish and painted. This was the central location for hanging baskets and offerings during songs and chants (Reddy 2015).

The first rites were to wash and then burn clothing, burn images or objects and lastly, to redistribute any property that had belonged to the deceased. The burning of an image and property was done by throwing them into a fire pit or bonfire on the final day of the ritual (Harrington 1933; McCawley 1996; Reid 1968).

As mourning ceremonies were observed and recorded post-contact (D.A.R.

1924), it was noted that the human remains would be placed beneath a cairn composed of a pile or stack of rocks or stones, or sometimes groundstone objects such as mortars, metates or bowls that had been broken. The remains may have been cremated or sometimes partially cremated. If the deceased was to be fully cremated, a bonfire was constructed and this was the time when other objects such as clothing, wooden or bone implements or basketry belonging to the deceased was burned at the same time.

Another example of objects in association with a sacred or consecrated space for the mourning ritual is the prevalence of animal bones, seeds, crystals, pieces of minerals or shell (Hardy 2000).

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Hull et al (2013) found evidence at a large suspected Tongva site in the Los

Angeles basin (LAN-63) where several groundstone fragments had some burned areas on them in uneven patterns, either indicating material was burning inside the vessel prior to it being broken, or that the fragments had only been exposed to fire for a short time. There was little charcoal or ash found within the area of the broken objects, which also hints they were likely burned and broken elsewhere and then later transported to the sacred ritual site, although not all groundstone objects have evidence of charring or burning.

Red ochre coloring has been seen on some of the intentionally fragmented objects found in association with the mourning ritual depositions, although not all objects appear to have ochre applied (Walker 1952; Hull 2013).

Social Unification

Large, communal ceremonies like the mourning ritual were a time to bring people together and served several purposes; general unification of the people, creating a solid trade/exchange network, providing a cultural history through performance and for honoring those deceased. For instance, food and feasts provide a method of doing this. Reddy (2015) examined the relationship of unification through food and offerings in mortuary contexts among the Tongva tribes right after and during the contact period (A.D. 1769-1834). Contradictory to the belief that the lifeways of these tribes were drastically altered after contact, archaeological evidence indicates that many traditions persisted as much as was possible, especially with food- related practices during mortuary ceremonies or mourning rituals.

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Native plants were used for offerings to the dead as well as providing food for the attendees. Self-identity or culture-identity among the Tongva was obtained through the use of their traditions, however, shortly after contact, as the missions employed new, and landscape-altering agricultural and livestock practices, native grasses and plants were replaced by invasive species. Land was cleared for crops or overgrazed by cattle, which permanently caused a shift in the environment. What native plants remained, would not have been sufficient for long to continue with traditional lifeways and rituals, which would have ultimately made the native people dependent on the introduced foods such as agricultural crops and livestock. But for a while, they continued to use the native plants that were so important to them (Reddy 2015).

Archaeological evidence for these communal ritual activities can be used to analyze the social components within the cultures of Southern California that practiced these periodic rituals. The need to come together in a communal setting to mourn has been discussed by sociologists such as Durkheim who pointed out that this type of ritual helps to create the cohesiveness required in a community. This idea will be further discussed in Chapter 2.

In addition to the main purpose of celebrating, remembering or releasing the spirits of the dead, there was trade and exchange of goods. This economic part of the ceremonial gathering brought scattered, hunter-gatherer people together for a common goal, thereby bonding them together as celebrants or mourners, but also maintaining that connection to the society. Of course, the ritual was not solely economical and in fact, contained many elements of the society, including politics and the important aspect of social solidarity or unification (Blackburn 1974).

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As for the economic factor, exchange or redistribution was paramount. The

Chumash and Tongva system of exchange, especially with shell beads, was vital to their rituals. For instance, shell beads and other objects were purposely used in ceremonies, including the mourning ritual, and were ritually burned or destroyed.

Gamble (2008) believes that by destroying value or prestige items such as the shell beads or other costly objects, it reduced the possibility of an economic inflation and kept the demand and value up for these items, but not in an inflated sense (Gamble

2008).

Exchange of Goods and Ideas

At a ritual site on San Clemente Island, various items as well as prestige/value items were associated with mourning rituals. “For example, incised steatite plaques and other steatite objects, turtle shell rattles, quartz crystals, polished pebbles, rhizoconcretions, shell beads and ornaments, shell containers…caches of seeds, asphaltum, and red ochre, intentionally destroyed ‘personal property’…and human burials are among the features and artifacts at…a Late Period Tongva ceremonial locale on San Clemente Island” (Hale 1995; Hale and Salls 2000). Ritual objects such as steatite, obsidian, shell beads and fused shale were considered prestige or luxury items (Bean 1992) and would have held special meaning in a ritualistic context.

Similar to how goods were exchanged, the idea that customs and rituals were used as a network of idea- or ideology-exchange was mentioned by Walker (1951).

This includes the mourning ritual, which was “…one of the most distinguishing customs of the California Indians.” Walker states that this ritual, in various forms, had been witnessed during historic times in an area covering approximately 804 kilometers

39 and included numerous tribes that spoke different languages. He writes that this ceremony differed depending on the area it was practiced. For instance, in the north portion of the region, the ceremony was an annual event that included everyone that year who had died, while in the area to the south that included Los Angeles County, the ritual was generally held for important people such as a chief or shaman who had died a few years up to ten years before the ceremony was held. This apparent lag in time for the ritual may have been to allow sufficient time for the mourners and attendees to collect gifts or offerings for the deceased.

By giving gifts or offerings to the deceased, it was believed that the spirits could use these objects in the afterlife, but the objects had to be ritualistically intentionally fragmented so the spirits within the objects could go along with the spirits of the deceased (Walker 1951). According to Walker, when good quality stone artifacts in California sites are found fragmented, it is likely that they were part of a mourning ritual. These offerings or gifts were considered part of the deceased’s property, which was also destroyed. The sites Walker analyzed provided enough evidence for him to conclude that the mourning ritual had distinct identifying characteristics, such as intentionally fragmented groundstone objects, flaked debitage, fire-affected rock or groundstone, secondary burials or partially cremated remains, and a sacred, dedicated space (Walker 1951). Wallace (1954) also concluded that an excavation at the Little Sycamore Creek (VEN-1) site exhibited intentionally fragmented groundstone objects placed in specific locations, sometimes associated with cremated human remains, which increased in number as multiple ceremonies

40 were held (Hull 2012). As the same location would have been used over time, it stands to reason that the objects would pile up.

According to Walker (1951), Stephen Powers, ethnographer (1840-1904), said that some offerings he observed were new and had been made especially for the ritual.

Most of the clothing was saved for burning prior to daybreak, toward the final stages of the ritual, so the spirits would be satisfied before the sun came up. Once the fires went out, any remaining goods, as well as any human remains that were brought to the site, were buried in small pits at a “sacred place and covered with earth”. These human remains were presumed to have been taken from a cemetery to be interred at the mourning ritual site (Walker 1951).

