Society for California Archaeology NEWSLETTER
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Society for California Archaeology NEWSLETTER Volume 30, Number 3 September 1996 Archaeological Investigations Within The Coso Volcanic Field by Amy J. Gilreath and William R. Hildebrandt Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc. pockets that could have played out during a single visit, to extensive nod More than two miles of ancient diggings, plainly visible along ule scatters encompassing tens of acres. The obsidian here ranges from the edge of the bluff! A hillside covered with hundreds of tons of pebbles to chunks up to 30 em in diameter. The amount of useable obsid obsidian quarry refuse left by prehistoric workers! It did not ian in the most extensive secondary deposits, however, seems inconse seem possible, yet there it was .... We stood there in amazement quential when compared to the amount found at the primary quanies. Every that day .. thinking of the innumerable human hands, the count major, natural obsidian deposit discovered during the survey had been less generations that must have been required to produce such a exploited (i.e., contained chipping debris), but there are many tons of result useable obsidian still available, particularly at the primary quanies. Such is Mark Hanington's (1951:15) description of the most impressive obsidian quarry, the "Colossal Quarry," in the Coso Volcanic cield. The Volcanic Field lies in the southwestern portion of the Coso ange, east of the Sierra Nevada and south of Owens Valley (see Map 1); 1ost of it is within China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. Cultural •..:sources studies related to commercial geothermal development at Coso began in the late 1970s and culminated in the excavation of34 sites. These excavations were quite extensive (435m3) and, when combined with sur face collection, produced more than 7500 artifacts and 185,000 pieces of debitage. Carolyn Shepherd (head of the Environmental Project Office) provided advice on the overall design of the studies and direction on com pliance issues. Data from the excavations are summarized here. The synthetic report (Gilreath and Hildebrandt 1995) is currently under re view for publication and hopefully will be available to a wider audience in the near future. The Coso Volcanic Field includes numerous explosion craters, rhyolitic domes, debris flows, and pyroclastic deposits, most of which originated from volcanic events that occurred between 1.5 million and 33,000 years ago. Naturally occuning obsidian is abundant throughout the area, and is available from a variety of contexts; archaeological sur vey of approximately 24,000 acres has resulted in the recordation of more than 150 quanies (Gilreath and Hildebrandt 1991). These include several primary outcrops of glass flowing from the sides of steep, rhyolitic domes, with high-quality obsidian often occuning as large boulders and slabs. Most of these, including the Colossal Quarry, are found on Sugarloaf 100 MilES Mountain. 0 200 KilOMETERS Map 1. Project location. Secondary (or Jag) quanies also occur, both as obsidian float in major debris flows and in concentrations of air fall scattered sporadically Chroaological Issues across the land during volcanic eruptions. These lag quanies are numer lUS and usually more accessible than the primary outcrops. The second The age of archaeological deposit~ in the Volcanic Field was try deposits occur on ridge tops, exposed as lag after fine-grained sedi determined primarily through obsidian hydration analysis. nents have eroded away (Elston and Zeier 1984), and vary from small (Continued on page :I) park rangers and staff interpret the local natural and cultural history, par ticipate in music and song, and otherwise pass the night away, together, in Index fun. Like many of my colleagues, I try to provide at least one camp- fire program every summer. I just did one a few nights ago, at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, in Sonoma County. While some voracious mosquitoe~ page worked away- to the horror of both speaker and audience- I discuss~ the local archaeology with about 60 campers, and six or seven dogs. Thanks to the hard work of Bill Stillman and his 200+ volunteers, we are begin- The Coso Volcanic Field 1 ning to understand a lot about the history and prehistory of Sugarloaf President's Message 2 Ridge, and so there was a lot to share with the campers. Like so many other areas of California, Sugarloaf Ridge has been home to people for a long time and is thus characterized by archaeo Society Business & Activities logical sites documenting a myriad of cultures and uses. tvliners, farmers, Board Meeting Minutes 6 moonshiners, soldiers, warriors, priests, and hunters, to name but a few, passed through or near the park. Even an occasional big-game hunter 1997Call For Papers 8 may have passed through 12,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene. Data Sharing Meetings 13 Request For Poster Artist 13 Committee Reports Archaeology Week 1996 14 Curation Corner 15 I like to describe California's