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UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Title The Promise of Microbotanical Research in California: A Case Study from CA-SBA-53, a Middle Holocene Archaeological Site along Goleta Slough Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/22h575h6 Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 36(2) ISSN 0191-3557 Author Santy, Jenna Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California 192 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 36, No. 2 (2016) Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 36, No. 2 (2016) | pp. 193–204 Reddy, Seetha N. Wohlgemuth, Eric 2015 Feeding Family and Ancestors: Persistence of 1992 Floral Remains. In Randy Wiberg, Archaeological The Promise of Microbotanical Research in Traditional Native American Lifeways during the Investigations at SOL-69 and SOL-315, Green Valley, Mission Period in Coastal Southern California. Journal of Solano County. Report on file at Northwest Information California: A Case Study from CA-SBA-53, Anthropological Archaeology 37:48 – 66. Center, Sonoma State University. 1996 Resource Intensification in Prehistoric Central Reddy, Seetha N., and Jon M. Erlandson California: Evidence from Archaeobotanical Data. a Middle Holocene Archaeological Site 2012 Macrobotanical food remains from a trans-Holocene Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology sequence at Daisy Cave, (CA-SMI-261), San Miguel 18:81–103. along Goleta Slough Island, California. Journal of Archaeological Science 2004 The Course of Plant Food Intensification in Native 39:33 – 40. Central California. Ph.D. dissertation, University of JENNA SANTY California, Davis. Rosenthal, Jeffrey S., Gregory G. White, and Mark Q. Sutton Department of Anthropology 2007 The Central Valley: A View from the Catbird’s Seat. 2010a Plant Resource Structure and the Prehistory of Plant University of California, Santa Barbara 93106 In California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Use in Central Alta California. California Archaeology Complexity, T. L. Jones and K. A. Klar, eds., pp. 147–163. 2(1):57–76. London: Altamira Press. 2010b Plant Remains. In Randy Wiberg, Archaeological Ancient starch research is a burgeoning field in archaeology, and is growing in popularity in California. This study Investigations at CA-CCO-18/548: Final Report for the looks at starch granules extracted from groundstone tools found at CA-SBA-53, a large middle Holocene site on the Rosenthal, Jeffrey, Jack Meyer, Kimberly Carpenter, and Vineyards at Marsh Creek Project, Contra Costa County, Eric Wohlgemuth California, Chapter 15, pp. 275-285. Report on file at the Goleta Slough. The middle Holocene is one of the least understood time periods in the Santa Barbara Channel region; 2011 Archaic Lifeways and Settlement Trends at Sonora. In Northwest Information Center, Sonoma State University. little in particular is known about subsistence practices, and even less about plant usage. Understanding subsistence can A New Frame of Reference: Prehistoric Cultural Chrono- 2014 Late Period Plant Use Variability around San shed light on other questions relating to settlement patterns, seasonality, and even social organization during this period. logy and Ecology in the North-Central Sierra Nevada, Francisco Bay. Paper presented at the annual meeting of This study’s findings suggest that acorns were part of the middle Holocene diet 5,500 years ago, and made up 15% of J. Rosenthal, ed., pp. 81–116. [Center for Archaeological the Society for California Archaeology, Visalia. Research at Davis Publications 16.] Davis, Cal. the starch assemblage. However, more research is needed to contextualize these findings, both in relationship to other Wohlgemuth, Eric, and Angela Tingey taxa consumed, and to other time periods in prehistory. Schulz, Peter D. 2013 Charred Plant Remains from CA-SAC-1112 and 1981 Osteoarchaeology and Subsistence Change in CA-SAC-1142. Report on file at Far Western Anthro po- Pre historic Central California. Ph.D. dissertation, Univer- logical Research Group, Davis, Cal. he story of California prehistory is If acorns were in fact a critical dietary staple at this time, it sity of California, Davis. Wohlgemuth, Eric, Angela Arpaia, Wendy Pierce, and incomplete without acorns. Acorns served as a would require a rethinking of our current understanding Angela Tingey T Tremaine, Kim J. 2015a Charred Plant Remains from CA-SAC-15. Report on staple food source for many groups across the cultural of settlement, subsistence, and even social organization Investigations of a Deeply Buried Early and Middle 2008 file at the North Central Information Center, Sacramento province, particularly during later periods in prehistory. during the middle Holocene (defined here as 