As Hull (2012) elaborates, different types of “lithic clusters” in relation to communal mourning space have been found at various sites. These include cairn-type features with layers of intentionally fragmented groundstone, other large pieces of groundstone in lesser concentrations, and cobbles that had not been modified, but placed in pits. She also notes that due to the fact that many of the fragmented pieces of groundstone found in these pits or cairns cannot be fitted together, it could indicate they were broken in a different location and later transported to the sacred area for the ritual, like how the cremated remains likely were removed from a cemetery. Also, as some groundstone was destroyed by puncturing and other pieces were fragmented into pieces, the method of destruction could indicate a specific meaning associated with how the object was fragmented (Hull 2013). Once the ritual concluded, the people separated and returned to their respective villages. As they parted, there was a renewal of the social ties that bound them (Reddy 2015).

41

Chapter 2-The Van Norman Reservoir Archaeological Complex

Method of Analysis

The artifacts from the Complex were collected, accessioned and stored at

CSUN since the excavations done in 1972 by the now defunct Northridge

Archaeological Research Center (NARC). Since the site was excavated but never fully analyzed, this project conducted an examination of artifacts as well as the extensive records and data sheets in this orphan collection to see if the function of the site could be determined from the analysis and comparison with other area sites.

From the records and reports, the original archaeologists working on the project in the 1970s speculated that there was likely a ritual component attached to the site. This idea led to research into rituals, especially the mourning ritual held by the

Southern California Native American tribes in the Los Angeles area, primarily the

Tongva and Chumash.

Working under the theory put forth by Durkheim and Mauss (See Chapter 1) that ritual creates social solidarity through performance of social facts, the Complex artifact collection may have been an important, sacred area for the local people to connect, exchange goods and ideas, pass along their history and secure the political structure of the community. This social solidarity brought about through the mourning ritual would have been a pivotal part of society in that it maintained the feeling of belonging among the people. Without the people having an understanding of what part they played in their culture, the society could not have evolved into a complex structure.

42

To determine the significance of the Complex and how it may have contributed to the complexity of the culture, eleven identified sites were analyzed, although two did not contain any surface or sub-surface artifacts. The other nine sites did contain a variety of artifacts which were documented and inventoried after the original excavation, and then analyzed for this project. The analysis was conducted over approximately five months, from August 2015 to January 2016, during which time the collection was also rehoused into new bags and boxes and labeled accordingly. This dual purpose was an effective and efficient way to better preserve the collection and examine it at the same time.

Each site has three different site numbers assigned; a trinomial California designation (simplified as LAN-XXX in the body of this paper), a VN number (for

Van Norman plus the sequence number of the site, VN1 equals the first site located, etc.) and VS number.

43

4-LAN-475 VN1 VS11

4-LAN-490 VN2 VS45

4-LAN-491 VN3 VS

4-LAN-492 VN4 VS?

4-LAN-493 VN5 VS63A

4-LAN-629 VN6 VS15

wal4-LAN-642 VN7 VS45A

4-LAN-643 VN8 VS45B

4-LAN-644 VN9 VS45C

4-LAN-645 VN10 VS63B

4-LAN-646 VN11 VS?

Table 2:1-Site Numbers

The catalogues and inventories contained within the files housed at CSUN were input into Excel 2016 spreadsheets to enable sorting by depth, site, artifact type, and material type. Not all sites contained a detailed catalog or inventory, but the largest sites, LAN-493 (VS63A) and LAN-645 (VS63B) had comprehensive records.

LAN-645 had 1,888 entries of artifacts input into a spreadsheet by catalog number, artifact type, artifact material, unit number and depth. There were 28 units divided into sites within each unit, although the catalog sometimes did not reflect each individual site. The inventory sheets would either state, for example, Unit X-Site X or

Unit X-All. Therefore, the spreadsheet inventory did not always show an accurate accounting of the artifacts per a particular unit site, but did show the total artifacts

44 found within the unit itself, which still portrays an accounting of the artifacts. Depths, in centimeters, were accurately recorded within each unit.

Another set of inventory sheets for LAN-645 documented burned rock and bone as well as groundstone fragments. This information was collected into another spreadsheet for analysis of the depths and locations of burned rock and bone in conjunction with possible ritual items such as intentionally fragmented pieces of manos and metates, which are documented simply as groundstone fragments since many were unidentified in the original 1970s examination. Artifacts were also analyzed for possible value or trade materials such as obsidian, shell beads, fused shale and steatite, all materials that were not local to the San Fernando Valley.

LAN-493 had 22 units with records for each level, although some units contained no artifacts, therefore, only units 1,2, 3, 10-18, 20 and 22 were used in this analysis, for a total of 107 entries into the spreadsheet. This site also contained historical artifacts such as nails, glass, leather and metal fragments. In addition to the artifact records, the inventory sheets contained documentation of burnt and unburnt rock and burnt and unburnt bone. As with LAN-645, this information was analyzed as well by level and unit.

Other sites analyzed were LAN-642, LAN-643, LAN-644, and LAN-490. Sites that only had surface collections are included solely for completeness, as surface collections cannot accurately depict activities due to disturbance, especially at the

Complex where backhoe trenching and roadways have been constructed. Therefore, attention was focused on the sites where excavation was done and recorded by levels or depths.

45

To develop meaningful data, the collection was examined and compared to the inventory sheets for accuracy so the inventory sheets could be used. Graphs were developed from the Excel spreadsheets to indicate percentages of material types per site and frequency of material types per depth and per site. The results of this analysis will be discussed in Chapter 4.

A random sampling of individual artifacts were examined against the details and measurements documented on the inventory sheets using a Bausch and Lomb folding pocket magnifier with a magnification range of 5x-20x and measured using calibrated metric digital calipers as well as metal rulers. Measurements were done three times to assure accuracy and very few minor discrepancies were noted. It was concluded that the inventory sheets accurately stated correct information.

When it came to the intact primary burial found onsite, LAN-629 (VN6,

VN15), other than a prelimary look at the artifacts and remains, no physical examination was done by myself. However, a complete inventory was done by another graduate student for a class project. No analysis, other than what was done by the original archaeologists, is included due to the sensitive nature of handling human remains and the regulations of the Native American Graves Protection and

Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

The Location

In the northern area of the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, and at the eastern-most portion of the Santa Susana Mountains lies the Van Norman

Reservoir Archaeological Complex (Complex) (See Photo 2:1) There are several seasonal drainages in the surrounding Mission Hills that drain into the Complex,

46 namely Grapevine, Sombrero, Bee and Sunshine Canyons (Gates 1978). What is now the Van Norman dam and reservoir consisting of an area about 3.22 kilometers long with widths varying from the narrowest at about 450 meters to the widest part of approximately one kilometer across. The oldest age-range for this area dates to the middle Pleistocene. Surrounding the Complex area are plant communities that would have been accessible to native people, including Chaparral, Valley Grassland, Coastal

Sage Scrub and Riparian Woodland. Riparian habitat would have provided faunal resources such as fish, rodents and water fowl, while grasslands, woodlands and scrub environments would have provided mammals such as deer, raccoons, badgers, fox or coyote (Gates 1978).

47

Photo 2.1: Photograph of Complex Map and Surrounding Area from Gates report (1978)

48

Damage to the reservoir resulted from the Sylmar earthquake in 1971 which necessitated the draining of the lower reservoir for repairs. Archaeological surveys were conducted due to exposed groundstone artifacts on the newly uncovered ground.