late Pleistocene to the public, es Education Committee 16 pecially children. The cool climate, immense glaciers, green forests, ex pansive grasslands, and strange creatures are fun to interpret Children are especially fascinated by the Rancholabrean megafauna Just imagine Regional Grey Literature a landscape filled with giant ground sloths, mammoths and mastodons, wild horses, camels, saber-toothed tigers, dire wolves, and giant short San Francisco Bay Area 16 faced bears. What a collection of animals! The giant short-faced bearA weighing in at over one ton, was larger than the modem gnzzly, and could9' run at much greater speeds. As the largest carnivorous mammal ever to Cooperation Column 19 live in America, this bear was the great white shark of dry land. There were other impressive animals out there, too: the giant ground sloth stood 20 feet tall, and the California lion, the largest cat that ever lived, was Calendar 22 bigger than the modem lions of Africa. The elephants and bison were bigger back then, as well. The sheer numbers of animals would have been impressive, too; some say that in parts of Pleistocene California, the herds of ungulates rivaled the Serengeti! Children and adult~ alike marvel at SCA Membership Roster Insert the picture their mind's eye paint~ of the late Pleistocene, once they hear the interpreter's story, and see what we see. The story begins to unfold for them, carrying them backward through time. Into this Pleistocene setting we put humans, small bands of mobile hunters who apparently were "just passing through." These people were well adapted to their environment, and expert at what they had to do. President's Message Then the weather changed, and the animals began to disappear, California by Breck Parkman entered the Holocene. There were more people now, doing more things. Eventually, the people settled down, discovered the acorn, then the bow California is in the midst of summer, and it seems as if every and-arrow. Religion flourished, and languages multiplied and dispersed. one is outdoors. Few of my colleagues appear to be in their offices when Stmngers anived, again and again. First the Holi:ans, Penutians, and Uto I call. Instead, they are in the field working, away on vacation, or other Aztecans; then Sir Francis Drake, Father Serra, and John Sutter. More wise enjoying themselves somewhere outdoors. Indeed, in the parks, the animals began to disappear, and the forest~ and wetlands, too. Towns and campgrounds are all full . Camping is one of our great American past cities appeared, then grew outward. Metropolis thrived on building mate times, and we are fortunate in California to have such fine parks to visit rials, paving blocks, charcoal, farm produce, and cheap whiskey, imported from places like Sugarloaf Ridge. In time, California was transformed This is the season of the traditional "campfire program," one of into what we know today, a developed state still yearning to be wild. the foundations of the American park experience. From Anza-Borrego Through interpretation, the public understands that California is not a stati Desert State Park down south, to Redwood National Park in the north, place, but ever changing. campers take their places around campfires every Saturday night to hear (Continued on page 1: SCA Newsletter 30 {3) 2 September 1996 pected, were dominated by Stage 2 and 3 bifaces (percussion-worked The Coso Volcanic Field rough-outs and preforms), with variable densities of bifacial thinning de (Continued from page 1) bris. Some of these sites, as well as one of the quarry locations, also produced a variety of other artifacts, including projectile points, milling equipment, and numerous flake tools. Although some of the materials ~spite the concerns of many researchers about subfield geochemical recovered in Early Newberry components indicate use of local subsis riability and its relationship to hydration rates for Coso obsidian, our tence resources, most such occupations remained short-term and focused __ alyses of data from many different contexts indicates that Basgall's on the acquisition of obsidian. (1990) rate LOGY"" (2.32 [LOG (X*a)]) + 1.50- where X is the rim measurement in microns, Y is the date in years before present, and a is the The trend away from the use of lag quarries reached a peak Effective Hydration Temperature [EHT] correction factor- provides an during the Late Newberry period (2300-1275 B.P) and corresponds to excellent chronological tool for obsidian obtained throughout the Volca Elston and Zeier's (1984) discovery of two major Late Newberry (our nic Field (Table 1). dating) mining areas within the Sugarloaf/West Sugarloaf primary quarry complex. The primary deposits investigated showed that stone-working activities were focused on the highest quality seams, and produced as Table 1. Regional Chronologkal Periods semblages with relatively high frequencies of bifacial cores and early stage (often triangular-shaped) bifaces that were substantially larger than Period Interval (years B.P) Coso Glass Hydration Ranges equivalent items found at the earlier lag quarries.