6,650 – 3,350 Holocene Site (CA-SAC-38) for the City Hall Expansion State University. Project, Sacramento, California. Tremaine & Associates, The mainland Santa Barbara coast is no exception; acorns B.P. [King 1990]), on the mainland central coast. Inc., West Sacramento, California. Report on file at the Wohlgemuth, Eric, Angela Tingey, and Wendy Pierce were, by some estimations, the “most important single Excavations of key archaeological sites before the North Central Information Center, Sacramento State 2015b Charred Plant Remains from CA-SAC-485. Report on food source” for contact period peoples (Grant 1978:516), development of modern plant macrofossil recovery University. file at the North Central Information Center, Sacramento State University. helping to support one of the densest populations of techniques, as well as poor preservation, has limited the hunter-gatherers ever documented, with an uncommonly quantity of macroremains recovered from mainland Ugan, Andrew, and Jeffrey Rosenthal Wolf, Carl B. Brodiaea 2016 Return Rates and Their Ethnographic 1945 California wild tree crops: their crop production high degree of sociopolitical complexity (Gamble 2008). middle Holocene contexts. But novel microbotanical and Archaeological Implications for Occupation of the and possible utilization. Santa Ana: Rancho Santa Ana However, as currently understood, acorns (Quercus spp.) techniques, including (as here) the extraction and analysis Journal Northwestern Mojave Desert of North America. Botanic Garden. of California and Great Basin Anthropology 36(1):73 – 90. are not believed to have been a primary food source of ancient starch grains from groundstone tools, allow Yarnell, Richard A. for the ancestral Chumash until about 4,000 B.P. at the a new way forward to addressing lingering subsistence White, Gregory G. 1993 The Importance of Native Crops during the Late earliest, and likely somewhat later—this date remains questions. This paper examines starch grains extracted 2003 Population Ecology of the Colusa Reach of the Sacra- Archaic and Woodland Periods. In Foraging and Farming mento River. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, in the Eastern Woodlands, C. M. Scarry, ed., pp. 13 – 26. an “open question” in the Channel region (Glassow from groundstone tools from a single middle Holocene Davis. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 1996:21). This is interesting, because the earliest mortars site, CA-SBA-53, with the goal of understanding what and pestles, a technology traditionally associated with role, if any, acorns had in the subsistence regime during acorn processing (e.g., Basgall 1987), first arrive in the this time. The main question addressed here focuses on Channel more than 1,500 years before that. Thus, the the timing of the addition of the acorn to the diet, the central question guiding the project reported here is this: relationship between that food source and the technology what were the earliest mortars and pestles used for in traditionally associated with its processing, and the the Chumash region? Were they used to grind acorns, implications of those results for understanding changes a costly, time-consuming task, or used for other foods, in Chumash culture over time. Additionally, during possibly some combination of roots, tubers, and corms? the course of this project, a heretofore unencountered 193 194 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 36, No. 2 (2016) SPECIAL FEATURE | The Promise of Microbotanical Research in California: A Case Study from CA-SBA-53, a Middle Holocene Archaeological Site along Goleta Slough | Santy 195 including estuarine, riparian, sandy shore, brackish, and near- and mid-shore ocean habitats. Terrestrial resources, from plant habitats including open oak woodland and chaparral sage scrubland, would likely have been readily available within less than 500 meters (USGS GAP Land Cover Survey 2011). A proposed climatic fluctuation preceding 5,500 B.P. (Kennett et al. 2007) has been posited Goleta as an explanation for a perceived population decrease in the region prior to the later middle Holocene; evidence CA-SBA-53 Santa Barbara from SBA-53 could support the suggestion that warming was underway by around 5,200 B.P. (Glassow 1997; Glassow et al. 2012; Kennett et al. 2007). SBA-53 was excavated numerous times during the 10 km. twentieth century. SBA-53, with an equal proportion of mortar/pestles and mano/metates and only side-notched Figure 1. Map of site and surrounding area; inset shows projectile points present, was the type site for Roger’s Northern Channel Islands and Santa Barbara Channel. Hunting Culture (Rogers 1929:356). Harrison’s 1956– 1957 excavations (Harrison 1964; Harrison and Harrison microbotanical
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