In 1972, eleven archaeological sites were recorded and the first site excavated was

LAN-475 (VN1) in January 1972.

The Complex is unique because it is located in an area that several local indigenous groups occupied, with the most likely people being Tataviam or Tongva, but that is speculation because the area borders on a multi-cultural crossroads of sorts.

The Complex artifact collection was packaged and stored by NARC at the California

State University, Northridge (CSUN). The collection was then permanently housed in

CSUN’s Anthropology Department.

49

The Complex-Site Descriptions

The sites included in the excavations were originally supposed to represent a five percent sample of the identified units, but that changed to a three percent sample of the units in LAN-645 and a two percent sample of the units in LAN-493 due to financial and time constraints. Although the units that were excavated revealed many artifacts and a single burial, a large percentage of the area was not excavated due to the previously mentioned constraints. With a total of eleven sites documented, not all were excavated, as noted below. All but one of the eleven sites were within the Bee

Canyon drainage (Gates1978). The sites and descriptions follow (See Photo 2:1).

4-LAN-475 (VN1/VS11)

This site was first recorded on January 13, 1972 and was found on a sloped spur coming from a hill that had been affected by equipment grading. The measurements are approximately 100 x 40 meters and the site lies between an arroyo on the eastern portion and a natural drainage to the west. Excavation of this site uncovered a deposit of dark grey soil lying over a yellowish soil. Within the dark grey midden layer, historic and prehistoric artifacts were found. Gates (1978) stated that a cairn with evidence of intentionally fragmented metates was found onsite.

4-LAN-490 (VN2/VS45)

To the north-northeast, about 250 meters away from 4-LAN-475, this site is at the bottom of a hill in a sloping, sandy area. It is approximately 110 meters long and between 4 and 25 meters in wide. Grading had disturbed the edges of the site. A natural drainage lies to the east and flows into the arroyo to the east. The soil found at

50 the site is light and loose, what Gates (1978) presumed was indicative of a beach line area. Surface artifacts were collected from this site.

4-LAN-491 (VN3)

This site was found coming from a hill that was destroyed by grading activities and is about 205 meters to the west of 4-LAN-475. With an area of approximately 92 meters in length by 75 meters wide, the north portion was destroyed by fill. The soil overlying the site is hard, a light grey and runs from a depth of about 15 centimeters to

75 centimeters. Three sides of the site had artifacts eroding from the banks, including fragments of manos, a metate fragment, miscellaneous flakes and a few bone pieces.

The embankments surrounding the west, east and south portions of the site form a separation between the higher area and what Gates (1978) speculates was an environment dominated by a fresh water marsh. This site was not excavated and no surface materials were collected.

4-LAN-492 (VN4)

Approximately 320 meters west of 4-LAN-491, this site was found on a spur with a shared boundary with 4-LAN-491. Grading also destroyed the north part of this site. There is evidence of a small drainage channel to the west that runs between this site and 4-LAN-493. The south part of the site ends at the embankment that separates the site from the marsh area previously described. The measurements of this site are;

90 meters long by 70 meters wide. The soil type is silt, light grey in color with a measured depth of 15 centimeters to 60 centimeters. This site also had no surface materials collected and was not excavated.

51

4-LAN-493 (VN5/VS63A)

This site is situated next to 4-LAN-492 and about 400 meters to the west of 4-

LAN-475, with measurements of 100 meters long and 100 meters wide. Grading activities destroyed the north part of the site. The soil overlying the site was hard- packed and light grey in color, running a depth of 15 centimeters to 75 centimeters deep. There were historical period Spanish or early Anglo roof tiles representative of

Mission style architecture found in a cluster on the surface. The eroding western and southern embankments revealed cores, flakes and fragments of manos. Lying below the embankments was the marsh area previously mentioned. The soil, light to medium grey was a depth of 10 centimeters to 90 centimeters.

4-LAN-629 (VN6/VS15)

This is a special site in that it contained a single, intact burial that had been eroding from the wall of a gully that had been created by a human-made drainage canal. The drainage canal lies along the western side of the border between the Upper and Lower reservoirs. There was no additional evidence that showed any other prehistoric use of this area and no other burials were located.

4-LAN-642 (VN7/VS45A)

About 100 meters to the north of site 4-LAN-493, this site could possibly be associated with 4-LAN-493 as its northern portion. Estimations placed the site limits at 200 meters long by 150 meters wide. Grading damaged most of the midden deposits, but approximately 10 centimeters of cultural material remained. From screening the test trench material, a projectile point, fragments of animal bone and

52 some flakes were found. On the surface, which was heavily disturbed, an intact mano and a fragment of a granite metate were collected.

4-LAN-643 (VN8/VS45B)

About 150 meters to the east of 4-LAN-490, this site lies on a shoreline to the east of the old reservoir. Surface artifacts include a fragment of a granite mortar, flakes and a core made of basalt. The depth of midden for this site is approximated at

20 centimeters to 30 centimeters, with soil of a yellowish sterile layer with a light to medium colored grey soil.

4-LAN-644 (VN9/VS45C)

This site is above the reservoir and to the north, found in a hilly area and is about 30 meters by 60 meters. Grading destroyed most of the site and only one bifacial mano was located at a depth of between 10 centimeters to 15 centimeters. There were surface artifacts found that included fragments of metates, manos, cores and flakes.

4-LAN-645 (VN10/VS63B)

Above the waterline of the reservoir, this site was approximately 100 meters long by 70 meters wide. Artifacts found include a schist pestle, hammerstone, core and flakes. The soil midden went to a depth of about 35 centimeters and was a medium- light grey.

4-LAN-646 (VN11)

This site is at the far south end of the Complex and is on a ridge that slopes slightly from a larger hill. To the west is the Bee Canyon drainage. According to Gates

(1978), this site was persevered better than the others and still had native vegetation present, including chaparral and coast sage. A significant amount of flakes and granite

53 fragments of manos and metates were found on the surface. Gates believed this site was a milling site. The soil midden was likely no deeper than 30 centimeters to 40 centimeters.

54

Comparative Archaeology in and Near the San Fernando Valley

In addition to the work done by Gerald Gates et al, at the Complex, other local sites have been excavated in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas in the past that have been identified as possible mourning ritual sites.

Edwin Walker from the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles excavated five sites in Los Angeles County from 1936-1945, including in the San Fernando Valley.

These sites included a metate site in Porter Ranch (LAN-407), a site at Malaga Cove

(LAN-138) in the Santa Monica Bay, a cemetery in Pasadena in the Sheldon Reservoir

(LAN-26), a cairn-containing site at Chatsworth (LAN-21), and a site at the Big

Tujunga Wash (LAN-167) containing stone bowls (Walker 1952).

Hull (2011, 2012) verified Walker’s claim of the site being associated with the mourning ritual by reviewing his field notes and comparing them to ethnographic research. Hull agreed with Walker that the site did indeed contain enough evidence to conclude they were sites of the mourning ritual.

At the Porter Ranch metate site, the owner of Porter Ranch, Benjamin Porter, uncovered a cache of metates as he plowed his land. The site is approximately 3.22 kilometers to the north of the San Fernando Mission. Walker investigated and found many of the metates had been intentionally fragmented and were therefore broken into pieces or they’d had the bottom section knocked off. A habitation site was located in between an active drainage fed by natural springs leading to a marsh and an arroyo, which is close to the San Fernando Mission Reservoir and the ceremonial area was to the southeast, on the other side of the arroyo. Walker states that the area would have been an ideal location due to plentiful natural resources such as aquatic animals,

55 rabbits, deer, fish and lots of plants that offered seeds or material. This falls in line with the location at the Complex; a drainage and ample resources.

The artifacts found included intentionally fragmented and intact metates of varying sizes and shapes. Most of the metates did not have any or much exterior working and were mostly of local granite. Almost all were found tipped upside down.

Walker made the determination that these were not useable, but were instead made specifically for ceremonies. There were not many manos found and most that were found had been broken and showed evidence of being in a fire.

Some of the pieces of manos had evidence of red coloration. Other artifacts included atlatl dart points made from chalcedony and agate, with both sources many kilometers from the site. Also located on site were many cairns of stones and boulders, some having been purposely worked to make them round and others that were naturally rounded.

Walker was not able to accurately date the site, but used the artifacts and lack of artifacts to approximate a date. Since he found no steatite bowls, ornaments or beads, no bowls made of granite or sandstone, which he associated with late prehistoric sites, no pestles and no arrowheads, he recognized this as a very old site that was not a permanent habitation site due to the lack of scrapers, flakes, hammerstones or choppers. These, he stated, would be found at a permanent or long- occupancy site.

Even though the site found in Pasadena at the Sheldon Reservoir is outside of the San Fernando Valley, it is close enough to warrant examination since there were several local indigenous groups near to the Complex site and Pasadena is not a

56 significant distance away. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to use this site as a comparison site. It was excavated in 1938 when the Pasadena Water Department was extending the existing reservoir. A total of fifty-three intact, flexed skeletal remains and two cremated remains were revealed. The skeletal remains were placed at two distinctive levels, the first being 0.76 meters beneath the surface layer. This level contained fourteen burials.

At 1.22 meters beneath the surface, there were twenty-eight burials, some containing multiple skeletons. No children were identified likely because children’s bones do not preserve as well. At the top level burials, excavators found intentionally fragmented mortars, bowls and slabs for grinding. According to Walker, these objects are indicative of a ritual to release the spirits contained within the objects so the dead may have use of them in the next world. Some of the remains had projectile points above or beside them. Walker identified the types as triangular Shoshonean-type points, leaf-shaped Chumash points and thin, long points that were similar to desert people points. The cremations were encircled by a ring of rocks.

The cairns were composed of piles of stones about the size of oranges that had evidence of being exposed to fire. Within the stones were broken pieces of pestles, grinding stones, scrapers, projectile points and bowls. This indicates the ritualistic fragmenting and burning of offerings during the mourning rites ceremony. The cairns were located approximately three meters from the boundary of the cemetery and did not contain any burial remains. Walker stated that no burials had been found under cairns similar to these anywhere in Southern California. However, Walker’s finding of the cairns in close relationship to the cemetery was a new find and according to

57 ethnographer Stephen Powers, the mourners would sit on graves at the very beginning of the mourning rites ceremony.

About 300 meters from the cairn site, Walker found habitation indicators. He mentioned that this site was marked on an old map because it was still occupied during post-contact times. Trade beads of glass were found onsite and a water source was within the village grounds. The spring is sulphur rich, which was considered a medicinal water source. Close to the village, skeletal burials were found as well as cremated remains.

The cairns held a specific purpose, as a repository for offerings that included some fragments of human remains, many pieces of both showing evidence of burning.

There was no indication that this was a cemetery, but instead, reburials due to the lack of complete skeletons or obvious cremation areas. This site was therefore mostly likely a dedicated area for the mourning ritual. Because the cairns contained burned as well as unburned artifacts, it indicates that the burned objects were probably moved from their original offering place where they were burned and then scattered into the cairn as it was being filled in with soil. Walker divided the cairns into Group A and

Group B, with Group A being similar to the Malaga Cove site and Group B being more similar to the site at San Fernando. This means that this site was from at least two different time periods where the same ceremony was held.

The Big Tujunga Wash site, located in between San Fernando and Sunland, revealed stone bowls in 1945 during plowing of the land. Fragments of hundreds of stone bowls, manos, pestles and mortars were found at depths between 15 and 81 centimeters below the surface. Most had evidence of burning. These cairns also

58 contained pieces of cremated human remains, whale bones, also burned, stone knives, steatite pipes, shell and stone beads, projectile points, awls, barbs from harpoons, fishing weights and other artifacts, all mixed with a covering of stones. Near to the cairn site, other dissociated human skeletal remains were found along with fragmented bowls. Walker drew the conclusion that this site also was not a cemetery, but a ritualistic site for the mourning ritual. He states that because of a lack of burned soil, charcoal or ash, it appeared that this was a ritual space where offerings and human remains were brought and deposited.

The cairn site was relatively small compared to a nearby pre-contact village a bit more than 152 meters south, above a flood plain. This village contained heavy deposits of ash and other indicators of long-term habitation. The variety and volume of artifacts onsite offer speculation that this site was occupied for a lengthy time period, as shown by the artifact types over time. Walker estimated dating of part of the village site from forty pottery sherds that were identified as an “Arizona red-on-brown

Hohokam pottery jar” (Walker 1951). Dr. Emil W. Haury of the University of Arizona determined the sherds belonged to one vessel dated to the 7-9th century AD. The fact that this vessel made it to this site from Arizona indicates trade or exchange. This was likely the oldest portion of the entire site. To the south of the vessel sherds came a change in burial form. Burials associated with the vessel timeline were not cremated, whereas, the southern burials were cremated and placed in steatite bowls. Also, atlatl darts were found in the vicinity of the sherds and arrow points, indicating a later time period, were found in the southern area.

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Excavations of two additional Tongva sites that were occupied through the mission period were also identified as space used for the mourning ritual. These are designated as CA-LAN-62/H and CA-LAN-211/H and were located next to the

Ballona Lagoon near the Mission San Gabriel in the Los Angeles basin. This area had been occupied by the Tongva as far back as the Millingstone period for CA-LAN 62/H and during the Intermediate period for CA-LAN-211/H (Reddy 2014). Analysis revealed materials associated with the mourning ritual such as burned offerings of shell beads, animals and plants, as well as numerous debitage from stone tool manufacture and fragmented groundstone artifacts, all which are indicative of the mourning ritual (Reddy 2015; Cleland et al. 2007; Douglass et al. 2005; Hull 2012;

Hull et al 2006, 2013; Walker 1952). The Ballona site had plenty of natural resources available due to the wetland area which would allow the people gathering for the mourning ritual to have food and water (Reddy 2014).

Hull (2012) identified two more sites that were excavated in Ventura County and Los Angeles County that exhibited evidence of mourning rituals. These are the

Little Sycamore Creek site (VEN-1) and the Tank Site (LAN-1). There was intentional breaking of groundstone artifacts, burned objects and some cremated remains. Hull found that the deposition of some of the burned groundstone artifact fragments indicated that they were not burned in situ but rather burned during the mortuary ritual and then transported, along with the pieces of cremated remains, to the mourning ritual space.

More recent excavations, LAN-63 and ORA-263 (in Orange County), were analyzed by Hull (2013) and likewise exhibit evidence of the mourning ritual.

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Fragmented groundstone, flakes of toolstone, animal bone and shell have been found at LAN-63. Traces of asphaltum were found on some vessels, perhaps as a method

Walker (1952:112) said could be used specifically in the mourning ritual, along with coloring fragments of groundstone with ochre. While some of the fragmented vessels could be put back together, some could not, which might be because they were fractured at another location and only specific pieces were transported for the ritual.

Other pieces of groundstone had evidence of partial charring with no ash present. This likely is the result of only short-term exposure to fire at another location, especially since no ash was present (Walker 1952). In other excavated areas of LAN-63, ash was found within the soil matrix where fragmented groundstone was found, which might indicate some vessels were burned in situ (Hull 2012).

ORA-263 contained many of the same features as LAN-63, including intentionally fragmented groundstone, some with partial charring, and flakes of toolstone, except stone and shell beads were found at this site that had not been found at other sites in Los Angeles County. Like other mourning ritual sites, ORA-263 also provided evidence that many of the groundstone fragments had no observable use- wear, which likely means these objects were specially made for the ritual (Cleland et al. 2007:113).

By comparing other sites that were identified as containing evidence for the mourning ritual, the collection from the Complex can likewise be identified as coming from a mourning ritual site or not.

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Chapter 3-Data Analysis

The largest site excavated at the Complex was LAN-645 (VS63B), with 1,888 recorded artifacts and 28 units that were excavated and recorded, although unit 15 was later determined to not be a legitimate unit, so it remains blank in graphs and tables.

Due to the size of this site, it received most of the focus for analysis. Several units contained large amounts of burnt and unburnt bone, as shown in Figure 2, and tables in the Appendix. Unit 8 had 83 pieces of burnt bone and 80 pieces of unburnt bone, as well as 10 groundstone fragments and four pieces of burnt stone (See Figures 3:1 and

3:2, and tables in the Appendix). Unit 24 only had nine pieces of burnt bone with 86 pieces of unburnt bone, two groundstone fragments and five pieces of burnt stone.

Unit 20 had 51 pieces of burnt bone and 20 pieces of unburnt bone, two groundstone fragments and three pieces of burnt stone. Unit 4 had 44 pieces of burnt bone, but no unburnt bone, only one groundstone fragment and no burnt rock. The units with the highest concentration of burnt rock were unit 12 with 18 pieces, unit 18 with 10 pieces, and unit 11 with eight pieces. Photos 3:1 and 3:2 show fire-affected metate fragments.

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Photo 3:1: Fire-affected metate fragments from LAN-645

63

Photo 3:2: Assortment of fire-affected metate fragments from LAN-645

64

Lan-645 (VS63B) Artifact Type by Unit

100

90

80 Count of artifact 70 types 60

50

40

30

20

10

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Unit numbers

Fused shale worked/utilized flakes projectile points core, hammerstone etc burned rock burnt bone unburnt bone groundstone

Figure 3:1: LAN-645 (VS63B)

Types of artifacts found in each unit

65

Lan-645 (VS63B) Depth in centimeters Type of Artifact by Depth 50-60

groundstone 40-50 unburnt bone

burnt bone 30-40

burned rock

core, hammerstone etc 20-30

projectile points 10-20 worked/utilized flakes

Fused shale 0-10

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 Total counts of artifacts

Figure 3:2: LAN-645 (VS63B) Types of artifacts found at each depth, with a total count of artifacts found at the site

66

According to the report in the files for this site, there were a total of 424 bone fragments with a total weight of 108 grams and more than 99 percent were mammal bones with only .5 percent fish bones. Burnt bone made up 43 percent of the total and

83 percent of the total bone found was located between 10 centimeters and 40 centimeters.

Figure 3:3 contains percentages of artifact material types for the entire site, which includes all units and depths. Chalcedony was the most numerous material type with 23.1 percent, followed closely by chert at 19.6 percent and meatavolcanic at

16.03 percent. The lowest concentrations were limonite, schist, shale, mica, hemotite, steatite and granite. Other materials with slightly higher concentrations were obsidian, quartz, quartzite, and fused shale. A miscellaneous, unidentified category had 3.06 percent. Fused shale, steatite and obsidian have origins outside of the San Fernando

Valley and can be considered prestige, value or trade items due to the distance required to obtain the stone from its source.

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fired clay?, 0.05 petrified wood, 0.05 Lan-645 (VS63B) Percentage of Artifact Types unidentified/misc, 3.06 sandstone, 0.05 shale, 0.11 limonite, 0.05 mica, 0.05 steatite, 0.28 schist, 0.34 metal, 0.51 hematite, 0.05 obsidian, 6.48, 6% glass, 0.85 chalcedony chert

chalcedony, 23.1 granite metavolcanic fused shale, 6.59, 7% quartz quartzite

fused shale glass quartzite, 13.7 hematite metal

obsidian schist chert, 19.6 steatite shale quartz, 7.73 unidentified/misc petrified wood

fired clay? sandstone metavolcanic, 16.03 granite, 1.19 limonite mica

Figure 3:3: LAN-645 (VS63B) Percentage of Artifact Types

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Artifacts found by depth (cm) are depicted in Figure 3:4 and Figure 3:5.

Chalcedony and chert were found in the greatest and almost identical quantities at all depths. Metavolcanic and quartzite were almost found in the same quantities, but there were more metavolcanic fragments found at the 30-40 centimeter depth. Obsidian, quartz and fused shale were the next highest concentrations through all levels.

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Lan-645 (VS63B) Frequency of Artifact Material mica limonite Depth in sandstone centimeters fired clay? petrified wood

unidentified/ misc +8 0-10 10-20 20-30 shale steatite schist obsidian 30-40 40-50 50-60 metal hematite glass fused shale quartzite quartz metavolcanic granite chert chalcedony

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 Total number of artifacts

Figure 3:4: LAN-645 (VS63B) Frequency of Artifact Material

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Figure 3:4 shows the material types found at the various depths with chalcedony being the most frequent material and chert following as the second most frequent type. The least frequent materials found at the site were mica, limonite, sandstone, fired clay, petrified wood, shale, steatite, schist, granite, hematite and historical material. Most material was absent or in low concentrations at the deeper levels starting with 40-50 centimeters.

The next largest site analyzed was LAN-493 (VS63B), with 101 spreadsheet entries. The unit and level sheets for this site contained data about burnt and unburnt rock as well as burnt and unburnt bone. This site contains evidence (Figure 3:5) of prestige/value/trade items such as fused shale and obsidian through every level, with smaller quantities being found at the deeper levels. Chalcedony and chert were the most prevalent material type followed by stone identified as ‘crypto’, and fused shale.

Figure 3:6 indicates the frequencies of material types per unit and shows that unit 1 contains the most chalcedony, chert and fused shale, with units 2 and 3 having the next largest concentration of chalcedony and chert. Units 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16 have the most ‘crypto’. Unit 13 has the second highest concentration of fused shale.

Fused shale appears in all units in low concentrations, as would be expected as Figure

3:5 shows it appearing at all depths.

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Lan-493 (VS63A) Material Type by Depth

250

Count of 200 material

150

100

50

0

Depth (cm) 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70

Figure 3:5: LAN-493 (VS63A) Material type by level depth

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Lan-493 (VS63A) Material Types and Frequencies Per Unit

250

200

150 Count of materials

100

50

0 1 2 3 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22

Unit Number

quartzite chalced/chert fused shale metavolcanic obsidian quartz Crypto schist

Figure 3:6: LAN-493 (VS63A) Material types and frequencies per unit

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There was burnt and unburnt rock present at this site and Figure 3:7 and Figure

3:8 show the distribution of both by unit. From both graphs, it is possible to see spikes in both burnt and unburnt rock at units 1, 5 and 15. Every unit except units 2 and 17 had some burnt rock. The highest concentrations of burnt rock are granite and sandstone, while the highest concentrations of unburnt rock are granite, quartzite and metavolcanic. Photo 3:3 (LAN-493) and Photo 3:4 (LAN-475) show a cairn or placement of whole and broken fire-affected manos in situ.

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Photo 3:3: LAN-493-Cairn/purposeful deposition of whole and broken manos

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Photo 3:4: Photos of cairn/purposeful deposition of rock and broken manos from site LAN 475

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Lan-493 (VS63A) Burnt Rock by Unit 14

Count of 12 fragments of artifacts 10

8

6

4

2

0 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 25 Unit number

quartzite chalcedony/chert fused shale metavolcanic obsidian quartz

crypto schist sandstone granite sedementary metasedamentary

Figure 3:7: LAN-493 (VS63A) Burnt rock numbers by unit

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Lan-493 (VS63A) Unburnt Rock by Unit

14

12

10 Count of artifact fragments 8

6

4

2

0 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 22 Unit number

quartzite chalcedony/chert fused shale metavolcanic obsidian quartz

crypto schist sandstone granite sedementary metasedamentary

Figure 3:8: LAN-493 (VS63A) Unburnt rock numbers by unit

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Lan-493 (VS63A) Burnt and Unburnt Bone by Unit

60

50 Number of bone fragments 40

30

20

10

0 1 2 4 5 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20

Count of burnt bone Count of unburnt bone

Figure 3:9: LAN-493 (VS63A) Burnt and unburnt unidentified bone by unit

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Figure 3:9 documents the amount of burnt and unburnt bone per unit with every unit containing some amount of either. There was more unburnt bone overall with the largest concentration in unit 15. Units 4, 13 and 20 only had burnt bone and units 7, 12, 16 and 17 only had unburnt bone. Data obtained from the original report found in the files stated that 208 total pieces of bone were found with a weight of 34.1 grams. Eighty-four percent were mammal bones with the remainder coming from birds and one piece from fish.

The next site analyzed was LAN 490 (VS45), a surface collection. Figure 3:10 shows the material types found and the amount of each. Quartzite, chalcedony, felcite and shale were the most numerous, with a miscellaneous unidentified category coming next. Other material types include steatite, obsidian and basalt, with historical artifacts also found. Due to the disturbed nature of this site, the artifacts could not accurately be analyzed as there is no way to determine at what depth or concentration the materials may have originally been located. Even though, this site does still show that materials such as chalcedony, quartzite and shale were found, being some of the most common materials types found at other sites. For that reason, it is included here.

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Lan-490 (VS45) Surface Material Types

25

20

15 Artifact count

10

5

0 Quartzite Felcite Chalcedony Glass Steatite Tile Mammal obsidian Shale Basalt Misc bone

Material Types

Figure 3:10: LAN-493 (VS63A) Surface material types

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Chapter 4-Discussion

The Complex has been an orphaned collection of artifacts since it was salvaged in the 1970s. With only preliminary analysis and cataloging done, the collection was never fully examined, even though there were elements that drew attention of the original archaeologists and archaeologist Kathleen Hull (Personal communication

2016) who recently flagged the Complex as being a possible mourning ritual site for an in-progress project. The most important elements included caches or cairns of intentionally broken groundstone like manos and metates. Originally, the Complex was to have a five percent sampling of the eleven identified sites, but due to financial issues, the archaeologists only performed a three percent sample of site LAN-645 and a two percent sample of the ‘tile scatter’, the historical aspect of site LAN-493. Even with such a small amount of excavation, the pre-contact parts of these large sites revealed sufficient artifacts to analyze. One has to wonder what else may have been found if a greater percentage was excavated, but that is pure speculation at this point.

Of the eleven sites, the largest sites with the most artifacts are LAN-645 (VS63B) and

LAN-493 (VS63A). These two sites received the main focus of this analysis.

The Complex also contains several particular source stone materials for lithics that indicates trade in value or prestige items. Fused shale, steatite and obsidian, for example, are found many kilometers from the site and steatite has its main origin on

Santa Catalina Island. Fused shale was quarried from Grimes Canyon in Ventura, approximately 56 kilometers from the Complex and in Chumash territory, while the closest obsidian source was from the Coso Range in the Mojave Desert, more than 160

82 kilometers away. This obsidian source was in the area of the Panamint Shoshone and the Kawaiisu (Walker 1951).

Trade networks were well established in ancient times in California and included locations as far as the California desert regions; Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and into Arizona (Davis 1974; Walker 1951). According to Davis (1974:22), the

Tongva traded shell beads, sea mammal pelts and stone such as steatite to inland tribes. Objects have also been found in California that come from far away, such as a

Hohokam vessel found in Tujunga (4-LAN-167, Walker 1951:116) and pottery from

Mojave that was found in Chatsworth (4-LAN-357). Trade items were important to a society for a variety of reasons, including economics and use in rituals.

As discussed in Chapter 1, the local indigenous people generally held their mourning ritual annually or every few years and would invite people from one or more villages who would gather at a predetermined ceremonial area. During the ritual, trade or exchange of goods occurred, as well as burial or reburial of some of the remains of the deceased who died since the last ritual (Blackburn 1974). The human remains would be placed beneath a cairn composed of a pile or stack of rocks or stones, or sometimes under groundstone objects such as mortars, metates or bowls that had been broken. The remains could have been cremated or skeletal, but the Tongva generally cremated their dead.

When discussing elements related to the mourning ritual for the local indigenous people, certain things are consistent, according to what is known. These include:

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 Piles, stacks or cairns of rocks, or pebbles that were sometimes altered to make them round, and broken groundstone

 Evidence of burnt rocks, bone and groundstone (fire-affected)

 Cremations and possible primary, intact burials

 No cemeteries on site

 Ochre, or hematite, on site or applied to objects

 No evidence of long-term occupation

Documentation from the Complex states the rocks or intentionally fragmented groundstone recovered had been mostly placed in piles or cairns and several excavations revealed caches of fragmented manos and metates, most notably in LAN-

493. According to Hull (see Chapter 1), cairns or clusters of lithics have been found at other mourning ritual sites and the majority of broken groundstone cannot be fitted together. This same pattern was found in the Complex collection, which would follow that groundstone was also broken elsewhere and transported to the site specifically for the ritual. Site photos from LAN-493 (Photo 3:3) and LAN-475 (Photo 3:4) clearly show this type of purposeful placement of fragmented or broken manos revealed during excavation.

The site level reports were fairly complete and documented the excavations accurately, which made the analysis faster than if there was no recordation at all. In addition to documenting the artifacts, debitage and features of the units by level, the archaeologists also recorded how much charcoal, burnt bone and burnt rock was found. Some of the smaller sites had no or very little of these, but the bigger sites,

LAN-493 and LAN-645 (Photos 3:1, 3:2 and 3:3), which received the majority of

84 analysis for this project, had large quantities of each as depicted in Figures 3:7, 3:8, and 3:9. As can be seen in these graphs, almost every unit and level contained some amount of burnt rock, unburnt rock, burnt bone and unburnt bone. This is indicative of ritual activity, rather than a hearth due to the fact that the burnt and unburnt rock material was intentionally fragmented, not intact, there are no large quantities of ash present as mentioned above. The pieces were placed or tossed into a pit or piled into a cairn, already broken elsewhere, and transported to the area specifically to be deposited. If the pieces had fit together to form complete vessels or manos, it could be claimed that the objects were broken upon impact. But that is not the case here as the pieces are from various objects.

The bone from these sites was generally unidentified, sometimes a notation was made that some pieces were from large mammals such as deer, or from rodents or fish, but most was unidentifiable. Small pieces of charcoal are also associated with these two sites and corresponds to the burnt rock and bone. If the charcoal could be dated, it might offer approximate dates for the various levels.

There was a single, intact human burial (LAN-629/VS15) of a young adult male, one of the richest ever recorded in the area, that was not associated with a cemetery. The archaeologists who found and recovered the remains eroding from a human-constructed drainage canal searched the area and found no evidence of other burials. This is likely the occurrence of a primary burial (See Chapter 1: Ritual,

Landscape and Social Unification in Southern California) that can sometimes be associated with the dedicated area of a mourning ritual site (See Chapter 1). The skeleton showed no evidence that it had been transported far and was fully articulated,

85 indicating the deceased had not been buried elsewhere. The burial contained over

3,000 shell beads, deer bone awls, and projectile points. Further testing for use-wear or residue could indicate whether or not these objects had been used or perhaps specially made for inclusion with the burial.

The richness of the burial could indicate several things. One, that it was a high- ranking or high-status individual, two, that it was a young male who died on-scene during the mourning ritual which may have held special significance, or three, that this individual died just prior to, or on the way to the mourning ritual and was buried on- site with high honors. These are speculation, but the richness of the burial is not. The date of the remains, from carbon dating done at UCLA in the 1970s, indicated the remains were buried approximately 600 years ago, in the 1400s.

This date falls in line with Gates’s (1978) estimate that, when discussing LAN-

493 and LAN-645, a Late Horizon date of AD 500-1800 seemed to fit the sites. He stated that LAN-493 appeared to be a more recent site than LAN-645 since there was approximately 15 percent more fused shale and five percent more obsidian at LAN-

493. This claim was because of a perceived increase in trade networks over time. As the societies became larger and more complex, trade would have naturally increased as well. Gates believed that the deposition of materials at LAN-645 indicated short-term occupation over hundreds of years. This also fits with the idea that the site was a ritual space used every few years for a few days or weeks at a time.

Red and yellow ochre (hematite and limonite, respectively) were found at

LAN-645 in small quantities. LAN-493 contains groundstone fragments with evidence of red ochre application. Walker (1952) mentions that both of these minerals had been

86 found at other mourning ritual sites in the San Fernando Valley and were known to have ritualistic purposes, applied on broken objects and possibly associated with cremations as well.

According to Walker (1952), evidence for long-term or permanent occupation such as a village site would include a significant amount of scrapers, hammerstones, choppers and debitage of flakes from tool making. While a few hammerstones and numerous flakes were found at the Complex, they were not in sufficient numbers to indicate more than a temporarily-occupied site. Long-term habitation would also require hearths, which would have produced large amounts of ash. The Complex excavations showed no evidence of such quantities of ash. This is consistent with a ritual site where people would gather for a few days or weeks and then return to their homes as they would still need to hunt and collect food.

One interesting find from the surface of LAN-493 was an intact baskethopper bowl (Photos 4:1 and 4:2). The basket portion was absent, but traces of asphaltum were still present around the rim. As this bowl was on the surface, it is likely that it was used during the Mission period or was somehow disturbed by large-scale equipment such as graders or backhoes during activities around the reservoir. It was the only such artifact found on-site. This bowl is proof that people were living on the site and preparing food either for consumption or ritual use.

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Photo 4:1: Baskethopper bowl from LAN-493

Photo 4:2: Baskethopper bowl, bottom, from LAN-493

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Since the people in the pre-contact period in Southern California did not have a writing system to document their rituals, economics or political system, ethnological resources were used in conjunction with the archaeological record. The Complex does contain the elements of a ritual mourning ritual site; cairns or piles of rocks, pebbles, intentionally fragmented groundstone; burnt and unburnt rocks, bone and groundstone associated with charcoal; primary burial not located in a cemetery; ochre either in its natural form or applied to broken objects; and no evidence of long-term occupation, but evidence that people occupied the area for a short time.

The Complex was speculated by Gates to have been used by the Tongva people, however, due to the close proximity of several other groups of indigenous people as mentioned in Chapter 1, an affiliation to either group cannot be determined at this time. The host of the ceremony would have invited groups linked through family or political ties, and inter-cultural marriages may have been arranged or political alliances cemented by a communal gathering. This would make the attendance of the mourning ritual composed of many different groups, including

Tongva, Chumash, Tataviam or Serrano, or even groups from further away (See

Figure 1:1). With people from different language groups, a communal ritual would be even more important to convey messages or beliefs through performance, without the benefit of a written language.

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Chapter 5-Conclusions

After the analysis of the collection’s artifacts, review and examination of the site records, inventories and catalogs from the Complex, conclusions about the function of the site and the broader overall significance of this site can be developed.

With the information provided in Chapters 3 and 4, and regardless of the small sample size of the site, there is sufficient data to show that ritualistic objects and behaviors were found on-site. These include intentionally fragmented objects such as groundstone manos and metates, some associated with ochre coloring. In addition, there were broken metate fragments found at both LAN-695 and LAN-493 that were made of sandstone, which would not be an effective material for use as a grinding surface as it would wear too fast. This points to a purely ritualistic function for these materials. Since this is likely the case, these sandstone metates would have been created for no other purpose than to break apart as offerings during the mourning ritual

(Kathleen Hull Personal communication 2016).

When it comes to answering the question of what can the collection of artifacts tell us about the people and their society, a lot can be deduced by comparing the

Complex to the other identified mourning ritual sites and what is known about the significance of the ritual. Taking from Durkheim, the idea of social solidarity explains that rituals acted on the society to create a cohesiveness and a sense of cultural identity for the individuals participating. The mourning ritual brought people together in a communal setting to pay tribute to the dead, but on a deeper level, it created that fluid part of a society where everyone shares the same emotions and experiences, and this forms a close-knit bond between them. Being a communal event, the mourning ritual

90 was a necessary and vital part of the local indigenous people, bringing in aspects of what Mauss said were reflections of the society, which includes an economic factor in gift exchange. By trading, which is possibly evident at the Complex due to the obsidian, steatite and fused shale found onsite, the material part of the society is exhibited. Trade fuses a bond with the individual to the society, or societies if there were more than one culture group present. Stressors like arguments, economic hardship or politics can be alleviated by bringing the people together where discussions, trade or mediation can occur.

The communal mourning ritual also operated on a credit-based exchange system because the host of the ritual would be responsible for providing food for the attendees. The next ritual would require a different host who now had to repay by doing the same. Similar to the Pacific Northwest Potlatch, the Southern California mourning ritual instilled the idea of honor in the host by following the society’s customs. This also feeds into the political system of the people, with the higher ranking people being the hosts since they could afford to distribute food and perhaps gifts as well. As mentioned in Chapter 2, ritual exchange had two purposes; reinforcing alliances and to reassert the social or political standing of the participants.

As Mauss said, a human society is based on unifying the individual with the society, creating a sense of freedom and obligation, and bringing about a concern for others in the group. Without these elements, a society could not maintain the cohesiveness that is necessary for the socio-political structure to continue.

Because the Complex passes the test identifying it as a mourning ritual site, this site would have been a major part of the local indigenous people’s society.

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Attending the mourning ritual at the Complex meant the people were coming together to create a lasting bond, perhaps to participate in exchange or trade in value or prestige items and re-establish the political structure of their society. The Complex was a dedicated ritual space used for, at the minimum, hundreds of years prior to colonialism and once the Mission period started, the Complex continued to be used, to a lesser degree, until it was vacated by the Missionized indigenous people in the mid-to-late

1700s and occupied by the Spanish, as evidenced by the high concentrations of surface and sub-surface historic material such as roofing tile, glass, buttons, leather and metal.

During this Spanish occupation time, two adobes were built. The Lopez Adobe was built in 1869 and later became a stage stop for the Butterfield Stage line until the railroad was built in 1874. The Rinaldi Adobe was built in the 1870s but was destroyed by dynamite during construction of the Van Norman Dam, which was completed in 1913.

While this site is one of many mourning ritual sites in the Southern California region, it is unique and deserves special status due to the richness of the sole burial onsite and the fact that it borders on the territory of several groups of indigenous people. The Complex will contribute to further and future studies about the local indigenous people in Southern California, as well as add to the study of the mourning ritual in general.

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Future Research Opportunities

There is ample room for continued research on this site, especially for the historical component that includes the adobes, as well as analysis to see if the indigenous people continued with their rituals in the same manner after contact. Due to time constraints, it was not possible to date any of the material. Perhaps in the future, dating samples of charcoal and/or animal bones from the various depths would help give a timeline of usage of the Complex. With a timeline, this site could be placed with other contemporaneous sites in the area to create a comprehensive picture of the how the local indigenous populations used the land for the performance of the mourning ritual. Obtaining dates per level could lead to a better understanding of when the trade or value items like obsidian, steatite and fused shale came into use or was discontinued. A future opportunity to excavate more of the Complex could mean the possibility of finding additional sites as extensive as LAN-645 and LAN-493, or whether the ritual space extended beyond what was found. This site offers a look back in time into one of the more important rituals that bonded the societies in Southern

California together, helping to maintain the elements that created their complex culture.

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Appendix

Tables

Depth Fused worked/utilized projectile core, burned burnt unburnt groundstone (cm) shale flakes points hammerstone etc rock bone bone

0-10 36 16 0 4 8 50 15 12

10-20 53 14 1 6 6 91 58 14

20-30 36 7 0 8 29 86 34 20

30-40 30 9 0 6 12 58 149 19

40-50 15 4 0 1 0 45 4 1

50-60 3 0 0 2 1 4 5 0 Table 1:LAN-645 (VS63B) Artifact types by depth

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Material Depth +8 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 Total chalcedony 2 102 100 87 76 30 10 407 chert 3 91 96 66 59 27 3 345 granite 1 4 3 8 4 1 0 21 metavolcanic 1 67 71 59 58 22 4 282 quartz 2 34 30 32 26 9 3 136 quartzite 1 66 72 54 31 15 2 241 fused shale 0 20 34 27 22 11 2 116 glass 0 6 6 3 0 0 0 15 hematite 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 metal 0 2 5 2 0 0 0 9 obsidian 0 27 36 30 14 5 2 114 schist 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 6 steatite 0 0 3 0 2 0 0 5 shale 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 unidentified/ misc 0 8 21 14 11 0 0 54 petrified wood 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 fired clay? 1 0 0 0 1 sandstone 1 0 0 0 1 limonite 1 0 0 1 mica 1 0 0 1 Table 2:LAN-645 (VS63B) Artifact materials by depth

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Unit Fused shale worked/utilized projectile core, hammerstone etc burned rock burnt bone unburnt bone groundstone flakes points 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 1 3 9 1 0 2 0 22 2 7 4 0 1 0 1 0 44 0 1 5 4 4 3 0 2 1 5 0 6 2 3 0 4 0 16 14 7 7 4 1 0 0 1 1 0 3 8 3 2 0 2 1 83 80 10 9 1 6 0 2 0 0 12 1 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 11 6 4 0 0 8 0 4 12 8 5 0 1 18 3 3 2 13 8 0 0 0 1 21 3 0 14 4 4 0 3 3 6 6 5 15 0 0 0 0 16 2 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 17 4 3 0 0 0 30 7 1 18 11 1 0 1 10 3 4 1 19 2 3 0 2 0 3 2 2 20 9 1 0 1 3 51 20 2 21 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 22 5 6 0 0 3 3 1 1 23 30 1 0 0 0 15 4 1 24 12 0 0 1 5 9 86 2 p 25 18 0 0 0 0 10 5 4 26 9 0 0 1 1 13 5 1 27 20 2 0 0 0 5 8 2 28 2 1 0 1 2 3 0 3 Table 3:LAN-645 Artifact types per unit

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Depth quartzite chalced/chert fused metavolcanic obsidian quartz Crypto schist shale 0-10 40 98 54 10 17 10 110 0 10-20 31 194 70 21 43 5 63 0

20-30 36 125 63 10 41 4 73 2

30-40 44 102 60 10 33 7 74 1

40-50 15 25 35 8 17 5 84 0

50-60 4 16 17 6 19 2 39 0

Table 4:LAN-493 (VS63A) Material type by depth

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Unit quartzite chalced/chert fused metavolcanic obsidian quartz Crypto schist shale

1 38 191 88 16 22 0 0 0 2 11 74 18 8 5 2 0 0

3 10 49 16 3 9 1 9 0

10 0 0 2 1 0 0 5 0 11 7 0 26 4 12 2 99 0 12 3 0 11 1 2 1 13 0 13 19 0 37 3 21 3 112 1 14 17 0 20 2 20 3 70 0 15 11 0 16 1 16 1 57 0 16 11 11 5 7 7 0 20 1 17 4 13 4 1 5 1 1 1 18 2 9 4 1 3 0 14 0 20 3 0 3 3 4 0 11 0 22 3 0 2 4 2 3 12 0 Table 5:LAN-493 (VS63A) Material types and frequencies by unit

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